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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
Just Solve The Damn Problem!
I was oddly amused and somewhat saddened observing a situation from the sidelines recently. I wish it were an isolated situation, but it’s far too familiar — I think you’ll recognize it. A customer has a problem. It’s not one of those hairy big problems that we darken the sky with airplanes, sending experts, corporate execs, possibly lawyers to solve. It’s just an every day problem, thousands and millions of them occur every business day. But it’s a problem and it’s important to the customer. This problem has an added dimension, it has to be solved by a certain time, […]
“How Much Follow Up Is Too Much?”
I just got a great question, “How much follow up is too much?” The sales person was concerned about annoying the customer with too much follow up—even though the customer had requested the follow up. All of us face this challenge, we’re anxious to move forward, we want to know what’s happening, what the customer thinks, and where they are in their buying process. We’re anxious to know what’s happening and to close the deal, but we don’t want to annoy the customer. The right answer to this question is, “It depends,” but I think much of our concern about follow up is because […]
It’s Never “Just A Matter Of Training.”
I was speaking to a friend the other day. He’s VP of Sales Enablement for a large technology organization. He had just come out of a meeting of his peers–the top management in the sales organization. He called to say, “the field VP’s proposed that we initiate a major sales training program and are willing to fund it.” I was puzzled, “What’s the problem? That should be fantastic for your organization. It’s the opportunity to implement some of the new training approaches we’ve spoken about.” He replied, “Yes, from that view, it’s great. We think the training could have a real […]
“Only The Paranoid Survive”
“Only The Paranoid Survive” was written years ago by Andy Grove, then Chairman of Intel. It told the story of the transformation of Intel from a memory to a microprocessor company. I loved the book, it is featured on my bookshelf—partly because the title is a great reminder. Yesterday, a client and I were discussing the transformation in his organization. We started about 2 years ago with an organization that just wasn’t performing. We undertook a massive transformation, changed about everything–people, processes, tools, metrics, incentives. Virtually nothing was left untouched. Two years later we’ve seen sustained outstanding performance for at least a […]
Late To The Party!
Ever show up to a party late? Groups have formed, everyone’s deeply engaged in conversations, the good food’s gone. When I’m late, I wander from group to group, trying to quickly understand what’s happen in the conversation and join in. Often it’s tough. I’ve missed a lot, sometimes people are good enough to repeat some of what’s going on–to catch me up, but mostly there’s a lot of missing context that makes it difficult to participate fully in the conversation. The same thing happens very often in sales. We discover an opportunity very late in the customer’s buying cycle. Possibly they’ve […]
“Everyone Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face”
I love this quote from Mike Tyson. Most sales people I speak with claim they have a plan–often I think they thought they had a plan, but really didn’t. But whether they do or don’t so many sales people get off course in their sales efforts. They encounter difficulty, are put off their plan, and just play catch up through the rest of the buying process. Some might respond, “Why plan?” That’s a losing strategy. So how do we deal with being “punched in the face.” It happens to all of us in virtually every sales situation, so we need […]