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
Customer “Decision-Making Readiness” As A Qualifier
We’ve all read the data about increases in “No Decision Made.” In the new, The Challenger Customer, the authors provide compelling data about the 5.4—the average of 5.4 people involved in complex B2B decisions. It turns out from this and other research, the biggest challenge has little to do with vendor selection, but more to do with the customer ability to align disparate goals, priorities, agendas, perceptions of the problem, and so forth. If we can’t do something to facilitate the ability of the customer to reach consensus, the likelihood of their making a decision, or of us getting a […]
Who Should We Be Talking To?
Hopefully, there is an enterprising entrepreneur who will read this post and do something about a challenge I have–I think virtually all of us have. It’s the issue of “Who should I be talking to?” No, I don’t mean in a deal cycle–we’re always concerned with are we talking to the right people, the decision-maker, influencers, recommenders, and so forth. It’s people in my network, people I may not have spoken to in some time, but that I should reach out to because something has happened that may be relevant to our relationship or something I might be able to […]
“Herding Customers” Through Complex Buying Processes
I’m the proud “parent” of two cats, Sammy and Harley. As with most cats, they are fiercely independent, tending to do what they want to do, rather than what my wife and I may want them to do. (To long time followers, you’ll recognize them, I’ve written about them before.) While I haven’t done a rigorous analysis, I suspect we are successful getting them to do “sort of” what we wanted them to do around 40% of the time. Usually, it involves some sort of bribe with food or a treat, but even then, one (usually Harley) will sniff the […]
Just Good Enough Value Creation
Thousands of posts are written about value propositions and value creation. By now, most people tend to say value is defined by the customer, though most implementations seem to be driven by what we think the customer should value. There’s also a lot written about differentiation, creating superior value, and exceeding customer expectations. There also seems to be a “silver bullet” aspect to value propositions and creation. Somehow, I get the sense of people looking for that magic set of sentences, that when spoken to the right people at the right time, they immediately pull out a PO, asking “How […]
What’s More Important, Experience Or Experiences
The other day I was speaking to a large group of sales people. Many were very new to sales, they had been selling for only a few years. During the conversation, one person asked how she should progress in her career. She and several others related they were looking for new jobs. They saw opportunities to move to new challenges, increase their compensation, move higher in the food chain. We all want to grow–we want jobs with increasing levels of responsibility, higher levels of compensation. Sometimes, we don’t like our current roles/organizations/managers, sometimes it’s a great new opportunity. Sometimes, however, […]
Manager, Are You “Sales Person Centric?”
We know we are supposed to be customer centric. Buyers and buying have changed, they’re in control (funny, I always thought they were.). Millions are spent in creating great customer experiences. As sales people we know we are more successful when we focus on the customer–helping solve their problems, understanding their needs. We seek to provide great insights and to teach our customers. Gone are the days of pitching or telling our customers about our products. We now know that success comes in collaborating with our customers, helping them grow and achieve their goals. We know by helping our customers […]