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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
Speed Kills!
No, I haven’t become the spokesperson for the National Highway Safety Commission, I’ve had more than my fair share of speeding tickets (and actually far fewer than I deserve.) I just read a horrible piece of advice from a “guru.” The advice was, “Efficiency Drives Effectiveness!” How wrong can a supposed expert be? Efficiency is all about speed, getting more done in less time. We have to be concerned about efficiency, but only if we are doing the right things in the right way with the right people at the right time! Executing bad selling skills very efficiently produces garbage really quickly. […]
Your Coaching Discussions Always Have A Context
A few days ago, I had a great discussion with a reader who had just finished reading the Sales Manager Survival Guide. He’s a senior sales executive who wanted to immediately start applying some of the lessons in coaching the managers reporting to him and to improve their abilities in coaching their people. He had started with the development of a template of questions that he wanted to ask people. It was a great template, he was artfully applying the non-directive questions I cover in Chapter 12 (How Do You Coach). As we discussed the questions, we talked about the […]
What’s The Most Important Customer Question Sales People Probably Can’t Answer?
We equip our sales teams with the ability to answer any question customers might have about our products and services. Sales people, can go on forever about features, functions, feeds, and speeds for each of the products they sell. They sometimes can present feature – benefits, for example, “improved productivity, reduced cost,” and so forth. But the capabilities of our products and how wonderful they are, are probably not the most important things in our customers minds. We know this qualitatively and quantitatively by the disinterest customers have in our marketing and prospecting programs touting our products. Open rates, click […]
Sales Leadership Dysfunctions–Sales Need Clarity And Direction
Not long ago, Mike Weinberg wrote a brilliant article about this, identifying 8 Sins that destroy sales cultures and results. Be sure to read his article. The issues Mike has identified are critical, not only for sales success, but also for the success of their companies. I wanted to continue to weigh in on my views of these issues. Last week, I talked about Anti-Sales Attitudes within companies. In this article, I want to talk about the Sales Need For Clarity and Direction. It’s actually closely linked to Anti-Sales attitudes, usually I find those organizations that have these bad attitudes […]
“We Really Don’t Care About Revenue”
I don’t know any successful business leader (in either the for profit or not for profit world) that has ever said, “We really don’t care about revenue!” We may be driven by other reasons–not for profits have missions to help solve profound social or other problems. For profit businesses may be driven to solve certain problems, to have an impact on their customers and markets. Some may be driven by a passion for building products. But all of these require funding, money. As a consequence, we have to care about revenue. If we care about doing these things over a long […]
Shepherding Our Customers Through The Buying Journey
Over the past several months, Hank Barnes and I have had periodic discussions about the Customer Journey and mapping the journey. While many large consulting companies and other experts talk “expertly” about mapping the customer journey, creating content, experiences, and engagement. When you study their work, it’s usually focused on buying done by individuals. Whether it’s a consumer deciding what they want to a purchase for themselves, or a business person buying tools for themselves or their small work group, mapping customer journeys is usually about the journey of individuals satisfying their own needs. It’s when you get to the […]