Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Blog
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
First Rule Of Management: Stop Whining, Take Responsbility.
Jeffrey Pfeffer has a very nice column in the Wall Street Journal: Woes? Executive, Blame Thyself. There are several very interesting points:1. It is typical for executives to blame outside-uncontrollable causes (the economy, etc.). Research shows that companies that blame poor results on internal controllable factors see greater subsequent stock appreciation than those who blamed their problems on external factors. Apparently the market appreciates executives taking responsibility for identifying and addressing challenges.2. Pfeffer identifies the First Rule Of Management: Don’t act like a victim. There are always things you can do to make things better. So stop whining and take […]
The Future SalesForce — A Consultative Approach???
Imagine my surprise to receive an email from CRM Magazine with this article featured: “The Future SalesForce — A Consultative Approach.” I was under the impression that a consultative approach to selling has been the hallmark of sales professionalism for the 25+ years that I have been a sales professional. Now I have to apologize, I don’t like to bash the work of other consultants and professionals, particularly some that I respect, as in the case of the authors of this article. I also realize the constraints a short article puts on an author in expressing ideas on very complex […]
Mailing It In! Bad Sales Performance
Linda Richardson has a nice article on EyeOnSales, “Discussing Vs. Sending Price.” She covers the topic very well, I won’t repeat it. I am constantly amazed, however, about the number of sales people that are too busy or too rushed or too sloppy to present their solutions, pricing, and value to customers. It’s never the customer’s responsibility to figure out what value they will get from a solution and to develop the ROI themselves. It’s the obligation of the sales professional to demonstrate and prove the value of their solution to the customer. Not doing this is not only sloppy […]
Corporate Culture Trumps Everything
There is a great article at IMD’s site on “An Unpopular Corporate Culture.” It’s a must read. I think many people underestimate the importance of corporate culture in executing strategies and driving change. Culture is one of those “soft” things—it’s hard to define specifically, it’s hard to develop specific action, worse yet it involves connecting with people in a genuine fashion. It’s so much easier to deal with the “harder” issues like developing strategies, executing programs and action plans, and so forth. Having been involved in a number of turnaround situations and clients facing major challenges, culture can trump everything. […]
Seven Ways To Fail Big
I’m still rolling the conclusions of Paul Carroll’s and Chunka Mui’s HBR article: Seven Ways To Fail Big, around in my mind. The article is very interesting, based on research they have done on 750 business failures. They claim that nearly half could have been avoided (not surprising), and that the avoidable failures were primarily the result of flawed business strategies, not poor execution (somewhat surprising). They summarize seven key reasons: The Synergy Mirage, Faulty Financial Engineering, Stubbornly Staying The Course, Pseudo-Adjacency’s, Bets On The Wrong Technology, Rushing To Consolidate, Roll-ups Of Almost Any Kind. Each reason is accompanied with […]
Letting Form Triumph Over Substance
John Gardner book, EXCELLENCE, published in 1961 is an inspirational book. One line in the book has always stuck with me: “Do not let form triumph over substance.” It’s a constant reminder to me, and refocuses me, particularly when I get caught into motions and activity. I sometimes get discouraged, I see so much effort going into form: Saying the right words, writing the proper letter/email, having the right action plan/project plan, doing the right meetings, having the right appearance. On the surface, everything is polished, professional, things look fantastic. Dig a little bit, and you find nothing behind it. […]