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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
Do You Really Understand Your Customers’ Problems?
We are trained on what our products do. We know their capabilities, features and functions. We may know the “problem” they solve. They might improve productivity or efficiency. They might help our customers reduce costs. They might give them capabilities they currently don’t have. But does this mean we really understand our customers’ problems? Our customers are thinking about the following……. What causes these problems to occur? What should our customers be paying attention to in order to detect they may have a problem? What are the clues or leading signals they might understand? How do we characterize or define […]
The Paradox Of Success
Sometimes success, too much success over a period of time is dangerous. We see so much of this now, with the former “darlings” of the VC/PE world. We see similar things with many of the largest, “most successful” organizations, the high performers of Wall Street, NASDAQ, and other global markets Suddenly, these “successful” organizations start to falter. It may be difficult to recognize. Many continue to be “successful,” but not as successful as in the past. They aren’t scaling or growing at the same rate. Profitability may start to decline, competitors start to catch up, even in some areas overtake […]
The Power Of A Word…..
Disclaimer: This post starts in full “snark” mode. Read at your peril. Reading my feeds this weekend, I realized how badly I have been missing things. One word, one principle recurred. The solution to everything we do. The single word that would transform organizations, enabling us to hit our numbers, perhaps even exceed them. If only we had been smart enough to recognize it years ago. And the clues have been there. It is the top line of every income statement we read….. The word……. Revenue! Apparently, at least according to these guru’s and thought leaders, organizing around Revenue is […]
Where Our Sales Process Execution Gets Derailed
It’s early September. It seems my calendar is filled with with deal and pipeline reviews. Everyone’s scrambling to finish Q3 and lining up to have a strong year end finish. It’s Thursday, 9/7, in just the last 24 hours, I’ve done reviews with teams in China, Australia, Sweden, Spain, Israel, Canada, and all over the US. I’ll be revisiting those countries and more in the coming weeks. I start seeing patterns as I walk through the reviews. Unfortunately, too many are driven by wishful thinking and random walks through the customer engagement process. Too often, “we’ve given them a proposal, […]
We Thrive Because We Are Cooperative
I read a fascinating editorial by David Brooks, People Are More Generous Than You May Think. A line stood out, “Humanity hasn’t thrived all these centuries because we’re ruthlessly selfish; we’ve thrived because we’re really good at cooperation.” I had to re-read the article a few times, but it gradually sunk in. As I reflect on what we see happening in buying/selling, we see validation of this in virtually every interaction. When we focus on ourselves, our goals, our quotas, we find it virtually impossible to connect and engage with customers. What they care about is different, until we shift […]
The Joy Of Selling……
With smaller groups or one on one’s, I frequently talk about “The Joy of Selling….” To some this concept may seem a little too soft and abstract. Some react, “Dave, we’ve got to focus on hitting the numbers, achieving our growth goals! It’s tough work and sellers need to be tough minded!” Increasingly, I don’t encounter many people, at all levels, that are proud of being sellers. It’s become just “a job.” Or increasingly a “struggle.” Too many view customers and prospects as objects we have to overcome or as the objects that stand in the way of our ability […]