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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
Developing Management And Leadership Talent
I recently wrote, “The Sales Manager’s Job Is Different,” addressing the impact of making the wrong decisions in selecting Front Line Sales Managers (FLSM). Too often, the “easy” solution is to take our very best sales people, promoting them into FLSM roles. Usually the results are devastating, they may be great sales people, but they don’t recognize the FLSM job is different. One of the primary reasons people do this is because they think it’s easier and faster to take someone internally, moving them into the leadership role. After all, that individual already knows our company, our products, our customers. […]
Embracing Objections
I just saw the term, “Objection free selling.” In fairness to the person raising the issue, I didn’t read the article, so I’m not certain the premise or his position. It was the phrase that caught my attention, making me flashback on my own history of dealing with objections. At one point, I feared them. I did everything I could to avoid them. I’d prepare, I’d anticipate questions and concerns. When the inevitable happened, when the customer raised an objection, I thought I had failed. Somehow the act of raising an objection meant that I hadn’t convinced them, that they […]
The Sales Manager’s Job Is Different
The front line sales manager (FLSM) has, possibly, the single most difficult and important job in the sales organization. FLSMs are responsible for translating the strategies and priorities of the organization into execution by their teams. Through their teams, they are responsible for millions to tens of millions in revenue. Given the importance of this role, I’m constantly amazed at how casually many organizations are in hiring and onboarding sales managers. The cost of a bad manager is devastating. Think for a moment about the implications of a bad manager: Managers are responsible for maximizing performance of everyone in […]
Where Did That Close Date Come From?
Bob Apollo recently wrote a great piece, “Where Did That Close Date Come From?” His discussion focused on improving forecast accuracy. It provoked me to extend the discussion. Target close date and maintaining the accuracy of those close dates is important. Most of the time, the way sales people establish the target close date is one of the following ways: Wild ass guesses driven by wishful thinking. A date picked to keep their managers of their backs. In reviewing deals or pipelines, one of the things I often look at is the history of changes in target close dates. One […]
“The Forecast Meeting”
A friend and I were sharing our experiences in forecast meetings. Each of us has participated in hundreds of these, there seems to be a consistent pattern: Sales Manager: “Are the deals you’ve committed to the forecast going to come in as forecast?” Sales Person: “Sorry boss, this $1M (fill in your amount) deal with X corporation is going to fall out….” Sales Manager: “We need to backfill that $1M, we have to make the number, what do you have to backfill the $1M you just de committed to?” Sales Person: “Well boss………” Sales Manager: “We need to backfill $1M, […]
“We Need To Do More To Help Our Sales People!”
It seems everywhere I turn, there is a huge urgency around “helping” our sales people sell more. Clearly, the data on sales performance is startling, though not new. The percent of sales people meeting or exceeding their plans is declining. The percent of organizations not making their plans is staggering. Everyone is recognizing the changing customer. First they are becoming impossible to reach (perhaps an intended or unintended consequence of the deluge of prospecting emails/calls). Second, more buying decisions end in “no decision made,” so they struggle to buy. Our sales people need help in more effectively engaging these struggling […]