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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
Why Does Our Sales Engagement Look More Like Eating At A Cafeteria, Than Fine Dining
I read a fascinating study from GTM Partners. One of the observations was, “There is an average of 8 handoffs in the average customer acquisition and delivery process.” As I read that, the image of eating in a cafeteria struck me. Think of the last cafeteria you ate in. A mind numbing experience. You grab a tray, start walking down the line. You may have a choice of a couple of salads, the server behind the counter hands you what you ask for, then you hit side dishes. Someone spoons out the vegetables you ask for, then turns their attention […]
A Forecasting Tutorial
It was surprising to see the reactions to my post, Pipeline, Tutorial. Mistakenly, I had assumed people understood the basics around pipeline management, how to use the pipeline as a tool for maximizing personal performance, and other things. They don’t, I got a lot of great feedback about the post. But it caused other requests, people started asking for posts on other “basics.” It’s interesting, we toss these concepts around quite a bit, assuming we have a common understanding of them, the reality is we don’t. As a result, we waste a lot of time, misapplying the concepts. In the […]
We Shouldn’t Be Surprised By “Quiet Quitting”
“Quiet quitting” isn’t so quiet anymore. It, also, isn’t that new. We’ve seen and, too often, ignored the signs of this phenomena for years. All we have to do is look at data on employee engagement, tenure/attrition, employee satisfaction. Organizational leadership has been laying the groundwork for quiet quitting, ignoring the signals around this phenomena for years. For years, in selling, we’ve done everything we can to mechanize the process. People are treated as interchangeable widgets, if they don’t meet our goals, if they don’t make the number of dials, hit their activity numbers, strictly comply with what we are […]
The Secret Formula For Prospecting…..
The other day, I wrote one of my LinkedIn whining posts. I was, once again, whining about how poorly people prospect. As usual, it generated a lot of conversation about how widespread truly ineffective prospecting is. But my friend, Mike Webster, provided a very provocative question: “Well, David, I will bite. How, in general terms, should the companies who might have something to sell you and your team go about researching your current needs? Thanks.” In responding to Mike’s question, I made the point, “I have no problem providing people the formula that will guarantee a response from me. I […]
Pipelines, A Tutorial
Recently, a reader wrote, asking a lot of questions about pipelines–what are they, why are they important, how do we leverage them, and so forth. At first, I was surprised by the question, I think of this as basic and fundamental to selling. As I reflected, I realized this is a bad assumption. For example, I know of very few sales training programs that teach pipeline concepts (we’ve been doing this for the past 30 years). Second, when I look at most sales pipelines, they are a disaster. Pipelines are there, but opportunities are in the wrong stages, close dates […]
Silly Me, I Thought It Is All About The Customer…..
A good friend reminded me of something I have gotten wrong. I was complaining about the mind numbing volume and stupidity of the marketing messages I get. My inbox is filled with emails with people pitching their products and services. I get at least a dozen voicemails, every day, promoting some sort of product we absolutely must have. Most are about products and services that are not applicable to our business—we don’t manufacture anything, so I’m really not interested in supply chain management solutions. We only have 15 people, so our HR needs are very easy. Even those that are […]