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
Thinking About Diversity And Inclusion
Recently, the NY Times had a fascinating article: “Faces Of Power, 80% Are White As The Country Gets More Diverse.” There were a couple of interesting data points, of the 25 highest value publicly traded companies in the US, only 6 were people of color, none were women. In the Fortune 500, there are only 4 black CEOs. We have long known that we have a diversity/inclusion problem in our country. Business is no different, if one looks at the top 20% of managerial jobs in most corporations, they are dominated by white males. Many organizations are very imbalanced in […]
“Manage And Coach By Results…..”
I read an article about how to be a successful sales manager. One of the pieces of “insight” was to manage and coach by results versus micromanaging or counting activities. He goes on to say, “people will find their own path to the target…..” Well, yes, but…….. There are a lot of problems with the advice, it sounds good, but when you dive in, virtually all elements become problematic. The author got 85% there—but missed the most important 15%. Let’s dissect it. We expect, measure, and compensate our people on results. But we know results and outcomes are a trailing […]
The Five “Why’s”
The “5 Why’s” is a tool developed decades ago, attributed to Sakichi Toyoda in developing the Toyota Production System. Anyone involved in TQM or Lean knows about the “5 Why’s,” and how to leverage them. It’s one of the most powerful collaborative tools to help us help our customers learn and think differently. It’s the foundation of value-cocreation. The tool is almost too simple. As the customer talks about something they want to do or achieve; a problem they have; an opportunity they’d like to address; we ask a question. Something like, “Why is that important to you,” or “Why […]
Getting Rid Of The “Value Proposition”
I found myself talking about a “Value Proposition.” It caused me to pause, thinking about the concept of a “Value Proposition” and whether it has meaning any more. Too often, the Value Proposition, is a sentence or two that we are trained to deliver at some point a conversation. To make sure our customers don’t miss it, we tend to say, “Our value proposition is…….” When we remember the “script” and articulate our Value Proposition, it is often so distant and depersonalized to the customer, to have had little value. It’s further diminished, when they are hearing the same thing […]
Stop Talking!
So much of our training and our engagement strategies involve our talking. We’re taught how to pitch our solutions. We’re given scripts outlining what we should say to our customers. As managers, we too often get into “tell” mode. Even when we ask questions, they are carefully constructed to elicit the answers we want. Alternatively, we listen for triggers to talk more. The problem is that talking crowds out our ability to listen and truly hear. Duuggghhhh! It’s obvious, we know when we talk we aren’t listening—and perhaps that’s really our goal. Perhaps we don’t really care about what the […]
Reflections On 9/11 In 2020
Pardon me from diverting from my normal writing on sales, leadership and business to reflect for a moment on September 11, 2001. It impacted and impacts each of us in very different ways. First, on the evening of September 10, 2001, I arrived home from a 3 week business trip to Africa. I had been touring major cities throughout Africa with my client. We were setting up a major new distribution network, helping the distributors develop richer business plans, training them, positioning them to more effectively grow their and my client’s business. Over the course of 3 weeks, I met […]