Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
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.
In past posts and writing, I’ve taken a pretty strong stance on how the concept of value propositions has been misused. Too much of the time, organizations treat it as the static, silver bullet that causes customers to buy.I have argued that value is in the eye of the buyer and to truly present value, sales and marketing professionals need to understand their what their customers value and address those needs specifically. Value is personal, each individual involved in the buying decision is different and the job of sales professionals is to determine and present value for each of those […]
Read MoreToday’s New York Times has an interesting essay by Ben Stein entitle, Connected, But Hermetically Sealed. It is nice commentary about how we use technology to seal ourselves off from the real world. Mobile phones, PDA’s Ipod’s, all great technologies that contribute to the quality of our lives also serve to diminish the quality of our lives by isolating us. Imagine, sitting with a group of people, none talking to each other, but all engaged in text messaging as vigorously as possible. Yesterday, on a bike ride, I passed someone saying “Hello” as I passed. They didn’t hear me or […]
Read MoreOver the course of a year, I meet with dozens of companies and hundreds of professionals. In the course of most of our discussions, people are concerned about their business strategies and plans. These “strategy” discussions are wide ranging— they can be about an overall business or organization’s strategy and direction, it can be about developing and launching new products, about partnerships/alliances, about sales and routes to market, or about a specific sales strategy, or a strategy for personal growth. Regardless of the specific “strategic” issue, the discussions are always exciting. There is a lot of creativity, openness in assessing […]
Read MoreYou already know I am a fan of Wally Bock’s Three Star Leadership blog. Today, he had an interesting post entitled “When Fad Things Happen To Good Concepts.” It’s a good post and worth reading. However, I’d like to get on my soapbox on management fads. Everyday, it seems there is a new management fad or trend. These fads will certainly save anyone’s business, giving them the silver bullets to outstanding performance. As P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” Unfortunately, in trying to find out where the fault lies for management by fad, I have to point […]
Read MoreFor the past three years, I have been actively engaged in raising money to help conquer Multiple Sclerosis. Over the past few years, I have participated in the Southern California MS150—a 150 mile bike ride down the Pacific Coast. I have raised close to $7000 in the past. On October 11-12, I will be riding in my third event. This year, I am trying to surpass what I raised last year. My goal is to raise $4,500. This event is an important. The money raised from this event will fund continuing research to discover the cause and cure for multiple […]
Read MoreI was saddened last night to read of Dr. Randy Pausch’s death. With many others, I have been inspired by his courage, humor, and personal example in his battle with Pancreatic Cancer. I’ve followed him closely, actually having the privilege to see the live video feed of his famous “Last Lecture.” Since that time, the media have elevated him to some level of celebrity. In the past few hours, I have thought a lot about that. Even in his celebrity, Dr. Pausch struck me as a very “ordinary man.” A person dealing with tremendous personal tragedy, but living heroically in […]
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