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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
We Want Your Feedback!
Yesterday, I got an email from a service provider for a Sales 2.0 tool that I rely on for much of our communication with our clients and prospects. After the typical friendly greeting, I focused on the following: “…we know what great things customer feedback can do for a small business like yours. That’s why we offer an easy-to-use, highly affordable online survey tool. In fact, we believe gathering feedback is so important, we’re reaching out to gather your thoughts – so that we can continue to bring you the products, services and support you need to succeed.” I knew […]
What’s The Worst Objection?
I was reading a blog post the other day, it posed the question: “What’s the worst objection?” There were a lot of interesting responses and amusing war stories, but I was surprised that one, the one I think is most significant, was not raised. To my mind, the worst objection is the objection (or issue or concern) that is never asked. Too often, I think this may be why we lose sales, we have created an environment where the customer has not raised a key concern or objection. Objections are great, they create a forum for discussion. They demonstrate the […]
The Role Of Partnerships And Strategic Alliances With Customers And Suppliers
FREE PROMOTIONAL OFFER Through September 25, 2009, See The End Of The Post! In May-June of 2009, Partners In EXCELLENCE conducted a market research survey to learn more about the importance of Strategic Alliances and Partnerships With Customers and Suppliers. We conducted this study after seeing some disturbing trends reported in the PWC 12th Annual Global CEO Survey. In that survey, one of the issues the CEO’s identified as a priority was building stronger strategies around collaboration. There were a few interesting data points in the PWC Survey: 57% of the CEO’s agreed or agreed strongly that collaborative business networks […]
What If We Can’t Find Compelling Value For Our Solutions?
I was reading Rebel Brown’s great post: Accentuate The Positive. It focuses on positive messages and approaches in sales and marketing. She raised an interesting question, What if we can’t find a compelling value-based approach for our solutions? The question is scary, but fascinating. I think it impacts many of us, whether in a specific sales opportunity, or in marketing and product programs. It’ something we’re afraid to confront with ourselves, our managers, our companies. The current economy makes this issue all too visible. A month ago, I was having a conversation with a senior sales executive with a very large company. […]
Sales Manager’s Self Audit and Management Checklist
I’m a great fan of checklists. Using checklists means I don’t have to encumber my mind with remembering everything (when you have a mind as feeble as mine, it’s really critical). Checklists are also a way to quickly inspect what I am doing to make sure I’m executing as sharply and efficiently as possible. On August 3, I posted Sales Leaders Organizational Checkup and Self-Assessment. It was a guest post, authored by my good friend, Jeff Stanley, Director Of Sales Excellence, AT&T Mobility. We got some interesting feedback from that post. As a result, I have put together a Sales […]
Mentoring–Your Complete Guide
This afternoon, when the mail arrived in the office, I dropped everything. A book, I had been waiting for was delivered. Manager’s Guide To Mentoring, written by my friend, Dr. Curtis Crawford, is one of the most comprehensive guides to mentoring I have ever seen. Curtis and I have been talking about the book for some time, I was eagerly awaiting it, prodding him for hints and clues about what he was writing. He steadfastly refused to tell, me, but if you know Curtis, the principles by which he works, and his personal impact as a mentor, it was not […]