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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
On Thanks-Giving
2020 has been a year that none of us have ever experienced. We have found our lives and those around us turned upside down. The pandemic, the economic downturn, social and political unrest–worldwide. No one has escaped these. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t know someone impacted by Covid 19, or known someone who has been hospitalized or died. Likewise, we have seen friends, family, people and businesses in our community who are struggling to make ends meet. In the face of all of this and on the eve of the American “Thanksgiving,” many are wondering what there is to […]
Action Plans, The Well Structured “To-Do”
My life seems to be spent in one meeting after another. Reviews of all types, planning sessions, problem solving sessions, training—you name it, I go from meeting to meeting. In most of those meetings, we are trying to address some issue–how to win a deal, how to address performance issues, how to address organizational/structural issues, how to address new opportunities or problems. In each of these meetings, there are the the follow ups, action plans, next steps, or to-dos. These are critical, they enable us to make progress in achieving our goals and objectives. But our action plans lose a […]
Looking For What Isn’t Being Done Or Said
Just today, alone, I’ve been in several meetings. A couple were deal reviews, one was a major strategy/restructuring discussion. I learned more in these sessions by what they didn’t say and present than by what they did say. Listening/observing what isn’t being said or done is as important to understanding what is being done. Whether it is working with a customer moving them through their buying cycle; working with your people in deal, account, or other reviews; or major strategy/business planning sessions. When we focus only on what’s being said, we are focused on what people know and how they […]
Chaos, Complexity, Predictable Revenue, Making “Big Moves”
For the past decade, so many have sought to mechanize selling, creating predictable revenue. We developed methods and approaches, we’ve transactionalized the selling process, in spite of too many customers finding increased difficulty in navigating their buying processes. Even before the pandemic and collapse of the economy, how we sold became increasingly unpredictable. The percent of people making their goals continued to decline, organizations churned more rapidly, with tenure declining to 16.5 months. Sales leaders, increasingly, struggled to make sense of changes in their markets and to discover changes in the way the organized and executed their selling processes. At […]
“This Is Not A New Concept….”
On a recent post, someone commented, “This is not a new concept….” He was absolutely right, I had traced an origin of an idea back to the 1950-60’s, so it is an idea that is at least 60-70 years old. I suspect if one read some philosophers or scientists, the idea might be traced back centuries (to satisfy your curiosity, it was my post on the 5 Why’s.) The comment got me reflecting. We have a fascination with that which appears new and different, we are attracted to bright shiny objects. It’s a lot like the fashion industry, every year, […]
Are You Curious About Who Your Customer Is?
It seems odd to write a post for sales professionals (and unprofessionals), posing the question, “Are You Curious About Who Your Customer Is?” After all, we read endless drivel about the importance of relationships and people. But, sadly, too many sales people don’t really care about who their customers are. Sure, they look them up on LinkedIn, Facebook, or other social platforms, trying to find clues about how to have that first prospecting conversation. I get endless notes, trying to “engage me,” “I see you are in the manufacturing industry…” I’m not, though many of my clients are manufacturers. Or, […]