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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
Lean Sales And Marketing — It’s How We Put It All Together
Several years ago, I was the guest speaker at the National Sales Meeting for a very large technology company. The theme they had selected for the meeting and the year was, “It’s how we put it together that sets us apart!” This is actually a core concept to Lean and very important as we think about applying these principles to Lean Sales and Marketing. It’s also an area that deserves many more posts, so this is just the starting point. Organizations that really understand and apply Lean, understand that Lean is a “systems or holistic approach.” While we may be […]
You Can’t Win The Price Objection By Talking About Price!
I was working with a sales team recently. We were talking about “THE PRICING DISCUSSION.” They were struggling with how to better handle the price objections. I hear this concern from every sales person I talk to, but why not, it makes sense. It’s the customer’s job to get the best deal they possibly can get. PRICE is always an issue. The problem is, you don’t win the PRICE discussion by talking about PRICE! There only two ways to go to in that discussion. Either you can stand firm with your PRICE, or you can DISCOUNT! It’s a simple discussion […]
A Missed Customer Service Opportunity
At this moment, I’m sitting in the United Club in Concourse C at Chicago O’Hare. I should be sitting in an airplane climbing to 35,000 feet. Instead, I feel as though I’ve spent half my life in this club—and that’s just this evening. Delays are part of any road warrior’s life. You learn not to let them get to you, you roll with the punches, look at alternatives, or camp out in the nearest club. Today’s delay is different, and a tremendous missed customer service opportunity on the part of United Airlines. See, I was originally scheduled to leave on […]
“Well It Worked, Didn’t It?”
I’m constantly amazed by the misrepresentations, lies, and trickery sales people use to reach a customer–either to get a customer to answer the phone or to arrange a meeting. Every time, I think I know all the approaches and can protect myself from the offending sales person, someone gets through my defenses and with some sort of new trick. Not long ago, I got an email from a sales person asking for a few minutes of my time. I decided to speak with him, primarily because in his email he said, “I was speaking to Mr. So and So, and […]
Lean Sales And Marketing — Leaning Our Sales Process
Process is a fundamental part of “Lean.” We can’t possibly be Lean without process. The process provides a framework to ensure we are executing consistnely, effectively, and efficiently. It enabes us to measure results. It provides a basis to analyze what we do and onstantly improve. If we are taking a random walk to accomplish an outcome, we can’t identify those parts of the walk that create value, those parts that are waste, or how to achieve our outcome in the most effective and efficient manner possible. Without a process, achievement of a goal, perhaps winning a deal. is pure chance. Consistently […]
“Congratulations, You Are Now Part Of Our Strategic Account Program”
Whether we call them strategic accounts, global accounts, key accounts, or corporate accounts, these Very Important Customers are revered in our companies—usually because they give us a lot of money. I see lots of organizations creating Strategic Account Programs, labeling sales people as Strategic Account Managers, devoting resources and all sorts of other things, all with the goal of increasing revenue from the accounts. Sure we wrap a lot of fancy language about improving our relationships, getting closer to our important customers, and so forth—but really our goal is for them to spend more money on us. I’ve been on […]