Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
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.
I’m always amused by the games that go on as managers conduct pipeline and forecast reviews. Data shows sales people spend at least two hours a week on pipeline and forecast reviews. Think of it, 5% of the sales organization’s time in some of the most confusing and useless discussions I’ve seen. If we learned how to do these effectively, we could not only improve the quality of these reviews and information, as well as significantly reduce time spent in reviews. Here’s a scenario I run across too often: The first line sales manager sits down with the team collectively or […]
Read MoreThere are not many things that cause me to come unglued. But there are two that provoke immediate outrage—and usually a tirade if I’m speaking with an individual or a group. These two things are: Customers lie! The customer is stupid! These are, possibly, the most destructive statements and attitudes any business professional, but particularly sales people can have. Thinking this shapes our behaviors and approaches when we engage customers. However well we think we may disguise these attitudes, it always comes through, loud and clear, when we engage the customer. The reactions we get, as a result, we deserve! Customers […]
Read MoreI was reviewing a large deal with a sales team recently. They were struggling to develop a winning strategy, so we were doing a deep dive into the situation. At one point in the discussion I asked, “What is the problem they are trying to solve and why is it critical to solve it?” There was a silence in the room. I looked around and got blank stares in return. Sometimes I ask questions obliquely, though I didn’t think the question was that difficult to understand, so I rephrased the question. “Why are you proposing the solution you’ve selected?” I […]
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