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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
The Questions We Ask, Shape The Answers We Get…..
In sales, we learn that questions are critical to our ability to understand our customers and how we might be most helpful. Questions, in addition to eliciting information, opinions and points of view; can enhance both the our customers knowledge and build their confidence in us. It’s always a thrill to ask a customer a question, hopefully deeply insightful, that elicits a response, “No one has ever asked me this before. In fact, I had never considered it myself. Can you help me understand more?” But too often, we ask the wrong questions, both we and the customer fail to […]
Can We Know More Than Our Customers?
Since my earliest days of selling, I have been taught, to create real value and differentiation, I have to know more than my customers. I have to know their markets/industries better than they. I have to know their business better than they, I have to know the issues they face better than they, I have to know what they don’t know but should know. As a result, I’ve always done a lot of research into both my customers and target customers. In my first sales role, I sold exclusively to Money Center Banks. I was able to go to “Banking […]
Developing Your People
As managers, we tend to focus on the “here and now.” We obsess over pipelines, deal strategies, account plans, prospecting. We closely monitor monthly, quarterly goal attainment. If we are doing what we should be doing, as leaders, we are coaching and supporting our people. We are identifying opportunities to improve performance and results. We are getting them resources to help them achieve their goals. We are helping them learn the things they need to do to be successful. And we do this, over and over, quarter after quarter, chasing these goals, maximizing the ability of our people to achieve […]
Order, Seller, Or Buyer Centric?
Are you order, seller, or buyer centric? Sadly, too many are focused only on the order. In this world, the ideal thing is the customer has educated themselves, is knowledgeable, may have a few final questions and issues (price is always the key one), and the customer makes a buying decision. We do everything we can to position our products favorably, but the reality is the customer has probably made up their mind. The good news, is if they are talking to you, they are probably favoring you, and as long as you answer their remaining questions well, you will […]
Information Asymmetry, Turning The Tables
In the old days, when I used to hail a horse drawn carriage to take me to my customers in Wall Street, one of the most important advantages salespeople had was “information.” Salespeople were a primary source of learning for customers. Not just information about products and services, but what customers were doing, trends and issues that were happening in the industry. Some of my customers even used me to learn more about what was happening in their own organizations. They were so busy doing their jobs, I spent my days wandering the halls of my customer, meeting all sorts […]
Understanding Our Customers’ Businesses Better Than They Do?
I’ve always sought to understand my prospects’ and my customers’ business better than they do. I study target market sectors, understanding the dynamics in the markets, key issues the players face, key trends, potential opportunities, threats. I look at financial performance, key operational issues, disruptive strategies and so forth. When I target a prospect, I do a deep dive into learning as much about them as I can. If they are public, I analyze their financial and operational performance. I compare that performance to their competitors. I look at everything I can trying to learn as much as I could. […]