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
Not Everyone Wants To Be, Or Should Be A Manager!
The other day, I had a conversation with a salesperson. She wanted some coaching on her career and how she might advance and develop. She said, “Dave, it seems the only way to advance in my sales career is to be a manager. But I love selling, I love working accounts and doing deals. I’m not sure I want to be a manager—but I still want to advance in my career….” She’s focused on a critical issue too few leaders pay attention to. Not everyone wants to be or should be a manager. We need to think of career paths […]
The Power Of A Smile
This is a bit of self indulgence, but, at the same time, an “a-ha” moment. We spend millions of dollars trying to connect–with customers, with our employees, with our leaders. There are tricks, techniques, processes to help us connect. The secret of connecting, in deep ways, is simple. It’s a smile. Not one of those pasted on smiles. But a genuine smile–driven by caring, compassion, and love. Even for a stranger. A genuine smile overcomes everything. It creates connection, it establishes meaning. It is the basis of caring. And that’s all our customers want to know. That’s all our people […]
Please, Tell Me Something New!
I’m sure you are victim of the kind of email and social outreach I get. What spurred this post was an InMail I received this morning. It was a prospecting post, the same one, word for word, this individual sends me every month. Each time, my response is the same, “Thank you, but I’m not interested in learning more. I wish you the best.” Then I reflect on much of the email prospecting I get. There are those with a message, followed weekly (because we are supposed to have 12-16 touches) with “Did you get my email on this topic?” […]
Don’t Let Your Customer Buy Because Of What Your Product Costs!
We set ourselves up for failure, we set our customers up for failure when we focus on the price–even the costs of our products and services. Sadly, most selling and much buying focuses on the wrong thing, “What’s the price?” We train our customers to focus on price, by the way we sell. Early in their buying process, we bring up our price, “We are cheaper than the competition….” “We are willing to discount….” “If you buy by the end of the quarter….” As a result of the way we sell, we’ve changed the way customer buy. We’ve shifted their […]
Is Your Customer Prepared For This Meeting?
We are all busy. Whether it’s going from call to call, virtual meeting to virtual meeting, or just getting things done; we never seem to have enough time. Inevitably, things slip, delay, priorities change—not because they need to change, but people’s attention is diverted to something else. Dealing with the reality of people being too busy and constantly shifting focus, requires us to do things differently, to engage our customers differently. First, we have to make sure we are using their time well. Second, that in every interchange we help them move forward in accomplishing their goals. What if we […]
“Free” Is Meaningless If The Customer Doesn’t Care!
Someone has been prospecting me. I’ll own up to it–normally I ignore 95% of the prospecting attempts people make. Most is poorly researched, irrelevant, and poorly executed. Spending any time–even responding is a waste of my time. But some prospecting attempts standout as being perhaps being a little better than mediocre (It’s a shame I had to set the bar so low). The prospecting note was reasonably relevant–at least it was relevant to my industry, markets, and so forth. But it focused on an issue that does not impact my organization. While others in our industry might have this problem, […]