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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
Should “A Players” Care About Grammar?
I’ve been having a little fun at my friend Mike Weinberg’s expense on LinkedIn. Mike posted an update: “Just received a condescending email from a sales rep critiquing the grammar in my latest blog post. Found it amusing and it has me wondering if he’s a top-performer/A-Player. My guys says A-Players focus on results not the grammar in FREE blog posts.” I get as annoyed as Mike about people losing the “message,” and critiquing my spelling and grammar (and, undoubtedly, I will deserve complaints on this post.) But it presents an opportunity to talk about A players. Stated differently, this […]
Predictably Unpredictable
Over the past few years there’s been a huge rush to “predictability” in sales and marketing. Marketing and sales automation tools strive to increase our ability to predict interest and propensity to buy. Inbound and outbound sales development reps are scripted to qualify and move prospects through a series of steps that have very predictable outcomes. As people have broken the code to Predictable Revenue, they ramp up the volume and velocity to drive more and more. The process and metrics become very formularized. We know how to drive results just by following the formula and minimizing deviation from the […]
5 Skills To Turn Sales Managers Into Sales Leaders
I have to admit being appalled reading an article entitled, 5 Skills To Turn Sales Managers Into Sales Leaders (I won’t link to it, you would waste your time, but if you want to find it, google it). The article identified these 5 critical skills: Setting Goals. Developing A Strategy. Setting Expectations. Understanding Drivers and Drainers. Evaluating ROI. There virtually no discussion of people in the entire article! There is no discussion of the real challenges of leadership in today’s complex world. When the key responsibility of a leader is to get things done through people, how can you write […]
First Seven Jobs
I’m a terrific fan of Fred Wilson’s AVC blog. I just read First Seven Jobs. I thought I’d try to remember. Babysitter: Yeah, I guess it was a job, I picked up some spending money, had a pretty significant responsibility. I did it in junior high, but didn’t do it very long or very much. Church Janitor: Our family was very active in a local community church, they needed someone to clean the church. I can’t recall whether I volunteered or was volunteered. I don’t think I was very good at it, I’d always clean the church on Saturday mornings. […]
What About My Goals? A Time For Selfishness
I had a call from a frustrated sales person. He said, “Dave, I read your stuff all the time. You are relentless in focusing on the customer, their problems, and their goals. I get it, but I’m in trouble, I need to achieve my goals!! That’s what I really care about!” I really get where this sales person is coming from. Undoubtedly, 10’s of thousands of other sales professionals are thinking the same thing. Truth be told, I try to say “No” to anything that doesn’t enable me to achieve my goals. I’m very selfish, virtually everything I do, including […]
Turning The Volume Up Won’t Get You More Attention
Recently, I was asked to comment on the impact of attention scarcity in modern marketing. It was for an eBook on The Attention Economy sponsored by the people at LookbookHQ. The eBook is really outstanding, with some very interesting views from a wide range of sales and marketing leaders. I encourage you to take a look at it. As a sample, I thought I’d provide the text of my piece in the article. It follows below: Some years ago, I was in Nairobi on business. In the morning, as I walked out of my hotel, I was surrounded by dozens […]