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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
Is Sales Really About Sharing Content?
To some degree, a major function of sales people has been to be an information or content concierge. Before Al Gore invented the internet, sales people were a principal source of information about products and solutions. Customers didn’t have the internet, their sources of information were limited to what they read in trade journals, what they learned at conferences, perhaps information they may have received in the mail, or speaking to colleagues and sales people. Today, while customers can solve a lot of their information needs by letting their fingers walk through Google, part of the role of sales people […]
Uncompromising Dedication!
This morning I was struck by some very kind words in a note from Dan Waldschmidt on my 2017 Charity:Water Campaign. Two words struck me, “Uncompromising Dedication.” While Dan’s comments are overly generous, as we look to the New Year, it strike me that “Uncompromising Dedication” might be watch words for all who are trying to achieve and make a difference. Whether it is with their customers, in their jobs, with their colleagues, their families, or communities. Uncompromising Dedication is so simple, yet so powerful. I can’t begin to outline all the dimensions, but I’ll a few ideas. What would […]
Delivering Insight–What Happens Next?
The CMO and Sales VP were reviewing their latest programs to get their people delivering insight to their customers. They went through a series of provocative issues and insights–each tuned to a specific set of problems and challenges. Each offered a unique point of view, helping the customer think differently about the business. Each was tuned to a specific persona. The work was quite good. I asked, “What happens next?” They looked at me, “What do you mean? Our sales people deliver these insights early in discussions with customers.” I respond, “After they’ve delivered the insight, what happens next?” This […]
92% Of Top Sales Performers……..
Through 2016, we’ve conducted extensive research on sales performance, trying to understand the differences between top performers and everyone else. We’ve reached some startling conclusions. 99% of top sales performers pee at least once a day. (Consistent with our 2015 results) 85% of top sales performers brush their teeth at least once a day. (an update from our 2015 research showing 96% of sales people brush their teeth at least once a week.) 87% of top sales performers wear underwear on a daily basis. Of those 87%, 72% wear clean underwear daily. For sales people consistently exceeding quota, 88% are […]
Creating Crap At The Speed Of Light!
I think I’m suffering “Social Selling Fatigue.” Perhaps it’s the time of year, perhaps Kelly Riggs pushed me over the edge forwarding this article, “How B2B Sales Can Benefit From Social Selling.” But I’ve reached a tipping point. I usually try avoiding lashing out directly, but I just can’t help it. The article is filled with a lot of data, much taken out of context, much from research that has been questioned or even discredited, but it supports the authors’ points and what they have to sell. But it misses too many points, and actually misses much of the power […]
Are You Guilty Of Picking Things Apart?
It seems to be human nature to pick things apart. We may be looking at a new prospecting or marketing program, we may be looking at a deal strategy, we may be looking at a new organizational structure. Whatever the level we act, we have a propensity to look for faults, or what could go wrong. We hear various manifestations of that in lot’s of ways, “We’ve tried this before…..” “But we’ve always done things another way….” “We’re different…..” “There’s a lot that could go wrong…” Think of your own favorite ways to pick things apart. Too often, when we […]