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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
Getting Caught In A Lie — Why Do Sales People Do This?
I’m sitting in my office doing some work and the phone rings. In answering, some salesperson—doesn’t introduce herself asks for (let me call him) Mr. Smith.I’m taken aback(You’ll see why later), I respond, “Mr. Smith isn’t available, my name is Dave Brock, I’m the president of the company, who am I speaking with and can I help you?”She responds with her name and company—actually a fairly well known trade services organization, “No we are really trying to reach Mr. Smith. We spoke to him a couple of months ago about buying some of our services. He asked us to call […]
Is Everyone In The Same Boat, Rowing In The Same Direction?
So we’ve completed all the layoff’s, we’ve re adjusted our strategies to recognize the new realities of the global economy, and we are rushing forward at 200 mph to drive business. All of a sudden, confusion, crises, and miscommunication dominates our waking moments. Who does what, to whom? What are our priorities? What about the things that Jill used to do, but she’s gone? I thought this was my job, but now you’re telling me something different? You’re asking me to do the work of all the people you just laid off—I can’t cope! Too often, we are seeing this […]
When All Else Is Equal, How Do You Differentiate Yourself
This morning, I had an interesting discussion with a client. He was talking about a specific sales situation. Basically, he said that customers were saying there was no differentiation between the products and services his company offered, versus the competitors. He went on to say, they are seeing this response in more and more sales situations. He was at a loss to deal with it — or at least wanted to avoid the ultimate differentiator — at least in this situation — pricing. I thought I’d throw this issue out there for your ideas and thoughts. I’ll provide a few […]
Seven Lessons For Leading In A Crisis
Bill George wrote a great article in the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago: Seven Lessons For Leading In A Crisis. Without going into detail (read the article), the lessons are: Lesson #1: “Leaders must face reality.” My views on this are: The key issue here is to be willing to look at and tell the whole truth, including how leaders have failed. Until you face reality, your strategies are wishful thinking based on a fictional view of the organization. You won’t solve your problems until you acknowledge what the real problems are. Lesson #2: “No matter how […]
What If We Stopped Using The Economy As An Excuse?
Yesterday, I was speaking to a colleague. He had a though provoking observation. One of the companies he is working with has adopted an interesting policy. They refuse to let their sales people use the economy as an excuse—their sales are up 10%. I started thinking about other conversations and reviews I have been involved in and how so many are using the economy as an excuse for not performing. It’s true, the economy may be making things tougher—we may finally have to work for a living. However, the need for solutions to help most of our customers has never […]
Do Great Sales People Make Good Sales Managers?
There was an interesting thought posed in LinkedIn today: “Good sales people make good sales managers.” It went on to ask the characteristics of good sales managers. The question struck a chord, a dissonant one, provoking me to respond. I’m sure I have missed a lot of characteristics of great sales managers, and would ask for your addition, deletions, edits. Here’s my response and the list I started with: Great sales people are sometimes the worst sales managers. Likewise, some mediocre sales people end up being stellar sales managers. There is a long list of leadership skills/traits that are important […]