Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Blog
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
“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 […]
Sales Leadership Dysfunctions — Anti Sales Attitudes
My friend, Mike Weinberg, has been one of the most consistent and vocal spokesperson on the Dysfunction of Sales Leadership. He wrote a brilliant article about this, identifying 8 Sins that destroy sales cultures and results. Be sure to read his article. For a much deeper discussion, make sure you read his book, Sales Management Simplified. (It’s a perfect complement to Sales Manager Survival Guide.) Mike’s right on target. I want to weigh in on his discussion and will be writing a series of posts covering each of his 8 sins, as well as adding to these. This first article […]
“Our Product Is Better Than Theirs” — A Losing Strategy
The other day, I was having breakfast with a frustrated executive. He had just reviewed a playbook that had been developed and was being launched to sales. It was the result of an effort between product management, marketing, and the sales enablement team. There was a lot wrong with the playbook. The biggest problem was it was strictly product focused. It educated sales people about every function, feature, feed, and speed of the products, not overlooking the most minute detail (don’t forget to talk about the 20 colors….) One of the most worrisome aspects of the playbook was the comparison between their products […]
Burying Our Heads In The Sand
Nobody likes to admit they have a problem. I suppose it’s human nature, or at least in the world of sales part of the inherent optimism sales people must have to thrive. Individually and organizationally, we don’t like to admit we have problems for a number of reasons. Admitting it brings a huge amount of attention, much of it unwanted. People want the problem fixed—eliminated! Sometimes, they offer to help. In any case, admitting that we have problems shines a bright light, creating great discomfort for us. Did we do something wrong? Did we make an error? What are we […]
All Your Help Is Killing Me!!
Over the past years, sales people have become a prime target for “help.” It’s no wonder, sales people are key to the organization’s growth and revenue performance. But sales hasn’t been performing, the data around quota performance for sales people and organizations is appalling. On the other hand, sales faces huge challenges. Profound changes in the way customers buy, huge difficulties reaching and engaging prospects, more competition, faster sales cycles, fewer resources, time compression…… The list goes on. The challenges in “selling,” working with customers through their buying process are greater and more complex. Layer fast changing customers, markets and […]