Why Jeb Blount Bets on Process Over Personality for Sales Success (Ask Jeb)

What It Covers

Jeb Blount answers a manufacturing-to-sales career-changer's question about whether people skills or sales mechanics matter more, arguing process edges out personality as the foundation of consistent, scalable sales performance.

Key Questions Answered

• •Process vs. Personality: Sales process edges out relationship-building as the primary driver of consistent results. Jeb rates process slightly above people skills because relationship-focused sellers lack a diagnostic framework when performance drops, making it harder to identify and fix specific breakdowns.
• •Moneyball Metric: Identify one leading indicator that drives all other results. For Jeb's business-services team, that metric is qualified first-time appointments. At 10 per day, roughly 5 advance to the next stage and 2 close within 30–60 days, creating a predictable output.
• •Lag vs. Lead Measures: Revenue targets are uncontrollable lag measures. Andrew's own experience confirms this — hitting $80K monthly through volume alone collapsed without a process. Shift focus to controllable lead activities: number of targeted outreach attempts and qualified conversations initiated daily.
• •Six Sigma Applied to Sales: Once a sales process is running, apply lean manufacturing logic — identify variables causing output inconsistency and eliminate them one at a time. This converts erratic boom-bust cycles into a narrow, reliable, repeatable performance range over time.