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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
The Problem With Forecasting
In virtually every conversation with a sales executive, at one point we get into a discussion about forecasting. Usually it starts with the executive mumbling something like, “Damn forecasts are worthless, I might was well flip a coin……..” Being very cue sensitive, I usually reply something like, “Forecasting system not working for you?” Then I just sit back and listen. No one has accurate forecasts. They put in strange processes to increase the accuracy of the forecast. I see strange sequences of forecasts, the “This may happen forecast,” moves to “I hope this will happen forecast,” to “I’m sure this […]
What If We Managed Our People The Way We Sold To Our Customers?
I had this brilliant idea for a post on sales leadership and organizational transformation. When we sell to our customers, we give them insight about how to improve there businesses, we help them identify new opportunities to grow, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their operations. We have powerful methodologies or approaches like Consultative, Solutions, Customer-Focused, Challenger, Provocative Selling to help us do this. I thought it would be brilliant to write a post applying much of what we do in selling to leading and developing our people. I sat down at the computer, wrote the title and it struck me […]
‘Tis The Season To Declare “The Death Of [Fill In The Blank]”
The other day, Paul Dunay tweeted about an article on “The Death Of Marketing.” He and I ended up tweeting back and forth about the title being trite. It seems this time of year brings out lots of articles pronouncing the “Death Of Something Or Other.” I suppose, after bloggers and writers have exhausted all the topics about New Year’s Resolutions, there’s a struggle to come up with blog topics—at least until Valentine’s Day. “The Death Of…..” topics are probably fashionable. I get a little tired of these pronouncements. It seems ever since I started my business career, there have […]
A Virtual Sales MBA Part 2
There were a number of questions arising from my, A Virtual Sales MBA Post. Rather than answer individually, I thought I’d provide a brief post consolidating responses. Books: I was asked by a number of people for recommendations on books. It’s kind of tough, I read a lot. In virtually every book, I find something worthwhile. I thought I’d tell you what’s on my iPad and Desk right now. A few I’ve just completed. A few, I am re-reading, so I’ll jump around in them, the others, I’ll complete these in the next 4-6 weeks: My Life and Work, Henry Ford: This is […]
A Virtual Sales MBA
Matt Heinz came up with a very provocative idea. He created a self-education plan for sales professionals. A course of study or “virtual MBA.” First, I’m flattered to be included on his list of “blogs you should be reading.” Matt’s is certainly one I read, and you should read as well (but he is either too modest to put it on the list, or realized people had figured it out–since they were reading the post). What would a “Virtual MBA” for sales look like? One thing I notice about the very best people in any profession is they are […]
Preparation Enables You To Get Out Of Your Own Way
Often, I get pushback from folks when I talk about leveraging a sales process, developing and documenting a deal strategy, or researching and preparing for sales calls in advance. The arguments usually focus in a few areas, “It restrains my creativity,” “It cramps my style,” “Every situation is different.” The list can go on, but to my mind they are just excuses. In reality, research, preparation or leveraging a process enables you to get out of your own way. Preparation enables you to be truly present and participate in the meeting or call, or to be responsive to twists and […]