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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
There’s More To The Discovery Process Than Identifying Needs!
After Qualifying, I believe the Discovery Phase of the sales process is the single most important part of the entire process. If executed well, it is where the customer lays out the road map for how the sales person can win the deal. Yet too often, sales people lose this opportunity, choosing to race through the process so they can get to Proposing and Closing–after all isn’t that what sales people are supposed to do–pitch and the famous, “always be closing.” Too often sales people use the Discovery Phase as just the part of the sales cycle where they understand […]
Principles Trump Process!
On Friday, I had the pleasure of speaking with my friend Charlie Green (as well as the rest of the group on Future Selling Insitute’s Office Hours). Charlie reminded me of a critical issue–I think I knew it, but it was unconscious. Charlie reminded me that leadership, and sales, is so complex that leading from principle is far more important than leading through process. Now that I’ve had a little time to reflect, it’s really critical that leaders understand and embrace this concept. When you think of the high levels of complexity, the pace of change, and the “unexplored” opportunities we […]
Price Is NEVER The Only Decision Criteria!
I have to admit being a little frustrated. Over the past two weeks, I must have done a couple of dozen opportunity reviews and deal strategy sessions. One of my usual questions, fairly early on, is: What are their decision criteria and priorities? 100% of the time, the response is Price! And I wait….. but there’s silence. “Tell me something new, price is always an issue. It may be their top issue, but it is never their only issue! What other things are they going to base their decision on?” Over 80% of the time, I get blank stares. “We […]
Understanding Our Customers’ Decisionmaking Processes
Understanding how our customer will make a buying decision is critical to our success in selling. It’s common sense, it’s trained into us as entry level sales people, but in my experience, sales people really don’t understand it. Here some examples that have occurred in the last couple of days: I’m reviewing the sales strategy for a very large sales opportunity. I asked the team, “Who’s involved in the decision-making process and how will the customer make a decision?” It was a major enterprise IT software sale, the team immediately pulled out the customer’s organization chart and pointed to the CIO’s […]
Creating Crap At The Speed Of Light
Before starting, I have to admit I’m a bit of a geek. I love technology, I love leveraging the latest tools to help increase my productivity, impact, and effectiveness. I was one of the “first kids on the block” using a PC (must have been IBM Serial Number 005) to help increase my productivity. I started using rudimentary contact management systems in about 1989. Recently I was surprised to learn that I was a relatively early adopter of LinkedIn, being the 67,084 member. I look at and adopt new technologies very quickly. Part of it is my fascination with all […]
Are We Building Our Sales People’s Leadership Capabilities?
More and more the thought of a sales person as an “individual contributor” or “lone wolf” is no longer appropiate in most of today’s B2B sales environments. We all know the profession of sales is going through massive changes. In the past few weeks, I’ve written about Sales Professional 3.0 and Sales At An Inflection Point. Both articles talk about the changes in professional selling (driven by our customers) and the new requirements for success. I’ve not spent a lot of time on the leadership role of sales people in driving these new strategies or the importance of starting to […]