Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Blog
Making A Difference – Thoughts, Observations and Opinions
This is Dave Brock’s Blog.
It offers my views on a variety of business, sales, marketing, and leadership topic. My goal is to make a difference for you, the reader, in both your professional and personal lives.
Latest Posts
The End Of Year Scramble
It’s the near end of the year. In addition to preparing for the Holidays, you are scrambling to make your numbers. For a small few, you’ve got it in the bag, you may even be putting a few orders in your desk drawer for a fast start in January. But for most, it’s a scramble, one that goes until 11:59 PM, December 31st. You are putting all the effort in, you may squeak by, but most will fall short. This is a pattern, not just the end of the year, but quarter by quarter. You are working hard, management is […]
Our Use Of AI As A “Performative” Tool
There is a fantastic theatrical organization in my community, It’s called the B-Street Theatre. They bring in talent from all over the country to perform in fantastic mostly comedic shows. As a “patron,” every once in a while I get invited to a dinner with some of the performers. We talk about the shows, how they prepare, what it’s like to perform, and so forth. One evening, I was talking to a cast member about his role in a recent play. The character he play was a deeply thoughtful, reflective person, who came out with the most brilliant ideas and […]
Stop Copying What High Performers Do, Copy How They Think
We are constantly examining high performers, whether it’s individuals or organizations. We study what they do, thinking if we do the same things we can be high performers as well. We examine the GTM strategies of organizations that have scaled to unicorn status, convinced that if we do the same, we can scale like they did. We tear apart everything they are doing, copying and adapting it to our own organizations. We do the same with our tools, technologies, programs, processes and training. A company has gotten phenomenal results from implementing a specific training program, or a new technology tool, […]
AI Won’t Make You Excellent, It Will Only Make You More Of What You Already Are
Last week, I published the first of a series of posts, oriented around my upcoming book, “Is ‘Good Enough’ Good Enough.” It should hit the shelves in mid December. That post focused on “What Is Sales Excellence?” In that article, I asked whether sales excellence is really about results, or about something deeper—mindset and behaviors. The response was fascinating, lots of comments on the post and in email about how so many are so focused on just getting by, being good enough. But when I read my feeds, there seems to be a different story. “But what about AI? Doesn’t […]
Meetings Slowing You Down?
Opened my inbox and was hit with an email titled, “Meetings Slowing You Down?” It was a vendor, offering an alternative to the painful process of sitting across a table from someone and trying to achieve a shared goal. This isn’t new, we use emails, texts, voicemails (I think I remember those), short videos, all sorts of things to broadcast something. It may be a prospecting note, it may be a follow up to something someone sent you, it may be the next step in something you are trying to achieve. But, as this email implies, these meetings tend to […]
It’s Not About The Process……
I talk about the buying and selling process all the time. Everyone knows that you have to have a sales process, some even know it has to align with the customer buying process. Our CRMs come with predefined selling processes. Every training program incorporates some sort of process. But when I work with sellers, even working with leaders, they aren’t using the process. There’s all sorts of rationalizing and excuse making. “This deal is different, I can’t follow the process…..” “Things have changed, our process was developed 10 years ago….” (Some legitimacy to this.). Most of the time, I see […]