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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
What If We Start Designing Our Organizations For “A Players” Only?
All of us, me included, tend to think of our organizations as mixes of A, B, C players. Implicitly, we tend to believe that’s the way things are. We settle into routines about how we coach and improve each, at best, shifting the bell curve (or normal distribution curve) a little to the right. All the time wringing our hands about how we improve performance. But what would happen if we start designing our organizations to have only A players, or those that will become A players in a reasonable period of time? Why should we accept the idea that […]
We Don’t Drive Performance By “Grading On The Curve”
Recently, I wrote, “Behind Ever C Player, There’s A…….” One of my most astute readers made the comment, “If you rank on a curve, you have to have C players, who may also be great.” Mike is absolutely right, kind of…… With his permission, I’m going to tweak his comment a little beyond what he intended, but I think it’s an important discussion and distinction. Too often, we “grade on the curve.” We have a mentality around comparing performance of each person to the others on the team. There are some merits to this, however there are some flaws–which lead […]
“Behind Every C Player, There’s A ……..”
There’s the old saying, “Behind every great individual is a great [Insert spouse, partner, mom, dad, family, mentor].” Let’s update this for modern times, we could say, “Behind every C player, there’s a ……..” Hmmm, troubling, isn’t it? But be honest with yourselves. You’re reading this, no one is watching you, you can reflect, privately, on your own performances as leaders and managers. We have C players in our organizations, because we let them stay in the organization and we tolerate C performance. What’s this say about our own performance and leadership capabilities? If our job is to maximize the […]
“What Would You Like To Know Most About _________?”
Recently, I read an article entitled, “The One Key Question You Must Always Ask A Prospective Customer; This simple (yet often overlooked!) question makes selling to your ideal clients or potential customers far easier and more effective.” After the drum roll and the melodramatic scenario, the author stated: “What would you like to know most about ____________?” The idea being you fill in the blank with what you want the customer to talk to you about. The particular example, was, “What would you like to know most about content marketing?” Now I get what the author is trying to achieve […]
Settling For Non-Performance
How often do we settle for non performance? Recently, I was speaking with a colleague. We were talking about a client of his. The CEO was struggling to grow the company. As they started discussing the people on the team, the CEO said, “I’ll never be able to attract A players, I have to settle for C players, with a few B’s.” In another situation, I was speaking with an executive. Win rates, business performance were tragically low and had been for some time. I posed the question, “Do you have the right players on board?” The response was, “We […]
If People Buy From People, Why Are We Racing In The Opposite Direction?
In complex B2B buying, I believe the old maxim, “People buy from people,” is still highly relevant. There’s probably a lot of data that supports this, but, anecdotally, let’s reflect: Complex B2B buying decisions are most often consensus decisions. Customers are getting other people in their organizations involved in the problem solving and decision making process. They value or need the engagement of others to make the decision. They know the active buy-in and engagement of others is critical to the success in the change management efforts. Surveys show the importance of Trust, the value of Relationships, the importance the […]