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
Behind Every Problem Performer…. There Is A Problem Manager
In every organization, there are problem performers. People who, for various reasons, are not meeting performance expectations. They may be “C” players that need to raise their performance. They may be “D/F” players where other actions may be necessary. Too many managers think it’s the person, the problem performer, that’s the problem. They blame that person for their lack of performance. They fail to recognize their role/performance in enabling problem performers in the organization. Stated differently, behind every problem performer, there is a manager that hasn’t fulfilled their responsibility with that individual. Let’s dive more deeply into this, how do […]
Our “Attention” Problem
Recently, I participated in a Clubhouse discussion, it was my first and I was surprised to be invited to be part of the panel. After the discussion, one of the hosts asked my impressions. “It was interesting, we covered a lot of different ideas. But I wish we could have gotten into a few things much more deeply.” She responded, “I know what you say, but no one wants to get deep into these ideas. They prefer going through a lot of things at a very high level.” I reflected on her words, recognizing that we experience the same thing […]
“They Don’t Do What I Tell Them To Do!”
No, this isn’t a frustrated parent complaining about their children’s behavior. This is a complaint I hear from too many sales managers. Often, this comes up in discussions about coaching. Managers claim to be coaching, where in reality they are dictating/telling. I ask, “Do you understand why they aren’t doing those things?” Again, the frustrated response is, “Look, I know what works, they just need to do what I tell them to do! Otherwise, I’ll find someone who will.” I probe them, “Are you modeling the behavior you want?” Usually that’s met with a look of confusion or incredulity. “What […]
Going Through The Motions Or Doing The Work?
Every organization I work with has a “Buyer focused selling process.” Every organization has deal management, pipeline, and account management processes. Every organization has taken their people through the latest greatest sales training, spends thousands per person on tools. Every organization focuses on their ICP. Every manager says they coach their people. When I go through my checklist of the strategies, processes, tools, training, programs, systems that help drive sales effectiveness, virtually every organization checks all the boxes. They have the things that should support high levels of sales performance. I begin to wonder, if they have all this stuff […]
“Nothing Happens Until Someone Sells Something”
We all say this, “Nothing happens until someone sells something.” I don’t know how many times I’ve used that expression. I was reminded of it reading an article the other day. I started reflecting on this. It’s natural for we “sales” types to think about this. Our companies can’t build products, offer services, invoice, or get revenue until we sell something. But on deeper reflection, it really is very self centered, and inaccurate. Nothing happens until someone decides they need to make a change. This may be addressing a new opportunity, it could be solving a problem. There could be […]
Performance Management
As leaders, our jobs are to maximize the performance of each individual and the organization. But, too often, we don’t take the time to really understand performance and what drives good/bad performance. Instead, we manage by the numbers or dashboards. If the numbers aren’t measuring up, we take action. It may be going to people saying things to the effect of, “You aren’t making your numbers, do more!” Or what we are doing isn’t working, so we do something else. Perhaps we read a blog post or attended a webcast where some guru offered a miracle cure, “If you just […]