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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
The Challenger Customer
Several months ago, my friends at the CEB sent me a review copy of The Challenger Customer. Just reading the title, I expected an epic confrontation between Challenger Sales and Challenger Customers—perhaps a worthy follow up to the Mayweather/Pacquiao fight. I had images of challenger sales people and challenger customers squaring off with each other. Instead, they started at a different place–perhaps where they should have started in the first place. They start with the customer (whenever we talk about sales or marketing, it’s always useful to start at with the customer). As usual, the book is filled with compelling […]
Critical Selling Skills That Distinguish Top Performers
Last week, Tim Ohai and I were talking about the future of selling. We got onto a discussion of the critical skills needed for high performers. I’ve continued to think about this over the past few days. I’ve narrowed things down to the top 3 skills critical for top performers. I’d like your take on it, because most sales training programs don’t seem to include these. First, all the usual traditional skills are table stakes. You must master the “advanced,” methodologies currently on the market: Product knowledge, business acumen, customer/industry/market knowledge, financial knowledge, consultative/insight/solutions/value based/customer focused/challenger and related programs. You […]
LinkedIn, Thanks For Helping Me Understand My Workflow Sucks!
It seems that my finely refined way of managing my workflow, something I’ve built over years of experience and learning about what works for my personal effectiveness is all wrong. Thankfully, I have LinkedIn and their collective expertise telling me this and giving me the solution—do it their way. I’ve been a LinkedIn user and strong advocate for years. A relatively early adopter (in the first 70K or so). It’s been a powerful tool for building relationships, research, and learning. In earlier days of LinkedIn, one of the great powers was it’s open interface, allowing other tools-critical to me workflow, […]
“I Need A Report”
“I need a report…..” is a phrase universally eliciting groans from every sales person—at least the good sales people. Bad sales people revel in these requests, because it means they get a momentary respite from prospecting, meeting with customers, moving deals forward, figuring out how to hit their goals. Unfortunately, they don’t have much to report on, or things haven’t changed since the last report. But most sales people just hate reporting–as they should. It diverts them from working with customers. Ask any good sales person about this topic, and they usually respond with something, “Why does management need all […]
Does What You Do Inspire You?
I’ve spent the last couple of days at Dreamforce. It’s an astounding event, but for me, participating in Dreamforce has taken a big shift. I find myself spending more time meeting with people in one on one’s than attending the sessions in the event. This year, I noticed a shift in the conversations I had with many people. A few had recently made major job and career shifts. A few were in the final stages of making major shifts in their careers. A couple had gone through great personal tragedies in their lives and shared their experiences. Most of the conversations were […]
How Are You Building Organizational Capacity And Capability?
Talk to any sales manager or executive about their priorities and you’ll get this universal answer, “Make the numbers!” Without a doubt, every sales leader has to produce results, we’re measured on it, we’re compensated on it, we get to keep our jobs based on our ability to do this–quarter after quarter, year after year. But when I ask managers and executives, what are the most critical things you need to focus on to make the numbers? That’s where there are huge differences in responses. With some, it’s all about deals. Watching them is typically seeing a frenzy of activity, […]