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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
The Problem With “USPs,” They Aren’t Unique
The Unique Selling Proposition is a cornerstone to much of what we do in marketing and sales. At a high level, it’s supposed to be a compelling statement about who we are, what makes our solution different. Ideally, it is so compelling the customer immediately sees the light and issues a PO. All we have to do is position our USP in our web sites, our marketing materials, and our prospecting pitches, and we immediately capture the customers’ attentions. I’m not sure USPs ever really worked, but in today’s world there is really nothing right about the concept of the […]
Who’s Responsible For Sales Enablement?
Long time readers might accuse me of asking a trick question. The obvious answer is, “Duuugggh Dave, it’s Sales Enablement……” But if you think about it, sales enablement is about helping our sales people achieve the highest levels of performance/productivity in executing our business strategies in the face of the customer. A lot of people and functions play important roles in doing this, so “sales enablement,” extends far beyond the Sales Enablement function. Before, I go further, a disclaimer–the Sales Enablement function is an important function in the sales organization, but it is unrealistic to expect that Sales Enablement does […]
Do You Have The Right Sales Business Model?
No sales business model is “forever.” As our markets change, as our customers change, as our own business strategies change, there is a necessity to reassess our sales business models and go to market strategies. Unfortunately, too many companies ignore these transitions. They stay stuck with one model, working harder and harder, failing to produce the results, but failing to recognize the characteristics of their markets have changed–requiring a need to change the sales business model. Or they may have chosen the wrong business model in the first place. We’re all familiar with the classic “S curves” of growth. Some […]
What’s With All These F#!@&*g Reviews!!! Stop Wasting My Time!
It seems managers are always asking for and conducting reviews. Sales people complain, sometimes fairly, about managers “micromanaging,” and wasting time. Some managers seem to take refuge in staring at reports and doing reviews. A lot of managers, if they were honest, probably don’t know why they are conducting a review. “It’s something we’ve always done, my boss is asking me to do them, ……” Too often, managers seem to be simply “checking the box,” saying they have done it, but not creating great value for sales people, themselves, or their management. A lot of time seems to be wasted […]
Children Are Not Pawns!
Children are not pawns to be used to achieve a political agenda! I am ashamed to see children held hostage in detention centers as means to force decisions on securing our nation’s boarders. While the administration is leveraging the detention of infants and children to achieve “strategic goals, ” the end does not justify the means, it never has. This is not a political issue, it is a humanitarian issue. We, as individuals, citizens, and a nation must have higher standards. We are better than this. We cannot standby, taking no action, we must make our anger and voices heard. […]
Abandoning Excellence
Sometimes, I reflect on the “good old days.” Things were certainly different, I do think at a macro level things are far better than whatever our image of the good old days were. At the same time, I do see areas where we seem to be “settling” for levels of performance or excellence that are far lower than what we expected as standards of performance years. By way of illustration, I’ve spent much of my career loosely involved with telecommunications, whether the operating companies, equipment, or services providers. In the good old days of landlines, there was something that all […]