This is Jeb Blunt, and it's Money Monday on the Sales Gravy Podcast.

Make money, money, money, money.

Make money, money, Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money, money, money.

Money makes the world go round.

I'm gonna talk around town.

Ring again.

Money makes the world go round.

I'm gonna talk around town.

Ring again.

Welcome to Money Monday.

I'm Tim Dallas from Sales Groovy Studios filling in for Jeb Blunt.

And today, we're stepping into a place that looks like fun and games on the surface.

Underneath is a masterclass in discipline, skill, and emotional control, the bowling alley.

Walk into any bowling center on a Friday night and listen.

The crash of the pins, the low rumble of conversations, the squeak of the shoes on the approach, the focused silence right before the ball leaves the hand.

Everyone is technically there to have fun.

But that's not the whole story.

They're there to perform, to compete, and to repeat a skill under pressure again and again.

That is exactly what high performance selling looks like.

Sales rewards, consistent execution, emotional discipline, and doing the next right thing when you don't feel like it.

Today, frame by frame, we're going to walk the lanes together and connect the game of bowling directly to what we teach every day at Sales Gravy and in Jim Blunt's books and programs, analytical prospecting, emotional control, owning your process, and making one more call when everyone else is packing it in for the night.

Frame one, the approach, fanatical prospecting.

Every bowler knows the short start before the ball even moves.

The routine is almost ritual.

The same number of steps, the same pace, the same breath before the release.

The approach is where the shot is either made or destroyed.

In sales, the approach is prospecting.

It's where you decide if today you're a professional or a hobbyist.

Pros dial before their pipeline looks scary.

They build a daily nonnegotiable habit of fanatical prospecting, just like Jeb teaches.

The seller who says one more call, one more conversation, one more connection is the bowler who keeps stepping onto the approach with a purpose while everyone else is sitting at a bar making excuses.

When you prospect with intention, you're doing exactly what a bowler does when they line up their feet on those dots.

You pick a target, commit to the motion, and move decisively.

You're not winging it.

You're not seeing how the day goes.

You're showing up with a plan, a list, a cadence, an emotional toughness to embrace rejection as part of the game, not just a reason to walk off the lanes.

Frame two, the lane.

Owning your sales process.

The lane is long, unforgiving, and honest.

It looks the same every time, but it doesn't play the same every time.

Oil patterns change.

Friction changes.

The more games that are played, the more the lanes break down.

A pro expects the lane to change and adjusts to it.

Your sales process is your lane.

You can't control your buyer's internal politics, budget approvals, or sudden corporate priorities, but you can control how you move through your process.

You can control your cadence of touches, your discovery questions, your follow-up rhythm, and your commitment to moving opportunities from one stage to the next with intention.

Jeb's mantra, control the controllables, control the process, control the outcome.

Average sellers blame the lane.

The market is bad.

My leads are weak.

The timing is off.

Pros read the lane.

They ask better questions.

They notice where the deal stall, and they adjust their targeting, their messaging, and their timing without abandoning the process.

The arrows on the lane are there to guide the ball.

Your defined sales stages and the playbook are there to guide you.

Use them with discipline or drift into the gutter of wishful thinking.

Frame three, the ball.

Your sales message and the triangle of trust.

Watch a serious bowler pick up their ball.

That ball is drilled to fit their hand, weighted for their style, and chosen for that specific claim condition.

It's an extension of their body.

In sales, your ball is your message.

Your story, your questions, your ability to connect what you sell and what your buyer actually cares about.

The triangle of trust.

Logic, emotion, and values, that's the core of your ball's design.

Logic covers specs and ROI.

Emotion drives the why now and why you.

Values create alignment on how the buyer sees themselves and their organization.

When those three points are balanced, your message rolls true.

Most sellers grow the same generic ball at every lane, feature dumps, product monologues, vague promises.

Pros tune their message.

They tighten their opening lines.

They practice discovery so they can speak to the buyer's language, and they constantly refine how they frame outcomes.

Booked too early with all emotions and no substance, you lose credibility.

Booked too late with pure logic and no emotional connection, you miss the pocket of influence.

The goal is to roll a message that hits motion first and then lets logic tidy up the decision.

Frame four, the pins, prospects, objections, and physics.

10 pins, 10 possibilities.

You can blast right through the pocket and still leave a stubborn 10 pin standing.

You can miss your mark a little and get a lucky strike.

Either way, the pins don't hate you, and they're not out to get you.

They obey physics.

Prospects are the same way.

Some fall quickly, perfect fit, perfect timing, some require finesse, some stand firm.

That's where many salespeople emotionally unravel.

They make one good call, hear a no, and internalize it as personal rejection.

Deb says it all the time.

Objections are invitations to go deeper.

They are pins still standing after your first ball, telling you where the angle is off.

When a prospect says, we're happy with our current vendor or call me next quarter, that gives you information.

That gives you feedback.

The frame keeps going.

Pro sellers step back, adjust their angle, ask different questions, bring a different story, involve a different stakeholder, and then take another shot.

Stay in motion and pick up the spare.

Emotional perfection has nothing to do with it.

Frame five, the shoes.

Mindset, emotional control, and readiness.

You don't step onto the lane in street shoes.

If you try, you'll slip, lose balance, and probably go down in a way your friends will never let you forget.

Bowling shoes are boring, but they give you traction, stability, and a consistent platform to deliver power.

In your sales, your shoes are your mindset and emotional control.

Jeb calls this the emotional labor of selling, the constant friction of rejection, uncertainty, and pressure.

If you walk into your day mentally in street shoes, you're going to slide at the first objection, overreact to the first tough call, and lose balance in tough conversations.

Pros prepare their head before they prepare their pipeline.

They review their schedule and pipeline with a calm proactive mindset.

They visualize tough conversations before they happen.

They decide in advance how they'll respond when a meeting cancels, when a deal stalls, and when they get ghosted.

A confident mind produces a confident delivery.

A panicked mind leads insecurity into every word, and buyers feel it instantly.

Your results reveal your technique, but your technique often reveals your mindset.

Frame six, the equipment.

Tech as an amplifier, not a crutch.

Watch the pros open their bowling bags.

Multiple balls for different lane conditions.

Wrist supports, towels, frozen, tape, none of it bowls for them.

It helps them stay consistent and adaptable.

Sales is flooded with tools.

CRMs, sequencing engines, AI assistance, data enrichment, video messaging, dialers.

At Sales Gravy, the message is simple.

Tools multiply effort.

They never replace it.

They help you track your pipeline, stay organized, and keep your activity high and targeted.

But they don't prospect for you, build trust for you, or close the deal for you.

Bad sellers hide behind the tools.

I'll wait for the sequence to finish.

The automation will warm them up.

I'll send another email instead of picking up the phone.

Pros, use tools to increase live conversations, not avoid them.

Technology should help you read the oil pattern of your market.

Who's engaging?

What's resonating?

Where the day will slow down?

So you can step onto the approach with better information and more confidence.

But at the end of the day, it's still you, a buyer, and a conversation that matters.

Frame seven, the team.

Culture, coaching, and accountability.

Bowling looks like a solo sport.

Leagues win seasons.

Behind every high average is usually a group of people who push each other, celebrate each other, and refuse to let each other coast.

Sales works the same way.

Yes.

Your number is your number, but no one becomes elite alone.

Strong sales cultures are built around coaching, accountability, and emotional safety.

Exactly the environment Jeb pushes leaders to create.

On great teams, reps review calls together, share what's working, and talk openly about the oil changes they're seeing in the market.

They share wins and dissect gutter balls so everyone can learn.

When somebody bowls a strike, lands a big deal, the energy lifts the whole bench.

When somebody is in a slump, the team doesn't isolate them.

They rally.

They role play.

They listen.

They challenge.

Competition is real, but it's healthy.

You compete with your own potential, with yesterday's version of yourself, with what you're capable of becoming, not just with the rep in the next lane.

Frame eight, the scoreboard.

Metrics and truth.

In bowling, the scoreboard never lies.

It ignites how busy you felt.

It ignores how your form looked.

It just shows pins knocked down frame by frame.

Your sales scoreboard works the same way.

Activity conversations, meetings, pipelines, conversation rates, these are all personal feedback tools first.

Management tools second.

Jeb's relentless about this.

Measure everything.

You can't manage what you don't measure.

The numbers tell you who is actually prospecting, who is having real conversations, and who is just bowling practice games in their inbox.

High performance don't hide from the numbers.

They lean into them.

They track daily outbound activities.

They differentiate between dials and conversations.

They monitor opportunities created and follow-up touch points.

When the scoreboard reveals a weak spot, they don't make excuses.

They adjust their mechanics and their activity.

Progress over perfection wins the season.

Frame nine, the follow through.

Closing and commitment.

Watch a pro bowler after the ball leaves their hand.

Their arm stays extended.

The body stays balanced, and the follow through is smooth and intentional.

The ball is gone.

The motion stays the same.

The follow through creates the accuracy.

In sales, the follow through is your close and everything that leads up to it.

A lot of sellers do great work early.

They prospect.

They set the meanings.

They run a solid discovery.

They present value.

And then they emotionally flinch in the moment of truth.

They rush, soften, or avoid the ask.

The figurative ball leaves their hand with a jerk and the shot drifts.

High performers stay composed through the close.

They summarize value clearly.

They ask for the business directly but respectfully.

They handle final concerns without defensiveness.

They understand by this point, if they've truly focused on the buyer's problems, they've earned the right to ask.

Closing follows naturally from a professional sales process.

No tricks required.

When the frame ends, win or lose, they reset emotionally detached and get ready for the next one.

Frame 10, the final frame.

Follow-up and finishing strong.

In bowling, the tenth frame separates casual players from the champion.

You're tired, the lane has changed, and the pressure's up.

Average players mentally check out.

Pros lock in.

In sales, the tenth frame is follow-up.

It's the week after the demo when the buyer says, we just need some time.

It's the proposal that lingers in inbox purgatory.

This is where most salespeople quietly quit.

They tell themselves a story.

If they wanted it, they'd have called me.

Wrong.

The deal is won or lost in the follow-up,

in the extra call at 05:05PM, in the thoughtful check-in, and the steady presence that proves reliability.

JEB's relentless on this.

Persistence gives you a competitive advantage.

Professional persistence, relevant persistence, value driven follow-up that proves reliability.

Champions don't coast when it looks like the game is almost over.

They focus more.

They execute the fundamentals better.

They finish the tenth frame with intention.

The game that never really ends.

Sales has no perfect 300 game.

There's always another frame, another day, another set of pins waiting.

You're going to have days full of strikes where everything hits clean.

You're going to have grind days full of spares where you fight for every pin.

You'll have days when you swear you did everything the same and the ball still found the gutter.

What separates pros from everybody else?

What they do next.

They don't storm out.

They study the lane.

They adjust their feet.

They take a breath.

They walk back to the approach and commit to the next shot with the same intensity as the first.

That's fanatical prospecting.

That's emotional control.

That's owning your process instead of being owned by your feelings.

So as you head out into the sales day, think like a bowler who's here for the long run.

Lace up your mindset.

Choose your message wisely.

Respect your process.

Read your buyers like a lane that's always changing.

Lean on your team.

Keep your eye on the scoreboard and never cheat the follow through.

The best salespeople do what others won't.

They make the hard call.

They stay in the game when it gets uncomfortable.

They execute when execution is hard.

This is Tim Douse from Sales Gravy Studios.

The pins are set.

The lane is open.

You've always got one more frame.

Step up with purpose, roll with confidence, and when in doubt, make one more call.

Thanks for listening to the Sales Gravy Podcast.

I need a bowl of dough.

I don't need no Facebook friends.

I need a pack of them snaps, a handful of fanny whops, a rubber band on my green backs.

Look, doll.

Don't be playing with my paper.

I need every rare scent.

That's why I brought my little scraper.