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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
“Forwarding This Marketing Email Is Strictly Prohibited By Law….”
It’s been a while since I’ve whined about the stupid prospecting emails I get. I could literally post every day–even if I set the criteria “I’ll only post unsolicited marketing emails from ‘Global 1000’ corporations.” Today, I received an intriguing email from a Fortune 50 corporation. I’ll overlook: The fact that our company is already a customer, using some of the services they are trying to get me to buy.The absence of any personalization other than “Dear Business Executive,” (It’s such an endearing greeting.)The 263 words filled with no fewer than 20 meaningless acronyms, technical phrases, that required me to […]
Customers Are Irresponsible When They Don’t Answer Our Prospecting Calls!
I’m following a fascinating discussion in LinkedIn. You should read it here. The author makes a fair point that executives must constantly look for opportunities to learn, improve, and grow their businesses. He poses the premise they should do this by answering every prospecting call they get–since sales people presenting their solutions will give the customer insights and ideas to improve their business. He goes further to imply execs are being irresponsible in not answering every prospecting call. Theoretically, this makes some sense. Sales people can be a great source of ideas and insights about business. They can and should […]
“Is It OK To Manipulate For Good Purposes?”
James Muir published an outstanding post, “Is it ok to manipulate clients for their own good?” It’s a must read. Basically, James describes a conversation with a sales person who feels it’s OK to manipulate and pressure a customer because that sales person knows how happy the customer will be with the solution. Most of you would, hopefully, find this premise not only arrogant, but preposterous. The logical extension of this behavior is this sales person will manipulate and pressure every customer–because why would he be selling to a customer that would be unhappy with a product? Some might think, […]
“Me, Myself, And I” — An Investment Opportunity
As a disclaimer, there is no redeeming lesson in this post. Just some Sunday humor and observations about the world. If you are looking for deep insight, stop here, if you want a chuckle–and an investment opportunity, read further. About a year ago, Kookie and I were visiting Manhattan. Kookie was raised there (well, the Bronx), and we lived there for about 15 years. Our usual custom, on Sunday’s, is to get together at a favorite restaurant, usually on the West Side, with friends. Conversations wander all over the place. Since Kookie is a professional chef, that morning’s brunch included […]
Who Am I Talking To?
I suppose I’m being naive. I had always thought “social platforms,” were a way that we could connect and engage with each other. While they wouldn’t replace face to face and personal connections, they might expand our relationships. They would enable us to expand our relationships–though they wouldn’t be close, with people we might not otherwise meet. For example, I might look at the connections I have in LinkedIn, being very interested in their content and news streams–learning more about them and learning from them. But it turns out the majority of what I see, is probably not “them,” but […]
The New World Of Co-Opetition
The relationships we establish, in business, are very complex and constantly changing. We have relationships with colleagues. At some point, we or colleagues may choose to go work someplace else–even our competition. We don’t, at least I haven’t, stopped those relationships. Most of the time, there is intense competition–I want to beat them, just as they want to beat me. But we still value and maintain our relationships. Our customers know we sell to their competitors. We take that as our “right,” and customers understand this. Our customers work with our competitors. Sometimes a competitor may be the preferred solution […]