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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
Committed To Not Changing!
We spend 100’s of millions on SKO speakers, books, and training–all focused on doing the things that drive business, sales and marketing performance. We are inspired by thousands of articles, podcasts, and videos–each offering the same answers to what we have to do to be successful. (I contribute my fair share to the clutter.) We know what we have to do, and, for the most part, each of us is well intended–we really want to do the things that cause us, our customers, and our companies to be successful. For example, as sales people, we know–without a doubt that: We’ve […]
“Why I’m So Interested In Selling,” Inshal Khawaja
Preface: Every once in a while, by pure chance, we meet someone who is inspiring. This is my experience with Inshal Khawaja. I first met Inshal about a year ago. I was working with Howard Dover on a “business acumen” program he was introducing into the UTD curriculum in the Fall of 2023. It involved interviews of senior sales executives. Ultimately, this would be done by students. I had piloted the concept through interviews with dozens of executives, but we needed to see how students would be able to implement the program. Inshal was working with Howard, so he assigned […]
“Why I’m So Interested In Selling,” Barry Trailer
Preface: Barry Trailer has been a leader in researching/surveying sales performance and providing deep insights into that performance. Something many people may not know is that Barry was trained as a civil engineer. Whenever I get on a Zoom call with him, I’m distracted by the classic drafting table on one wall of his office. We always exchange stories of sitting at those tables, doing designs on paper. Always brings back such fond memories. A couple of things stand out–one the survey Barry cites stating that sales people are tied with politicians in how credible people believe they are. And […]
“Why I’m So Interested In Selling,” Jill Konrath
Preface: Jill Konrath is one of the most well respected author, speaker, teacher on all things selling. She’s written 4 masterpieces on selling. More importantly, at least to me, Jill is an important mentor to me. She has been a very willing coach, helping me think and execute at higher levels. Very few people care enough to say, “Dave, you can do so much better….” Jill and I share a common dream, how to make a difference—in the people/companies we work with, in our communities, and in society. In the past year, Jill has shifted her focus to a very […]
Designed To Fail?
It’s crazy to think that we purposely design our organizations to fail. Who would think of that, particularly in selling? We are driven to succeed, to over achieve our goals. We constantly talk about winning. If this is true, why do we see year after year of declining performance and results? For example, we see percent of people achieving goals declining—today roughly 40% of sellers are achieving or exceeding quota? To most of us, it’s unimaginable, but why do we see this persist YoY, even continuing to decline? We see win rates plummeting. I was quoted once saying, “I fire […]
The “Tolerance Stack Up Error” Problem
Any reader who was trained as an engineer or anyone with experience in assembling machines (or Ikea furniture) will recognize the Tolerance Stack Up Error. But, too often, I see the equivalent of this problem in our GTM strategies and execution efforts. For those of you scratching your heads, let me describe the tolerance tack up error. When we are designing a machine, we specify the dimensions and performance characteristics of each part in the assembly. While we provide exact specifications, “It has to have dimensions of X inches, by Y inches, by Z inches. It has to have a […]