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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
Competition Got You Down?
Understanding our competition is critical to our success as sales people. Too often, though, I see sales people underestimating their competitors and what their customers may think of their competitors. As a result, they fail to develop a winning strategy or are outsold by the competition. One of the primary reasons sales people underestimate the competition is they’ve “drunk the Kool Aid.” Great sales people are proud of the companies they work for, they are excited about their products and solutions. They believe in them so strongly, they think nothing can compare. This level of excitement and passion around the […]
Outsourcing Our Thinking?
I love sales and selling! Being involved with customers as they are buying, working with them then winning a tough deal is such a rush! There are few things more fun than talking with sales people about their deal strategies, coming up with ways to better align with customers and to win the deal. Struggling with some of the most difficult challenges with individuals in winning deals, with teams in maximizing performance is always energizing. Facing tough competitors and figuring ways to outperform them gets my adrenalin flowing. The reason I love sales, selling, and sales professionals is that to […]
How Many Salesepeople Does It Take To Screw In A Light Bulb?
I’ve given up, we deserve all the jokes people tell about us. Stupid sales behaviors—the source of endless jokes, the reason people hate sales people, the reason we have such difficulty in meeting with customers. The tricks and manipulation…… A client sent me a note about one. A sales person calls, leaves a voicemail, but doesn’t leave his name. Curious, my client calls back, the sales person is totally unprepared, did not recall the message (left 45 minutes earlier), didn’t ask my client about their business, but starts pitching a meeting. My friend, Anthony Iannarino, has another similar one: “Should […]
We Want To Improve Sales Effectiveness…..
“’We want to improve sales effectiveness!” is often the starting point of many of my conversations with executives. “Terrific,” I respond, “What are you trying to achieve?” There’s an awkward silence, “What do you mean—we want to improve sales effectiveness, how can you help me improve sales effectiveness?” This is always a difficult start to a meeting, because the response is always the same, “It depends on what you are trying to achieve.” Unfortunately, too many people think there is a solution to sales effectiveness – possibly, because too many consultants say there is a solution to sales effectiveness (it’s […]
What Happened To Common Sense?
I was talking to a customer today–not one of mine–possibly one of yours. We were talking about her frustrations, as a buyer, with sales people. She said something that struck me, “What happened to common sense?” It’s always fun and refreshing to talk to buyers, someone who is subjected to all the stuff sales people inflict on them. As a side note, I recommend every sales person take one of their customer out to lunch in the next four weeks and talk to them about their experiences with sales people, and how they would like to be treated. In general, […]
A Quote Is Not The Objective!
I’ve noticed an interesting, yet disturbing phenomenon recently. It’s sales people who think their job is to provide a quote or a proposal. Let’s not forget, our jobs–what we get measure and compensated on is not quotes, it’s orders! What’s important to our companies is the revenue we get from fulfilling an order! In smaller organizations, inexperienced with selling, it’s understandable that people get confused, mistaking a customer’s interest in pricing with purchase intent. However, I’m seeing this in larger organizations in which many of the activities seem to be oriented around number of quotes issued. Maybe it’s driven by […]