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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
Yeah, You’re Making Quota, Are You Doing Your Job?
Sales is responsible for executing the company strategy in the face of the customer. What’s this really mean? Let’s imagine you have two sales people, each with goals of $5M. The company they work for has two core product lines, each strategic to achieving their growth plan. Sales person A makes his numbers—but only selling his favorite product line , “C.” That’s where he has the most confidence, plus he can always make his goals focusing on product line C. Sales person B, also, makes her numbers, but her performance is balanced across product lines “C” and a newer, slightly […]
Sales People Don’t Message, They Have Conversations
I’ve spent the past couple of days at the TOPO Summit. It’s become one of 3 “must attend” conferences I go to every year. All the presenters are rock solid practitioners, with pragmatic advice. However, as I listened to many of the presenters and much of the conversation, there was one theme that disturbed me. People were constantly talking about how sales people should “message” more effectively. Perhaps, I’m guilty of wordsmithing, but sales people don’t message. They engage people in conversations. Marketing “messages,” as they should. The communications marketing provides is primarily one way, creating awareness, provoking interest, educating […]
Business Simplification–The Number 1 Job Of Sales Enablement
Most people talking about the Sales Enablement function agree the goal of Sales Enablement is to improve the productivity and overall performance of front line sales professionals. But after that, a lot of the discussion starts going a little haywire—at least to me. Usually, the discussion are around providing more to our sales team. They usually revolve around themes like: More and better training….. More and better content….. More and better tools….. More and better information about customers, competition, products, solution….. Ironically, sales people are drowning in “more!” We see time available for selling plummeting—primarily driven by internal distractions and […]
Relationships Are Secondary To Sales Effectiveness
I find myself in an unusual position. I’ve always been biased more to the science side of selling than the art side. I believe that selling is a disciplined process, that we can “engineer” those processes to increase our impact, customer engagement, and our effectiveness. I believe in sharp, rigorous execution of those processes in driving sales effectiveness and performance. Sales people promoting the old “Hail and Hearty,” sales is all about relationships and “when the going gets tough, the tough take a customer to lunch/golf,” have been somewhat abhorrent to me. But then, I’m a physicist/engineer by training–and somewhat […]
Getting The Most Out Of Deal Reviews
Sales people spend a majority of their time doing deals–finding them, qualifying them, helping their customers navigate the buying process until they make a decision, then ultimately getting the order. Since this is where most of our people live their lives, it’s where sales managers should be spending a lot of time. Unfortunately, too many sales managers don’t leverage deal review for their full value. Many of the deal reviews I participate in look more like interrogations. Sales managers pummeling the sales person for data: What solution are you selling? Why do they need it? Who’s involved in the decision? […]
Buyers Aren’t Killing Sales, Sales People Are Killing Sales!
I get so weary about the endless drivel about the “Death Of Sales.” Ironically, I never see a post from customers/buyers—even procurement—about the death of sales, though I’m sure many would appreciate it (a variant of “What do you call 600 lawyers at the bottom of the ocean” joke —If you don’t know the answer, it’s “A good start!) Al the posts seem to come from sales “gurus” and technology suppliers, perhaps foreshadowing their own demise. What’s killing sales isn’t the buyer. It isn’t their ability to self educate, to engage other buyers in social conversations, or even to process […]