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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
Sales And The Dreaded “P” Word
No this isn’t a post about pricing. There’s a “P” Word that strikes dread into the hearts of every sales person–it’s purchasing (or procurement). We all dread purchasing. We do everything we can to avoid them or work around them. All they are interested in is hammering us for price. All they want to do is slow us down, involve our competitors. Selling is tough enough as it is, but throw in purchasing and it becomes hopeless. It’s interesting to me, both sales and purchasing are trying to achieve the same thing for their companies, yet we tend to have […]
Lean Sales And Marketing
Over the past several weeks, I have had the good fortune to participate in a number of “Kaizen Blitz’s” with a client. They were focused on identifying great improvements in my client’s go to market and sales strategies. One of the profound things about these workshops was that 70% of the participants came from non-sales or marketing functions—manufacturing, development, operations, quality, legal, human resources, and executive management. The results of these meetings–as we move forward in executing these ideas will drive tremendous improvement in the client’s growth, with great improvements in the performance and productivity of sales and marketing. Let […]
Everything Counts, The Customer Is Always Evaluating Us
Several days ago, I wrote an article, Duz Speling nd Gramer Matr? It provoked a lot of comments (and some justly deserved grammatical checks). Jeb Blount made a great comment at Sales Gravy. I thought I’d expand on it. Customers are always evaluating sales people—they are checking to see it they perform, if their words match their actions, are they people they should to business with, what separates them from all others. Consequently, everything we do counts–there are no mulligans or do overs. Consciously or unconsciously, everything we do either builds the perception customers have of us or diminishes it. […]
“Dear Occupant, I Have Insight For Your Business”
One of the disturbing trends and, I’m certain, unintended consequences of people looking at the Challenger Sale, is that we aren’t really providing insight or creating distinctive value. In speaking with people about what they are doing, too often it focuses on story or the pitch. Insight and value creation are different than a provocative presentation. Insight and value creation are unique to the customer. I’m a great fan of the concepts put forth in the Challenger Sale. As too often happens, with great ideas, they become co-0pted to mediocrity. People take shortcuts in understanding and implementation, not really understanding […]
Insight And Value Creation
In the new world of B2B selling, sales people need to bring insights to their customers. Sales people need to help customers identify new opportunities, ways to improve their business, ideas to grow. A large element of the value we create derive from the insights we bring to our customers. We transform from being a vendor to a trusted adviser. Recently, a reader posed the question, “What happens if the customer starts sharing these insights with your competitors, seeking the best price?” It’s a great question–unfortunately it happens. I thought I might share a few ideas about dealing with these […]
Customer Centricity And The Cloud
I’m venturing into a little different area than what I normally write about, but I have a real passion for software and technology. A large number of our clients are technology companies—hardware, software, and services companies. I’m excited about what they do and how they present themselves to the markets. For the past couple of years, I’ve watched the escalating volume of discussion on the “cloud.” It seems to be the answer to vendors’ prayers for differentiation, but I have an overwhelming sense of déjà-vu and “so what.” Perhaps I’m dating myself, but I’ve kind of seen this before. I’ve been […]