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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
Poor Performers Probably Don’t Know
Addressing performance issues is always tough. Many managers are uncomfortable discussing poor performance issues with poor performers. There are a number of factors that could make these conversations even more difficult–for both the manager and poor performer. Here some things that make these conversations very difficult: First, poorly defined performance expectations. I’m amazed had how many organizations don’t put in place well defined performance plans. A quota isn’t a performance plan! It’s an element of a performance plan, but a good performance plan clearly defines performance expectations, development expectations and a number of other things. It should include quantitative and qualitative […]
Making The Number Isn’t The Point!
The discussion around my post, “Don’t Bother Me With Process!” has been generating some interesting discussions. I’ve been surprised with the number of reactions basically saying, “Who cares whether they follow the process if they are making the number?” What’s surprising me, is most of those comments are coming from managers! As sales leaders, we have a number of responsibilities. First, we have to make the number—no if’s and’s, or but’s. The number is sacred, we sign up for it, and we have to make it. Second, we have to maximize the performance both of the overall organization and of each […]
Don’t Bother Me With Process!
Maureen Blanford challenged me with an interesting question, “What do you do with a person that consistently makes their numbers, but refuses to use the process?” It’s a great question, here’s my take. First, some set up. The sales process represents our organization’s best practices in winning business. We develop the sales process by looking at what our top performers consistently do to win deals, analyzing past wins and losses, and making sure what we do through the sales process is aligned and creates value through the customer buying process. Consequently, leveraging the sales process is critical to getting each […]
Keeping Score
I’ve been having a number of conversations that, to be honest, have surprised me a little. They’ve focused on winning, losing, competing, and accountability. I suppose I’m really a hardliner on the issue of performance and accountability. Selling is an outcomes focused profession (frankly, I think most jobs are or should be outcomes focused). Results count, we are accountable for producing results for our companies and customers. In the end, we either achieve the results we have committed to achieve or we haven’t. And we keep score. We’re measured in the outcomes we produce by quotas, revenue targets, or something […]
Don’t Sell Where You Lose!
“Well duuuhhh, Dave, thanks for that great insight!” As obvious as it sounds, one of the fastest ways to improve organizational or individual performance is to stop trying to sell where you lose. Yet, as obvious as it sounds, too many of the behaviors I see are focused exactly on that–selling where we lose. The problem is, too often we blindly chase after bad deals. Prospects ask for information, and the sales person is immediately forecasting it as a close. We blindly dial, making dozens of calls every day, desperately trying to find deals. If a prospect fogs a mirror, […]
Insight, Clarity, Execution
We all struggle to change, to do new things, to grow, to implement new strategies, initiatives, and programs. Too often, we and our customers fall short. We don’t quite achieve the goal, we change midstream, we abandon what we were seeking to achieve, pursuing something completely different. Sometimes, change is more difficult than we anticipated. Surprises emerge, we forgot to consider certain things, circumstances change. We have greater problems aligning everyone around the change initiative and move forward. It’s inevitable that many change initiatives lose steam, not for lack of enthusiasm or even commitment, but we just lose our way. It’s not for lack […]