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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
What We Lose In Our Focus On Tactics…..
My social feeds are filled with advice and tips proclaiming, “If you just do this, you will blow away your quotas and max your comp plan!” Many of these seem to be focusing on that very first conversation with the customer. “Just use a pattern interrupt….” “Say these words….” “Do these sequences….” There are others, focusing on specific objections, others may address closing, or how to handle the demo. There are techniques or tactics that have worked for these “experts.” And, according to them, doing this is “guaranteed to work for you.” And then people go out doing this, all […]
“Frictionless” Experience
I read an article, “In Search Of The Frictionless Organization.” While some of the basic ideas about creating great customer experience by “eliminating friction,” are very good, I think the concept of eliminating friction demonstrates a huge misunderstanding of friction and how important it is. First, what is friction? In science, friction is “the force resisting the relative motion of solid surfaces, fluid layers, and material elements sliding against each other.” In the physical world, without friction, most movement would be impossible. Without friction, things would move in the same direction forever–change would be impossible without some other force creating […]
“Our Ideals Typically Outstrip Our Performance….”
I’m filled with optimism about the future of selling and business. We are in a period of change, where we have the possibility, and the necessity to reinvent what we do, and how we do it. Customers are changing, possibly faster than we. Technology provides us capabilities we have never dreamed of. We have the capability and capacity to contribute to our customers, organizations, peers, and our own growth in new and powerful ways. “…I eventually learned these things…..and rather instilled in me a sense of how much work we have yet to do to bring our values (ideals) more […]
Would You Buy From Your Sellers?
Not long ago, I was speaking to the CRO of a sales technology company. We had a passing acquaintance, I’d been a guest on a webcast a couple of years ago, we had a few conversations and emails since then. I was, relatively, a fan of the tools they provide. I reached out to this individual, saying, “Can we have a heart to heart…..?” I suspect he was surprised and, possibly, a little confused, but he agreed. We jumped on a Zoom call, I said, “Can I share my screen?” I displayed the marketing/sales outreach emails I get from his […]
There Is Still “Low Hanging Fruit” In This Economy!
We are going through all sorts of hand wringing and belt tightening as we look to a potential recession. We are seeing large layoffs in anticipation of growth challenges in the coming months/years. Customers are beginning to cancel projects, focusing on the most critical. Many are struggling to be optimistic about how to find and close business. But there is huge opportunity, in spite of the uncertain outlook. It’s been staring at us for at least the past 10 years (that’s when I first started seeing data on this). But we’ve failed to address it. By tapping into this opportunity, […]
Why Are We So Incurious?
If I were forced to identify the single most important capability for anyone, at any level in selling, I think it would be curiosity. I wouldn’t identify prospecting, relationship building, closing, goal orientation, or any of the numerous competencies/capabilities of great sales people. I don’t mean to diminish their importance, but as you peel each of those back, underlying these capabilities is usually some aspect around curiosity. Curiosity is important in engaging our customers, it’s important when we are trying to achieve our goals, it’s what helps us through adversity, it helps us continually improve our performance. When things don’t […]