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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
Language, Words And Mindsets
We sales people have adopted a unique vocabulary about what we do and how we work. In some sense, it’s not unusual, every profession has words that help them do their work. When I talk to software developers, I get lost a couple of sentences after they say the word “code….(either the noun or verb).” Likewise, as financial types start talking “debits, credits, etc.” I start getting a little dizzy. Developing these unique “shorthands” are helpful in communicating with others in the profession. Since software developers must work in close collaboration, adopting a commonly understood language, and even process/techniques, enables […]
Our Customers’ Complicated Buying Journeys
Buying is complicated—we see all sorts of research confirming this. Whether it’s the fact the majority of buying efforts end in no decision made, the high level of of “High Regret Decisions,” increasing uncertainty on decision confidence; more data points to how buyers struggle during and after the buying journey. One would think this is an ideal scenario for sales people to create great value helping their customers develop navigate their buying journey, enabling them to make a decision where they feel they have chosen well. But the data shows something completely different. Customers are seeking to reduce sales involvement […]
Why Do Customers Buy?
Such a simple question, but too often, we don’t really understand the answer to this question because we focus on what we are selling. Too often, we fail to understand why customers are buying. Often, it’s because we are getting involved very late in the customer buying process, they have made some decisions, conducted research, and are seeking answers to their questions. Rather than backtracking to understand why they buy, we answer their questions and move to closing them. But until we understand why a customer is buying, we really don’t know how to best help them. We know they […]
The Joy Of Selling
Why do we sell? Why do we choose a job that requires us to sell? Is it because of the money? Is it because it was the easiest job we could get graduating from college? As some might claims, is it because we couldn’t find anything better? Recently, I had the opportunity to reflect on this for myself. In college, I was focused on theoretical physics. I had intended to pursue a career as a researcher or college professor. Something happened along the way, and all of a sudden I discovered sales. It was completely different than I had imagined. […]
The Irony Of Change
The other day, I was speaking with a colleague about the state of sales/selling. We started talking about the irony of change, how our jobs are all about change–yet we, somehow, seem the most resistant to changing how we sell. Sales/selling has little to do with what we sell. It is strictly about change, helping our customers/prospects recognize the need to change, helping them in that change process. Whether it’s convincing our customers to change vendors or products, helping them address a new opportunity, helping them solve a problem, helping them grow and improve their performance—it’s all about change. Until […]
What Is Your Development Plan For Your People?
My friend, Tibor Shanto, and I were talking this morning. He asked me a fascinating question, “Why don’t managers have a development plan or roadmap for developing the capabilities and performance of their people?” The question caused me to pause and reflect. Very few managers sit down with their people and develop a plan to help them learn, grow, and contribute at higher levels. Mostly, if managers are coaching performance at all, it’s tactically oriented; how do we win this deal, how do we fill the pipeline, what are you doing in this next call…..? But we know, if we […]