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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
The Continuing Education Of A Privileged White Male
As are so many, I’m astounded, horrified, ashamed, saddened, and angered by the events of the past weeks. Several weeks ago, I felt compelled to write, to express my outrage. I shared the initial article with a number of friends, many black, some women, several different nationalities/religions. Fortunately, a few friends called me. They said it was “OK.” One was so honest to say, “Dave, nothing is wrong, I’m glad you are taking a position, but it’s not your best work.” Everyone said, “Dave, you need to educate yourself.” I discovered how little I knew. Intellectually, I could understand the […]
Where’s The Puck Going?
“I skate to where the puck is going to be…” It’s a quote attributed to Wayne Gretsky about what differentiated his style of play from other hockey players. It’s old, after all, Gretsky retired in 1999. It’s tired, the metaphor has been applied to so many things–I’ve used it in different contexts in many past posts. But it’s still useful. Particularly, as we look at organizational and go to customer strategies in the middle of the pandemic and the worst global economic downturn most of us have experienced. It’s interesting to see the various mindsets and approaches around what to […]
Knowing Your Numbers
I’m always stunned by the number of sales people and leaders that don’t know their numbers. By that, I mean the numbers that help them understand the leverage points in driving performance. Some readers will push back, “I know my quota and the revenue I produced…I know what I have to do each month, quarter!” Those are important numbers, but not very useful in managing performance. They are, ultimately, the numbers we produce by effectively managing performance. Sadly, most managers just pay attention to those numbers and when they aren’t being achieved their universal strategy for addressing that problem is […]
On Planning And Preparation
Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that I’m focused on planning and preparation. Whether it is applying design thinking to the next meeting with a customer, or a manager doing a pipeline review, or developing and executing a deal plan; I am hard over on planning and preparation. I can quote all sorts of statistics on the difference in results produce by those who plan and prepare, and those that wing it. But sometimes, we lose track of how really important and impactful it is. Sometimes, it takes a radically different experience to remind us of how […]
“Getting Back Out There”
I have to admit, I’m going stir crazy. My days are filled with back to back Zoom, Team, Skype meetings. I’m “connecting” with people, perhaps more than before. But I’m longing to jump on a plane and go to a face to face meeting. There’s something about physical presence that virtual meetings cannot replace, at least yet. There’s something about the “action,” or perception of action that accompanies F2F meetings. But I’m not going to jump on a plane or go to a physical meeting for some time. It’s a number of issues, first and foremost is safety–both mine and […]
Longing For “Getting Back To Normal”
So much of what I hear and read focuses on “getting back to normal,” or “the good old days (pre-pandemic).” It’s stunning how short our memories are. Reflecting back, as little as six months ago, “normal” wasn’t so great. The “good old days,” weren’t very good. Think about it: The majority of sales people were not making quota. The majority of customer buying journeys ended in “no decision made.” Customers weren’t returning phone calls, not wanting to engage sales people. The “safest” course of action, for many was the “status quo.” Why would we long for those times? If there […]