Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
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.
After I published my post, Rethinking Value, an interesting discussion/debate ensued on Twitter. I followed it for a while, but then got lost in acronyms and some level of hyperbole. As much as I could track it, the discussion was interesting, but also indicative of some mistakes we make in thinking about value. Much of the discussion centered around, “how do we define value?” We cannot define value for our customers/markets. In fact, to think we can is the height of arrogance. We cannot impose what we value, or what we think they should value on our customers. Value can […]
Read MoreI’m at my desk, the phone rings, I answer, “Hello, this is Dave Brock.” At the other end of the line, in a pleasant voice, “Hi this is So and So. I’m an account manager at Such and Such Business Banking. I’m sure you have your banking needs covered, but…..” “Yes we do,” I answer, “thank you for calling, good bye.” As I hung up, I wondered, why would anyone ever plan a call this way? The probability of the same outcome as his call on me is probably 99.99%. But, based on his tone and wording, he was doing what […]
Read MoreIn answering a question at Focus.com, my friend and business partner, Anthony Iannarino, made a very important observation: “Value creation isn’t usually the result of having the best answer, but usually the result of asking the best questions.” I couldn’t agree more. This is critical, yet too few sellers, marketers, and product managers understand this. Customers don’t buy great products and services, they buy business improvement. They buy solutions to problems, the ability to address new opportunities, the chance to grow profitability. Customer buy the chance to have a life and not be tied to their Blackberries or email, they […]
Read MoreNot long ago, I was asked by some investors to assess the business plan of a start-up company. I jumped at the opportunity, I love working with entrepreneurs and launching new products and companies. The team I met with was filled with passion and excitement, they saw no barriers, everthing was opportunity for them to seize. My job was to focus on their market, customer, and competitive assessments. I was looking at their go to market plan, their sales and support plans to understand the risks in the plan and to make recommendations to reduce the risk and achieve their […]
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