Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
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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
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 […]
Duz Speling nd Gramer Matr?
When I was a young sales manager, my manager had a big candy jar on his desk filled with dollar bills. In my first meeting, I learned its purpose. I was presenting where my group was year to date, what our plans were, and the support (read funding) we needed to move forward. We finished the meeting, I was trying to “close” for what I wanted, but he dismissed me by saying: “Please put $10 into the jar and come back when you are ready to give me a thoughtful recommendation.” I was shocked and confused. I thought I had […]
Learning From Lazy Sales People
Often, when I get involved with a new client, I seek out their “laziest” sales people. You know the one’s I’m talking about. There’s always someone that hides away. He keeps a low profile, probably stays out of the office, never volunteers to do things, but always seems to make the number. Perhaps he’s just barely making it, but he’s making it (which is significant when data show that fewer than 50% of sales people are making the number). These people stand out in an odd way. In organizations where there is a frenzy of activity, managers asking for more […]
Wake Up! The Paradigm Has Shifted!
There have been some interesting comments about my post, If You Are Learning Your Customers’ Needs You Are Too Late. Both Andy Rudin and Tony Zambito had great insights at Sales Edge One. The discussion made me realize how too many sales people and managers are caught in an old paradigm. We were trained in: Find a customer that has a problem they want to solve, understand their needs and requirements, propose a solution, make sure the value proposition is differentiated. That paradigm is changing rapidly. Customers are disintermediating sales from their process. One they recognize they have a problem […]
Collaboration–Now More Critical Than Ever
Those of us who sell complex B2B solutions to large companies live in a world that is increasingly complex. Our customers face very challenging problems. Our solutions are very complex. Gone are the days when a sales person could handle everything with the customer herself. The days of knowing all about the products and being able to answer every question the customer might have with little support are gone. To be successful in creating value for customers and driving growth, sales people can no longer go it alone. We need a network of people in our companies matched with the appropriate customer […]