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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
No Decision Made!!
“No Decision Made,” is increasingly what we are hearing on deals in which we’ve invested time and effort. In extreme cases, we are seeing as much as 35% of the qualified deals people pursue ending in “no decision.” This outcome is, perhaps, more frustrating than an outright loss. We don’t know what to do–will they make a decision at some point? Should we keep selling? Is it dead or just “parked?” Sometimes, this is a result of mis- or bad qualification by the sales person. But we are seeing something very different occurring, as well. Organizations are changing how they […]
Metrics And Balanced Performance
As we plan for the new year, many managers ask themselves the question, “What should we be measuring?” or “How should we be tracking performance?” The obvious answer to this is Quota–is there anything else?!? Frankly, most of the organizations I work with have quota attainment as the singular metric that’s used to monitor and assess performance. Quota is an important output measure. It is a key metric for anyone in sales. But quota is insufficient for managing performance and insufficient to assure the sales team is executing the company strategy and priorities. Additionally, we know quota is a trailing or […]
Does Your Sales Process Achieve These 4 Outcomes?
The sales process is the cornerstone to driving the highest levels of sales performance. There’s so much data supporting this, one would think discussing sales process should be a non issue—-every organization should continually be strengthening their process, sales people should be executing them with precision. Yet, this is far from the truth. Too many don’t have or don’t use the sales process. Still others have poorly developed processes that actually hinder results. Take a look at your process. If it doesn’t achieve the following 4 outcomes, then you need to go back to the drawing board. If you don’t have a […]
Sometimes You Just Have To Go Out And Get Your Teeth Kicked In!
At any point in any kind of new initiative, you’ve done all the planning, strategizing, training, and preparation you can. You’ve sought advice and insight from experts and gurus, it is a never-ending source of truisms and platitudes. But there comes that moment of truth, when you have to go make it happen. You’re out there all alone. You are filled with uncertainty and doubt. You are hesitant. We hope for the best, but fear the worst will happen. We worry about failing. Unfortunately, this is the point where too many people stop. Rather than moving forward, people go back […]
Ramping Up The Results Of Your Sales Calls
If you are a high performance sales professional, you always prepare your calls rigorously. Hacks are those that have mastered the art of “shooting from the lip,” but accomplish very little in each call as well as running the risk of aggravating the customer. I know none of you are hacks–they don’t read and learn, so they will never see this post. So let’s focus on how you can turn the crank further on sales call effectiveness. You’re in the middle of a deal. You’ve mad a number of sales calls on various people involved in the decision-making process. You’re slowly […]
How Should Sales People Be Challenging Their Customers?
Challenging, providing insight, getting your customers to think about their businesses differently is critical to engaging customers and creating value. My friends at OpenView Labs asked me, “How should sales people be challenging their customers?” For the rest of the article, take a look at OpenView Labs’ site: How Should Sales People Be Challenging Their Customers?