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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
Moving Beyond The “Chaotic Buying Process”
It seems in recent months, the sales and marketing world is suddenly waking up to the fact the buying process/journey is not a linear process. That customers don’t go through an orderly process of: 1. Define problem, 2. Identify priorities, requirements, 3. Assess solutions, 4. Select solution, 5. Implement. It seems we are suddenly recognizing that customers struggle in buying, they wander, they start/stop, the majority of buying decisions end in “no decision made.” Even though people have been writing and talking about this for some time, it seems to be sinking in and many organizations are recognizing we need […]
The Elephant In The Room, Sales Talent Management
Ask any sales manager or executive their number one challenge in the future, it’s likely they will say, “Making our numbers….” That’s the perennial answer that inspires a response like, “Wow, how inspired, why didn’t I think of that?” Only a handful of executives really understand the question. Making the numbers is a result of the things you put in place and execute within the organization. These things include your overall strategy, the systems, processes, tools, programs, and training. And for those parts of buying that don’t move to e-procurement, the complex buying journeys, talent becomes the cornerstone of making […]
Customers, Looking For Help In Other Places
As sales people, our goal is to become the “go-to” resource for our customers in helping them solve their business problems. We want to position ourselves as trusted advisors to our customers. But customers aren’t responding, increasingly, they rely on other resources for help in solving their business problems. CSO Insight’s 2018 Buyer Preferences Survey show only 23% of buyers consider Vendor Sales People as one of the top three resources to help solve their business problems. Out of 10 resources alternatives (for example, subject matter experts, vendor websites, past experience, industry resources, peers, etc.), vendor sales people were ranked […]
Transforming What We Do Is Not Optional!
Last week, I was sitting in the Gartner Sales and Marketing Conference. If you’ve never attended, it’s one you need to put on your future agenda. Even if you aren’t a Challenger fan, it is probably one of the best learning experiences I can recommend. One of the panelists, Myke Hawkins of Kelly Services, made a statement that struck me, “We don’t have the luxury of not transforming what we do….” Suddenly I realized how unusual Myke’s perspective is. Too often, the executives I encounter (sales, marketing, and senior execs) are: Fat, dumb, happy, with what’s currently going on. Typically, […]
What Does “Insight” Mean In 2019 And Beyond?
The concept of providing our customers rich insight has become “standard” for complex B2B selling for at least the last 7 years. Some of us have been doing that all our careers-without knowing that we are providing insight. There are lots of definitions around what insight is, but most of them tend to be around concepts of “commercial insights.” These are generally stories and data around things happening in our customer’s industries and markets that may impact them. For example, improvements their competitors may be seeing through implementation of a solution or new approach to their businesses. They may be […]
Our Customers’ Stories
Storytelling is important. None of us live in a world of data and logic, as much as we might pretend that we do. Stories are important. Stories provide contexts to teach our customers and help them learn. They provide a basis for helping our customers understand how we might help them. They help customer learn through understanding the stories of people and organizations who have faced similar issues. Stories engage our customers hearts and minds. Unfortunately, when we think of stories, too often, we think of our stories or those we want to tell. But our customers have their own […]