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
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 is any “silver […]
“…. More Challenging Than I Expected….”
Just got a note from a good friend. About 6 months ago, he and I discussed a new job he was considering. It was a dream job, he accepted it. He reached out the other day to catch up and get some coaching. A phrase in his note struck me, “….It’s more challenging than I expected….” My knee jerk reaction was, “Fantastic!” Isn’t that what we want with every new role we step into? Don’t we want something that’s “more challenging than expected?” Think about it, one of the key ways we learn, grow, and develop is to do things […]
Leadership In Crises
The past weeks and month have been, interesting. (If ever there was an understatement). In times of crises, we all look for leadership. We seek understanding, caring, answers, support, direction. As usual, in times of crises, it’s amazing and truly heartening to see how leaders and leadership emerge. So often, it’s from the most unexpected people and places. We see leaders emerging from our neighbors, friends, community, colleagues. We see leadership from people not in leadership roles or positions of power. But from people who care, who take responsibility, who are driven to action. It’s been fascinating to watch the […]
Are You Being Helpful?
We tend to overcomplicate things, particularly selling and leadership. Billions are spent on training of all sorts. Billions are spent on tools, content, consultants. Each has their own approach, models, techniques. Each emphasizes certain things. We might focus narrowly on prospecting, or account planning, or developing better deal strategies. Some focus on skills like objection handling, closing, negotiation. Some might have broader approaches like solution, consultative or insight selling. All of these focus on how we succeed as sales people or leaders. Likewise, the tools. programs, and other things we buy and deploy are generally focused on helping us be […]
Banish Farmers And Farming!!
No, I’m not making a political statement about our agricultural sector. Farmers and farming are what brings food to all of us. Possibly one of the most destructive concepts ever introduced into sales is the concept of hunters and farmers. It establishes a go to market strategy that, according to research, doesn’t really work, and absolves sales people of the responsibility for prospecting and constantly looking for new business. Let’s dive in deeper. I’m not sure how the concept of hunters and farmers ever arose, but the notion is hunters go out and find new business. They find new accounts, […]
Your Forecast Is Not About The Numbers!
Let’s try a thought experiment. Imagine you are a VP of Sales. You see tremendous opportunity coming out of the pandemic and in the economic recovery. You want to be prepared to seize that opportunity. You justify hiring and onboarding 100 new sales people over the next two quarters. You need them to be able to execute the strategies to seize the opportunity. You work with your VP of HR to find and hire those 100 sales people. The VP of HR commits, “I’ll get it done!” At the end of the quarter the VP of HR comes to you […]