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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
Are You Still Relevant To Your Customers?
Over the past week, I have had several conversations and a common theme kept coming up: “How do we stay relevant to our customers?” Since the crash of the economy, the projects we were working on, the things we were doing are no longer important to many of our customers. Our customers no longer want to talk to us.I have to admit I’ve struggled a little with this notion — how did we become irrelevant? In a conversation with a great sales executive this morning, it all became crystal clear: We become irrelevant to our customers when we stop focusing […]
Do You Know Your Customer’s Value Proposition? What Are You Doing To Help Them Deliver It?
We know that a clear differentiated value proposition is critical to sales success. Over the past month, I have been writing about various aspects of developing communicating and delivering differentiated value to your customers. I’ll stay on the same theme, but take a slightly different direction. How many sales professionals understand the core value propositions of their customers? Do we know how our customers present their value to their customers and differentiate themselves from their competitors? Most good sales people have a pretty good idea of this. Now, here’s the twist—what do you do to help your customers deliver on […]
Create Value In Every Meeting
A few days ago, a reader contacted me with a great question: “Dave, you always talk about creating value in every meeting with the customer. What do you mean? Is it realistic? How do I get what I need accomplished?” Thanks, for the question and keeping me from being glib. Let me back up a minute. One of the most common issues that comes up when I speak with sales people is, “we can’t get meetings with customers, how can we sell if we can’t get in front of customers?” I see the same issue, sometimes I have difficulty getting […]
Three Questions
Last week, I published a post: First, Let Your Customer Finish Their Sentence, Then Ask Three Questions. In it, I addressed an issue that very experienced sales professionals often have—that is, being so “prepared” to provide solutions that they never give their customers a chance to tell their story. Not only is interrupting offensive to customers, but it presents the opportunity to miss a lot in really understanding what they want and need. I suggested sales people would be better off, letting customer complete their sentences and tell their stories. I also suggested that sales people follow up with three […]
Are You Playing To Win? Sales Professionals Need To Leverage New Capabilities.
Webinar: Driving Demand in a Demanding MarketJuly 15 1:00 PM PST / 4 PM EST As a sales executive, you know how difficult it is to increase revenue while decreasing costs in today’s selling environment. You’re under pressure to produce sales. Missed deals are costing you money. You need new ways to get smarter and more productive quickly – not more of the same. But which new sales strategies will help you uncover hidden demand and maximize revenue potential without breaking the bank?Tune in to our live webcast to hear a panel of experts discuss strategies on how to boost […]
First, Let Your Customer Finish Their Sentence, Then Ask Three Questions
Yesterday, I had a discussion with “Mark.” Mark is one of the best sales/business development professionals I have ever met. In the market segments in which he sells, he is truly an expert. He’s spent many years in understanding the industry, the players, the key issues facing everyone in the value delivery chain. Customers seek and respect Mark’s opinion. He’s helped customers achieve great things with his company’s solutions. Coupled with that, Mark has a very high level of enthusiasm and energy—it’s infectious. Meeting with Mark, or seeing customers with him is always interesting. It’s often hard to keep up […]