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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
What’s The Customer Doing During The “57%” And Why Sales Should Celebrate!
I have to admit I’m getting relatively pissed off with all the discussions around, “Customers don’t want to see sales people until they are 57% (up to 70%) though their buying process.” There are reactions ranging from: Sheer joy: Sales people saying, it’s great, that means they are only focusing on serious buyers, it shortens their sales process, and all sorts of other nonsense. Sheer relief: Again sales people saying, all that front end stuff is the really tough stuff. We don’t have to prospect, find, qualify, do need/requirements discovery. It’s all marketing’s job to provide the content that gets […]
Committed To “Not Succeeding?”
I don’t know anyone committed to failure. Just the idea of it, sets one on edge. Being accused of being “committed to failure,” is offensive. But not being committed to failure doesn’t mean we are committed to success. If we were totally committed to success, we would do those things are proven to make us successful. And we would do them all the time. We know–or should know, that customers don’t want to be pitched about our products. They don’t care about our products, they care about their own businesses, goal attainment, their own business and personal success. So if […]
Starting With The End In Mind
I learn so much when I spend time with project managers. It may be the manager of a product development team that needs to get a critical product launched by a certain date. Or someone building a new factory, needing to get it into production by a certain date. When I was a kid, I watched my father a lot. He was responsible for developing and managing “giga-projects,” like a new transit system for a city, new airports, harbors, power plants, and so forth. These projects involved coordinating thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of activities, billions in investment. The […]
Rumors Of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated
I’m a sales professional. I’m disturbed by the persistent rumors–or, perhaps, wishful thinking about my death. I’m still alive and thriving! My customers recognize that I create great value for them. My customers view me as a critical partner in their success. My customers recognize that I understand their business, their customers, their markets. My customers expect me to challenge them with new ideas, opportunities, and ways to grow their business. My customers are anxious to talk to me, often initiating the conversations because they value my views. They don’t buy every idea I have, but they want to hear […]
Imagine, We’re Paid To Be Curious!!
There’s something unique about what we do as sales people. We’re paid to be curious!! Not many other jobs have “curiosity” as the central part of their job description. Perhaps research scientists, some market analyst/researcher, think tank people, and consultants; but other than that there aren’t a lot of jobs that pay for curiosity. And the types of things we get paid to be curious about is pretty awesome. We talk to people about their goals, dreams, and aspirations for their businesses and for themselves. We get the opportunity to talk to them about their successes and how to achieve […]
Never Give Up!
Yesterday, I got a one liner email from a friend and colleague. It simply said, “David — I am a proud papa…Take a look at Maddy’s interview! Hope all is well, Jeff” Maddy Stanley is Jeff and Karen’s daughter. I think I first met her when she was about 5 years old. It’s been a number of years since I’ve seen her, she’s now 19, graduating from High School and about to go to college. Maddy was born with a neurological disability call Schizencephaly. It’s very rare, but similar to Cerebral Palsy. She’s overcome a huge amount, and is totally […]