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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
Principles Of Sales, Part 1—Interactions Between People
I wrote The Not So New Principles Of Sales, identifying some of the underlying and enduring principles of great selling. I thought I’d dive into each of the principles a little more deeply. I’m still formulating my thinking in these areas, so I’d really like to stimulate a discussion. The first principle I identified was: Selling is about an interactions between people. Yeah, we can’t take them out of the equation. So there are messy things like relationships, trust, communicating, engaging, and collaborating with people–customers, teammates, and others. Technically, you might nit-pick and start talking about web-based shopping carts, electronic […]
Agile Sellers Always Have A Plan—And A Plan B…..
Consistent top performers, Agile Sellers, always have a plan and focus on the effective/efficient execution of that plan. That’s one of the things that sets them apart from all others. Amazingly, too many sales people really don’t have a plan. That is they never start with the “end in mind,” identifying all the things that have to be done to reach the goal. They don’t do the research or analysis to determine the most effective means of achieving their goal. For too many, the vision for the plan is the next step. They know what the next step is, perhaps the one […]
How Would You Sell If You Weren’t “The Salesperson?”
Probably more “selling,” happens outside the sales profession than within the profession. That “selling,” isn’t measured by revenue or quote, but it happens every minute of every hour of every day. Think about it—it’s getting buy-in to your idea in the company. It’s getting people on your team to want to be on your team, share your vision, help you achieve the goal. It’s listening to someone rave about a movie or restaurant, and putting it on your list to do. We see examples of people doing this in our business and professional lives all the time. They don’t know anything about their […]
The Not So New Principles Of Sales
Growing up, I always thought of being a scientist/engineer. I learned that math, physics, science are based on certain underlying principles. 2+2 always equals 4, the fundamental laws of physics, thermodynamics, and so forth always apply. The basic principles remain the same. Research has caused us to learn more about the principles, our understanding of the behavior of things at a subatomic level has been enhance. But the underlying principles still apply. The practices of science and engineering, though, have changed. In high school I did math using a slide rule (yeah, I ‘m dating myself), started programming at a teletype […]
Thinking Is Mandatory
I talk to all sorts of sales people and sometimes notice an “impatience.” When I ask, I get responses like: “Would you just give us the formula to [insert whatever you want–prospect, get meetings with execs, close, handle this/that objection, fill my pipeline…..]?” “What’s the script?” “If I just had a killer pitch!” They seem to want the answer to universal sales success. They want a formula or recipe for success. As if I could say, “Take a cup of this, a pint of that, a pinch or this, 2 tablespoons of something else, stir well, and bake for 35 minutes […]
Mastery In Sales
One of the nice things about being a consultant, is that I get to watch and observe thousands of leaders and professionals every year. I get the opportunity to see how people approach their jobs. I see some that struggle to achieve success, I see some (too many) that aren’t really committed to success, but go through the motions to collect a pay check. Then every once in a while I’m privileged to see someone that just stands out–a top performer–someone that’s truly a master. I look at those people, the one’s that really stand out, trying to figure what makes the […]