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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
Sales Managers, Use It Or Lose It.
I work with sales executives and professionals everyday. Many of the organizations have invested millions of dollars/euro/yuan/yen in tools (CRM, Sales 2.0) and training. Yet the results aren’t there. The expected improvements in productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness just aren’t there. What’s wrong, why aren’t organizations getting the results? What does it take to get real performance improvement.At the risk of biting the hands that feed me, the problem is not with the vendors, it’s even not with the sales people themselves. The problem rests with sales management.Let me give an example. Just a couple of days ago, I met with […]
In Times Like This, Our Blemishes Are More Apparent
Yesterday afternoon I ran out for a haircut. I always hate this event, the problem is my ears “kind of” stick out. My dad used to say I looked like a car going down the street with its doors wide open. When my hair gets longer, this “problem” is not as apparent, I even fool myself into thinking there is no problem. The longer hair hides this blemish. I always hate getting a haircut because I’m forced to look in the mirror and see those ears sticking out. This is what’s happening with many organizations struggling in this economy. Down […]
Shooting From The Lip, Just In Time Sales Call Planning
I love hanging out with sales people. Most of the sales people I’ve met are very bright, personable, and very fast on their feet. All of those are characteristics of great sales people. They also represent a critical weakness. They make us sloppy or in the pressure of time, we tend not to prepare, relying on our experience and ability to think on our feet to make sales calls. After all, we’ve made 100’s of calls over our careers and we’re successful. We can just shoot from the lip. Too often, planning for a sales call goes something like this: […]
Lost Opportunity — It Takes Courage To Say You’ve Made A Mistake
Yesterday, I wrote an article about my experience with a Sales 2.0 tool and the lost opportunity the company had in not trying to learn about why I was cancelling my subscription. My friend, Jill Konrath, saw the post and knew the company I was speaking of. She went to the CMO to make him aware of what had happened. He immediately recognized the lost opportunity and contacted me–not to try to win my business back but to learn so they could improve the product and experience. He said they were a young company, growing and learning to be better. […]
Lost Opportunity—Take The Time To Learn From Defecting Customers
I’ve been experimenting for the past 6 weeks with a Sales 2.0 tool. Today, I decided to cancel the service, I wasn’t really getting value from it. I sent an email into the company asking to cancel the service (I’ve paid for the full month, so I asked that it be cancelled effective the end of the month). The company’s customer service organization sent me a nice note saying my account has been cancelled. Other than the minor irritant of having a couple of weeks that I have paid for down the tubes, the transaction was handled efficiently. However, the […]
Have You Heard The One About The Sales Person Who Recommended A Prospect Buy A Competitor’s Product?
There’s a great article in today’s New York Times, Start-Up Course In Survival. It’s a great article, but some of the lessons for sales professional are fantastic. The article reviews Jive Software’s overhaul of it’s business and sales efforts to face the new realities brought on by the economy. John McCracken, Jive’s new SVP of Sales reinvented their sales processes to improve focus and results. Previously, the sales people would try to sell to anyone. McCracken put a disciplined process in place, having sales people viciously disqualify customers who didn’t fit their sweet spot. “McCracken considered it a waste of […]