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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
“I’m Too Busy To Prospect”
I’m constantly amazed at the fear that strikes at the hearts of sales people with the mention of the word, “Prospecting.” While it doesn’t strike fear into my heart, it’s still something a don’t like to do (though there are ways to make it more enjoyable). It’s also interesting to hear all the reasons and excuses sales people dream up to avoid prospecting, “I have a proposal that’s due, I have a meeting on this deal, I’m busy prepping the demo for that deal……. The dog ate my prospecting script.” There’s no end to the creativity to the reasons why […]
Attention To Detail Or Micromanagement?
Recently, I’ve been involved in a number of heated discussions on micromanagement and attention to detail. Often, at a superficial level, they look the same, but in reality they are very different. Attention to detail is critical both to individual contributors and managers. Micromanagement is a waste of everyone’s time–the individual contributor and the manager. So what’s the difference between these? I think attention to detail is primarily about learning and development. Where micromanagement has little to do with either of those things, and is probably rooted in lack of trust or respect. Let’s look more deeply at attention to detail. […]
Should Sales People Be On Quota?
Yesterday, I was being interviewed by Pat Helmer for a podcast (it will be published in a few weeks.) He asked a question, “Should sales people be on quota?” For a fraction of a second, I was stunned. How could anyone even ask the question? Not having a quota was something that was absolutely inconceivable to me. Pat went on to describe that many sales managers he talks to have other goals/metrics they use–certain numbers of activities, other measures. (which when you look at it is really a form of quota). Later in the day, I got an email from […]
Buyers Get Smarter Through The Buying Cycle
Andy Paul and I exchanged emails on my post The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle And Selling. He had written a similar post [See Here] His post reminded me of something too many sales people overlook in their sales strategies. Buyers Get Smarter Through The Buying Cycle. If we are doing our job engaging with the customer, we are teaching them–helping them understand new approaches to achieving their goals and getting them all hot and lathered to change. They engage in assessing the opportunity, determining their needs/requirements, evaluating alternatives.. Through this process, they engage more people in their organization. Their points of […]
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle In Selling—Revisited
It seems my post on The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle In Selling brought out some closeted physicists. There has been a healthy exchange of emails and comments with physics related jokes. Something like, “Two physicists walked into a bar….” I’ve even gotten emails from Professors of Physics at esteemed universities with great comments and more jokes. So I thought this very narrow group of my audience, might get weekend enjoyment from the following cartoon at XKCD LOCATION SHARING Readers who remember their physics are rolling on the floor laughing right now. For everyone else, be patient with me having a little […]
The “Appification” Of Sales And Marketing
It seems to me the best business to start these days is an App business focused on sales or marketing. I wrote about the Proliferation Of Marketing/Sales Apps. In the past year the number of Marketing Technology Apps have gone from 947 to 1876, in 43 different marketing technology categories. Sales Automation, Customer Experience and related apps are going through a similar explosion, with dozens of new apps appearing every month. Sales and Marketing Executives have a huge appetite for these technology solutions, spending $10’s of billions each year on these (just the apps, not implementation, integration, etc.). But it makes […]