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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
In Praise Of Templates, Checklists, Complete Sentences, And Writing Things Down!
I can hear the groans already. Thousands of sales people and some managers are saying, “Here’s Dave talking about writing things down.” In workshops, I see eyes rolling back in people’s heads, with the very clear body language, “Here he is telling us to write this stuff down, it’s becoming all about paperwork!” I’m sorry, I’m an unabashed fan of templates, checklists, and complete sentences. I’m a raving advocate of writing things down. Writing is thinking! We tend to fool ourselves as we look at our sales strategies and plans. We think we’re thinking and analyzing, but we really aren’t. […]
Developing Insights
Everyone has been talking about Insights. Our customers are hungry for Insights about their businesses–opportunities to grow, opportunities to improve. We know we have to engage our customers in new conversations. These conversations have to be about them and their goals, not about what we sell. So Insights are the new “buzzword,” for sales. But all of us, me included, have been a little casual about this discussion. I’ve talked a lot about the importance of Insight, how we communicate, how we continue to engage our customers in Insight driven conversations through their buying process. I’ve talked about company strategies […]
Do You Trust Your People Enough To Let Them Think?
It’s odd, we interview people, anxious to hire the best and the brightest. Those people that have the proven track records, skills and experience to perform at the highest levels. We assess people on their ability to think on their feet and respond quickly. In the interview process, we have questions designed to test their ability to think. We may engage them in scenarios and role plays to see how they handle themselves. We may leverage formal assessments, testing cognitive and other capabilities. We find the right candidates–hopefully really smart people, onboard them, then put them in handcuffs (or whatever the functional […]
I Want To Be Your Partner
It seems every relationship is becoming a partnership. In every sales situation, rather than creative valued customers we want to have partnerships. Rather than calling customers, customers, we call them partners. I suppose that word change is somehow supposed to mean the relationship is more important. But to often, what we, as sales people really mean is, “We’d love to separate you from some of your money.” Rather than honoring and respecting our customers as valued customers or clients, somehow, we choose to use the “P” word, as if it meant something different. I wonder if someone is a partner […]
Sales Process Is Habit Forming
I was rereading a post from Kevin Eikenberry (Kevin’s a favorite of mine) on The Power Of Habits. Be sure to read it, it’s an important article. As I reread it, I was reminded that so much of what high performing sales people do is habit, using Kevin’s terms, considered habit. High performers have figured out what works. They have learned what it takes to consistently be the best. They’ve learned to recognize the patterns of success—turning them into consistently executed habits. These habits become second nature, it’s just what they do unconsciously. They know that to win a deal, […]
Funnel/Pipeline Games
The funnel/pipeline is a fundamental tool for sales professionals and managers. It’s the tool that helps us understand whether we are on target to meeting our goals. I spend a lot of time looking at funnels. I’ve seen all sorts of issues and potential games (inadvertent and purposeful) that are played with pipelines. I thought I’d spend a little time on a few of them. We all know there the funnel provides us a number of key metrics and indicators about the overall health of our business. Let’s look at a few key elements. The first is overall shape in […]