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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
Win/Loss Reviews
One of the key questions I ask when I meet with sales executives and sales people is, “What causes you to win, what causes you to lose?” Often, I ask to see any data and analysis they have on wins and losses. A couple of things happen: Surprisingly, people don’t know the answers. Yes there are anecdotes, “We were involved in this situation….” They are either the single greatest success or the single greatest loss. But they fundamentally can’t answer the question about their typical deals because they haven’t asked the question themselves.Alternatively, they spin a report out of their […]
Never Respond To An RFP That You Didn’t Write!
At a kickoff meeting earlier this week, I was having a disturbing conversation with a group of sales people. It seemed a big part of their “prospecting,” was trolling customers for RFPs and RFIs. I probed them on this, their response was, “It’s so easy, these are people who already want to buy, they’ve put together their requirements, all we have to do is just respond to the RFPs! It’s pretty easy to chase after them!” I asked, “What’s your win rate, what’s the quality of the deal (i.e. are you winning through pricing)?” Things got a little sketchy, a […]
First Impressions Count!
One of the biggest issues we hear from everyone involved in sales and marketing is capturing the customer attention. Whether it’s that first communication, an email, text, or social engagement, that first phone conversation, or that first meeting. Getting that first contact or engagement is something nearly everyone struggles with. Given the difficulty we have with these first contacts, one would expect we would be driven to create the very best first impression we possibly could. After all, if we don’t, it’s highly unlikely that we will have the opportunity for subsequent meetings or building relationships with customers. We know […]
Sales Person As Sense Maker
The world, both our customers and our own, is best characterized by turbulence. By this, I mean each of us, at least if we are paying attention, is pummeled by information overload/overwhelm, massive disruption, escalating change, increasingly confusing choices, increasing complexity, transformation, time compression, risk, uncertainty, and distraction. Too often, our customers are struggling to cope, to keep up, to understand, often to survive. At the same time, they are trying to learn, to grow, to improve, to achieve. In the face of all of this, how can we create the greatest value with our customers, how can we be […]
The “Voices In Our Ears”
I have to confess a weakness to spy/thriller movies. They are great Saturday evening fun. On “date night,” I try to encourage my wife we should see one, she usually finds something else . The cool/high tech spies, often, have an earpiece. There is always someone at “control,” telling them what’s happening, advising there is a bad guy around the corner and help will be 5 minutes to late. Where would Tom Cruise be without Ving Rhames whispering into his ear? At the same time, I also think, “Isn’t that voice in the spy’s ear annoying, doesn’t it distract him […]
Stop Chasing Customers You Can’t Help!
I’m often asked the fastest way to improve sales productivity. The answer is simple and should be obvious, “Stop Chasing Customers/Prospects You Can’t Help!” That statement is likely to elicit a resounding “Dugghhhh!” The reality, however, is that sales people waste too much time chasing customers they can’t help or worst, customers that don’t want/need their help. Every day, I get literally 100’s of emails, and at least 20 calls from sales people wanting to sell me something. Most don’t care about what our company does, they just believe they can “help me,” pitching their products/services. Most pitches are irrelevant […]