Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Blog
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
Pipeline Games
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 […]
Deciding What To Buy Is Often The Easiest Part
As sales people, our focus is to convince the customer to buy our solution. We invest our time in understanding what they are trying to do, our competition, their decision-making process, and presenting a winning proposal. We try to align ourselves with their buying process, but focus on the part where they are deciding what to buy. Often, that’s the easiest part and the smallest part of their buying process. There’s actually so much more they have to go through. Most of it, if we don’t look for it, is invisible to us. Identifying the problem or opportunity, identifying and […]
Customers Lie, And They Are Stupid Too!
There 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 […]
We’ve Trained Our Customers Too Well!
I 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 […]
Automation And Customer Intimacy
Some years ago, there was a lot of discussion about Customer Intimacy—–no, not that kind! (Get your minds out of the gutter!) Customer intimacy is about really knowing our customers–both the organizations and individuals. What are they trying to achieve? What are their dreams? What are the opportunities they have to grow and improve? It’s also about knowing how they work, what drives them, what problems they have, how they are perceived, what competition they face, what is happening with their customers and markets, where they may be vulnerable, and how they get things done. Finally, customer intimacy is about […]
Your Call Is Important To Us…..
I’m a current customer. I want to buy something from you, it will increase the value of our current relationship by about 50%. I just need some information before I submit an order. We can probably cover it in about 5 minutes and you will get an additional $10K+ per year. I called your customer service number. I’ve been on hold for 48 minutes and 57 seconds. Yes, I know I’m supposed to research things at your web site first. I did, but it was amazingly deficient in providing meaningful information. Perhaps other customers found the same problem, that’s why hold […]