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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
“Let’s Partner!”
“Let’s partner,” or many variations on the theme appear in a large number of the LinkedIn and email communications I receive. We all know that’s just another term for “I’d like to sell you something.” Perhaps it’s my sadistic nature, but every once in a while, toying with someone who sends a particularly strongly worded “partnering” message, I often respond, “It would be great to partner. Can we schedule a conversation about how we have helped organizations like yours improve results?” The responses are hilarious. One person actually said, “You don’t understand, I’m trying to sell you something! I’m not […]
Don’t Get Distracted By What You Sell!
I was having a conversation with a very good sales person. We were speaking about a very competitive, difficult deal. The conversation started with “value.” I asked questions about what the customer was trying to do, the results they expected, and the business impact. The sales person answered some of my questions about what the customer was trying to do—-but the conversation started getting diverted. He started talking about what he was selling–and what he thought the customer was buying. Then he started talking about pricing strategy–both in terms of what they would be proposing to the customer, their reaction […]
What 95% Of Meetings Miss
I spend much of my time in meetings with clients and their customers. Since the pandemic, it seems I have more meetings on my calendar, starting early in the morning running into the afternoon. I know we are supposed to complain about how much time we waste in meetings, frankly that’s not my experience. One, I insist on an agenda, if I’m to participate. Two, I prepare for each meeting and expect everyone to be as prepared as I am. So most of the meetings I attend are pretty good. (Part of it may be that my clients are typically […]
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 […]