Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
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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
Location-Based Prospecting? Are Ad-Hoc Sales Calls Valuable?
I’ve been intrigued about much of the publicity around Hoover’s Near Here offering. Apparently it’s an Iphone based application for a sales person to find new prospects close to them–wherever they might be. I’m certain this is the first of many new services that will be offered by organizations like Hoovers (In fact, LinkedIn and Tripit have been offering similar, but much lower capability for some time). I’m intrigued about the offerings, but really wonder if this is the type of prospecting behavior we want to encourage? The approach reminds me of those sales people who start out on the […]
High Performance Sales Driven By High Performance Sales Managers
Much is written about getting sales people to perform at the highest levels. There are countless sales training programs, books, blogs and webinars that focus on sales people as individual contributors. All of this is powerful and critical for sales people, but the most important element in driving high sales performance in the organization is the sales manager. Sales manager’s have to provide the leadership, coaching and development to help sales people understand high performance and what they need to do to achieve the highest levels of performance. Too many managers are poorly equipped to provide this leadership. They were […]
Will Your Sales Defy Gravity?
Note: This post originally appeared as a guest post in Rebel Brown’s Rebelations Blog. Rebel’s book, Defy Gravity, will be published soon. It’s an outstanding and pragmatic guide to developing and executing business strategies. Our guest post today comes from David A Brock, CEO of Partners in EXCELLENCE. David has been a leader in the sales arena for decades now. David and I often chat about the changes facing our sales organizations, how we can take advantage of the dramatic shifts in buyer behaviors and why more people don’t seem to ‘get’ the opportunities that these shifts bring. This article […]
Did You Hear The One About 4 Blind Men And The Elephant?
There’s the old story about 4 Blind Men, one on each side of an elephant, each is asked to feel the elephant in front of them and describe what they “see.” You know the story, each describes the elephant differently because they each had a different perspective. I think this is a good description of selling. I think of 4 of us around the “elephant.” The sales person, two competitors and the customer. I bet you thought the elephant represented the customer, but that’s really not the case. The “elephant” represents the customer needs, requirements, and opportunities. Everyone has a different […]
The Coming Extinction Of The Lone Wolf!
We all know the concept of the “Lone Sales Wolf.” That’s the person sales person that works by themselves managing the territory. Typically, we think of them as cold calling experts, acquiring new customers, building relationships to the level needed to acquire the customer, but probably not good at building the relationships over time. Sometimes we use the word “Hunter,” but a Lone Wolf is very different than a Hunter. A Lone Wolf is very different from a person that sells by themselves. Let’s remember, a Lone Wolf does not play well with others. They are focused on their personal […]
What Should Salespeople Be Doing With Social Media
Social media is changing the way our customers buy and the way in which we engage our customers. Before customers even see us for the first time, they have a great deal of information—not necessarily knowledge—about our company, our products, and our competition. I am often asked, “How should sales professionals be engaging in social media?” The short answer is, I’m not sure—but every sales person must be gaining familiarity and leveraging social media. Social media and social selling is changing everything we do, the pace varies by industry, but every sales person must get familiar with how the world […]