Ask The Expert

Posted on July 3, 2026 by directimpact
Good afternoon,
I have been playing around with AI like we all have lately. This afternoon, I asked Gemini how Jeb Blount would make my ACCESSE26 email my persuasive. Jeb is a well-known expert on prospecting and author of Fanatical Prospecting. You can see my original email in the following thread. Here’s how Gemini thinks Jeb would approach a prospect along with constructive criticism on my original email.
Jeb’s Email
Josh,
I noticed your background at AGU and love what you’re doing with their strategic marketing.
Many STEM organizations we work with are struggling right now because their legacy AMS is actively slowing their teams down instead of moving the mission forward. We’ve been helping societies automate the mundane so they can actually leverage their marketing data.
Are you attending ACCESSE26 in Raleigh next month? I’d love to grab a quick 5-minute coffee at our Hot Topic Table to show you how we’re solving this.
Let me know if you have a few minutes to connect.
 
The Breakdown on RJ’s Email: What Blount Would Change
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Staying Uncomfortable to Grow

Posted on June 26, 2026 by directimpact
Good afternoon,
As we move further along in our AI journey, we will be counted on to provide leadership and direction to our prospects and customers.
The wisdom today is to try and avoid back and forth via email and set up a conversation. Secondly, we need to share with each other the results of these conversations to help build our expertise internally. Don’t stay in a silo.
Staying uncomfortable to grow,
RJ
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What are you signaling?

Posted on June 19, 2026 by directimpact
The following story from Sales Gravy podcast caught my attention this week.
Why Cleopatra Got the Meeting
In 48 BCE, Cleopatra needed an audience with Julius Caesar. He was the only person powerful enough to help her, and his calendar was impossible to crack.
So, she did something no one else would think to do. She had herself rolled inside an ornate carpet and delivered to Caesar’s chambers as a gift. He unrolled it; she stepped out fully dressed as the queen she was, and she made her pitch. Caesar helped her. History changed.
The lesson for salespeople isn’t to mail yourself to a prospect. It’s that Cleopatra understood a fundamental truth about getting attention: you have to create an anomaly. Something so outside the pattern of what your buyer experiences every day that they have no choice but to stop and engage.
Most buyers sit through pitches on repeat. Same decks, same structure, same opening line about how great the company is. The bar for standing out is lower than most salespeople think. A handwritten postcard instead of an email. A phone call when everyone else sends a follow-up sequence. Walking into a room with something unexpected and relevant already waiting for them.
These aren’t gimmicks. They’re signaling that you see this buyer as a person worth the extra effort, and that changes the dynamic before you’ve said a single word about your product.
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Leave No Stone Unturned

Posted on June 5, 2026 by directimpact
Organizations need to work hard to make sure the prospect/client really understands how we can or cannot help. We may or may not be the right fit but we can’t leave stones unturned.
“Leave no stone unturned and you will leave no reward unearned.” Matshona Dhliwayo
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Politeness

Posted on May 29, 2026 by directimpact

Hello, here’s a quote that passed my desk this morning:

Politeness is a trait in folks.

That’s easy to explain;

They’re the first to show their gratitude,

And the last ones to complain.

Carice Williams

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Multitasking is a myth

Posted on May 22, 2026 by directimpact
Hello,
Just a short rant today. I attend and lead presentations all the time and participants are in the background chatting and sending questions. I think to myself, I wish I could multitask like they do. Is anybody really paying attention to what I’m saying?
Can we really pay attention to a webinar and provide information in the chat at the same time? Can I prospect effectively with notifications going on all around me? Do I really listen to my wife while watching a sporting event? Most likely not.
True multitasking—performing two or more complex cognitive tasks simultaneously—is a myth. From my research, you can only truly multitask if one of the tasks is completely automated and requires no conscious thought.
Instead of splitting your attention, experts at Brown University Health recommend single-tasking. You can reduce mental fatigue by limiting distractions, turning off phone alerts, and working on one task for a set time (like 20 minutes) before switching to the next.
Bonus Marketing Tips
Regarding open rates, Omnisend Research pulled apart 26 billion emails and Friday quietly climbed into the top send day of the week. Sunday’s 11 AM window delivers a 33.69 percent open rate, one of the strongest stretches anywhere in the week.
Year over year webinar show-up rates on Fridays jumped from 27 to 35 percent, earlier in the day the better. Mondays slide the other direction.
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The 30 Second Reset

Posted on May 15, 2026 by directimpact
Good afternoon,
Every go on a sales call and the person trying to sell you something just doesn’t seem into it? How about going to a sports event and one of the star players doesn’t seem to care about anybody in the stadium including his teammates. There are many times I have to splash my face with cold water before heading into a virtual call or call campaign. Bottom line, I have to be ready to go!
From my friends at Sales Gravy- One of the most powerful habits you can build costs nothing and takes half a minute.
Before your next prospecting call or virtual meeting, pause and ask yourself two questions.
  • What energy am I bringing to this conversation?
  • How do I want them to feel when this call ends?
That’s it. A simple reset that puts you in the right headspace before the first word comes out of your mouth.
Bonus Thought
Regarding worry, Don’t let the What If keep you from the What Is. We are often times absent form the only place meaning exists and that is the present.
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Emotional Intelligence Skills & Buyer Resistance

Posted on May 8, 2026 by directimpact
I have been looking at going to the Outbound 2026 Conference in November and came across one of the speakers, Colleen Stanley, author of Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success. Here’s an Executive Summary from one of her articles called Buyer Resistance is at an All-Time High.
Two forces are converging to make buyers more resistant than any previous generation of salespeople has faced.
The first is economic uncertainty. Budgets are tighter, decision cycles are longer, and buyers are under pressure to justify every dollar they spend. Caution is the default setting for most purchasing decisions right now.
The second is the explosion of AI-generated outreach. Buyers are drowning in messages, and a growing number of them are low-quality, templated, and impersonal. Colleen put it plainly during our conversation: “When I look at anything, I’m starting to wonder, is it real? Is it valuable?” That skepticism is now baked into how buyers engage with salespeople across every industry and channel.
Pushing through buyer resistance is less about technique and more about what is happening internally for a salesperson before they ever engage with a buyer.
Two EQ competencies separate the sellers who break through from the ones who back down.
Delayed gratification is the willingness to invest time before results show up. Pre-call planning. Consistent pursuit of accounts over weeks and months. Practicing your approach so that when you finally get in front of a buyer, you come across as competent and confident rather than rushed or reactive.
Internal locus of control is the belief that your outcomes are determined by your actions, decisions, and behaviors rather than by external circumstances. Colleen described it as a mantra that top performers carry with them: “If it is to be, it’s up to me.”
Hope this helps. For me, the challenge is not giving up too soon. I have seen the fruits of hanging on and need to be reminded often.
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Use Your Voice!

Posted on May 1, 2026 by directimpact
One of the simplest adjustments you can make to improve communication: during the introduction call, ask your prospect how they prefer quick communication. Text, LinkedIn DMs, email, or phone? Most people will tell you directly. When you meet buyers where they are, you reduce friction and build a stronger relationship with you as a salesperson/consultant/concierge throughout the entire sales cycle. 
Bonus- I have been using the voice message option on the LinkedIn app and the voice option in text messages. It gives you more of a human connection. Remember the communication rule-7-38-55? 7%-Words, 38%-Tone and 55%-Nonverbal. How we speak and act is more important than the actual words.
Finally, from Sales Gravy:
How much does it cost?
When a prospect says, “How much does it cost?” most reps say something like, “Well, it depends. That’s why I want to set up a meeting.” The word “depends” creates friction. It sounds like you are dodging the question, and it puts you on the defensive before you even get started.
Here is the language I recommend instead:
“That’s a great question, and honestly, it’s exactly what I expected you to ask. That’s why I want to sit down with you. I want to learn a little about your business, understand your goals, and then build something that’s actually going to work for you.  Let’s set up a deeper call next Wednesday afternoon.”
Remember again, it’s not that we don’t know, but we do need to be reminded,
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Fork in the Road

Posted on April 24, 2026 by directimpact

When coming to a fork in the road with life decisions, listen to your little boy/girl voice and turn toward more adventure & risk. The past few months have reminded me that life goes by so quickly! No regrets.

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