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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
Fear Of Failure
As sales people and leaders, we have an interesting relationship with failure. We are in an intensely competitive profession. Our customers are and should be evaluating alternatives. In any buying decision, there will only be one supplier selected, with the others losing. As good as any of us are, we all fail! Like any other human being, we probably have an aversion to failure. It’s discomforting, sometimes embarrassing. None of us want to admit to failing. Too often, managers or marketing seek to orchestrate our activities and days. They strictly prescribe what we do, with who, scripting the words we […]
What Do Our Customers “Owe” Us?
Someone wrote to me, somewhat earnestly, “We need to know the buyer has our best interests in mind…..” As I reflected on this statement, similar statements came to mind: “The customer owes me a return call,” “I took the time to meet with them, why won’t they respond?” I’m sure you have your own versions of these statements about what proper etiquette or behavior is, what we are owed by our customers. Every once in a while, I have those same experiences. It’s frustrating. You have what you think is a great conversation, then the customer disappears, they never respond. […]
Device Attention Disorder
I was backing out of a parking space. All of a sudden, the car starts beeping then slams to a stop. Someone was crossing behind me, I was oblivious–I hadn’t been paying attention. My car has all sorts of things that are supposed to be “helpful” to me. There are cameras, sensors, radar everywhere. In addition to the back up protection, if I start to drift from my lane, it corrects me. If I come up to fast on the car in front of me, it slows me down. It provides warnings if it senses I’m not attentive, and on […]
I’ll Use Whatever “F**king” Language I Want And Other Self Centered Behaviors
Language, that is the use of foul language, inevitably comes up on posts in my news feed. Mostly, I tune them out, since they tend to be expressions of narcissism. But I read a post, today, about someone going through yet another rationalization about their language choice. His argument to use the language he wanted included growing up in a “rough environment,” and that it was just the way he felt most comfortable expressing himself. Ironically, he self censored those words in the video justifying his language. It had me rolling on the floor, laughing. “Tell me again, what do […]
What’s Next? What’s Your Deal Strategy?
In any given year, I may be involved in doing 100’s of deal or opportunity reviews. Inevitably, I end up asking many of the same questions: What are the most important things the customer needs to do next in moving through their buying process? How will you help them? What are the next most critical things you need to be doing on this opportunity? The responses are interesting, mostly disappointing. Often, it’s some sales person staring at me, thinking, “We’re paying you for this????” But the response is, “Well clearly I have to get a PO as quickly as possible!” […]
Perhaps Artificial Intelligence Really Is
I’m almost embarrassed to write this post. Having co-founded an early AI based software company, I have seen both the great power and many of the challenges in effectively leveraging these technologies. However, I often despair when I read much of the literature and sale pitches about exploiting AI and ML technologies. Too often, the way these technologies are exploited focus on the artificial and not the intelligence in “artificial intelligence.” Most of it is naive. Too many don’t understand how to effectively leverage AI. They don’t recognize what it takes to train and implement these systems. Or they leverage […]