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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
Getting Personal About Metrics
Sales managers spend a lot of time talking about metrics. They measure everything–some good, some over measured, but some micromanaged. There’s a lot of focus in the Sales 2.0 world about metrics, but again, most of the discussion is how to help sales managers. It’s time to shift the discussion to sales professionals–individual contributors. Yes, we’re all used to being measured, that’s part of what makes us sales people. At any point in time, we know (or pretend to know), where we are in our quota attainment. We always focus on “The Number.” Making the number is the end game, […]
Is Sales Getting Soft?
Many regular readers may be a little surprised about this post. I’ve been very vocal about sales being consultative, customer focused, and creating value for the customer in their buying process. I’ve been (and continue) to be very much against the old line “hard sell” tactics. Having said all that, over the past few months, there has been too much discussion that leads me to believe that we may be getting so oblique in the way we describe what we do. First, there’s the name sensitivity. It’s hard to find anyone with the title “Sales Person” on their business card. […]
It’s So Simple, I Don’t Know What To Buy!
Disaster struck this morning, went to the office and the network was down. Technical guy that I am, I went through my diagnostics, called my ISP and started yelling at customer service (It always seems to be their fault). Ooops, turns out my router was the problem, had to go get a new one. As soon as their doors opened, I shot to the section of the store marked “Networking” and was confronted by a wide array of brands and choices. The guy in the store came up and asked if I needed help, “Absolutely not, I’m cool with this […]
Waiting It Out Is Not A Strategy For Success!
I have to admit to being a little bit more than impatient–my wife says I have to be more tolerant. But there are conversations that just drive me up the wall—-“We’ll just wait it out” is one of those conversations that drives me crazy. Over the past couple of years, I’ve heard that about the economy, “Things will get back to normal, we’ll have to wait it out.” But I hear it about all sorts of thing—major changes within a company; we don’t have the right products now, but new products are around the corner; our customer is going to […]
Knowing About Your Customer Is Not Enough
Everyone in sales knows that it’s important to know your customer. Sales people keep all sorts of information, both on individuals and the enterprises. We know about the likes and dislikes of the people we sell to–those that we deal with every day. We know their birthdays, families, what schools they went to, whether they like golf, what their careers have been, and much more. We know about the companies–how they use our products, what the company makes and manufactures. We usually know their competitors and possibly know about their financial performance. We know about a lot of stuff about […]
Penny Wise, Dollar Foolish
My friend Skip Anderson wrote an outstanding post, “The Race To Sale Competence, A Case For Sales Training.” He raises a critical issue: As sales managers, are we so focused on managing expense that we lose sight of the opportunity? Skip speaks to the issue that many sales managers fail to invest in sales training, consequently lose the opportunity to increase revenues and sales success. I see this in too many aspects of business. Managers have become focused on managing expense, not managing opportunity and the inherent risks. Managing expense is important–but it’s easy. In the words of Nancy Reagan, […]