Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Leadership
True leadership lies in guiding others to success. In ensuring that everyone is performing at their best, doing the work they are pledged to do and doing it well. —Bill Owens
Leadership is critical to success, whether self-leadership or organizational leadership. Too often, we confuse leadership and management. Both have their place, but leadership enables organizations to achieve.
We provide a variety of programs to support the development of leaders. Whether it is their role in the organization and how to perform. Developing/implementing strategies, setting performance goals and dealing with performance challenges. Or managing performance and maximizing engagement. Or coaching and developing people in their teams.
Our programs and consulting can be offered at the organizational level, working with people in developing a strong leadership capability within the organization.
We also work at the individual level, serving as coaches or mentors to individuals, maximizing their ability to lead and helping them to move forward in their careers.
Leadership Posts
The Coaching Isn’t the Meeting
We schedule coaching. We block the calendar, our weekly meeting. Maybe an hour, maybe thirty minutes. We do the deal review on Tuesday and the coaching session on Thursday. We prepare for it, we show up to it, we get through it, and we leave believing we coached. The meeting happened, so the coaching must […]
Stop Coaching The Deal, Playing Whack-A-Mole In Our Coaching
Once a manager accepts that coaching is the job, the next problem shows up immediately. What do you coach? Here’s what is on everyone’s list: Discovery. Qualification. Objection handling. Managing the deal strategy. Pipeline hygiene. Forecast accuracy. Prospecting. Account planning. Using the methodology. Using AI. And that’s just the start. These lists never end. Every […]
Everyone Agrees Coaching Matters…
…Almost No One Does It Most front line sales managers don’t know that coaching is their job. They were the best seller on the team. That’s why they got promoted. And no one told them the work had changed, so they kept doing the thing they were good at, just from a higher position. Taking […]
He Pointed His Finger At Me……
I had a mentor who taught me more in a single gesture than most people manage in a career. We were deep in a conversation about what separates people who succeed from people who don’t, and at some point he started pointing his finger at me to drive home a critical point. He went on […]
Feedback On Everything Is Feedback On Nothing
I keep seeing the same story, told with minor variations, across my feeds. A team deploys an AI tool that captures every activity: every call, email, meeting. The tool reviews everything, analyzes everything, generates feedback and recommendations on each activity. The author, usually the developer of the tool, brags: “Setup took minutes. No engineers, no […]
Doing The Work
We tend to treat performance problems as knowledge problems. If the results are disappointing, surely the people don’t know what to do. So we train them again. We send them to another workshop, build another playbook, roll out another methodology, buy another tool. And then we are puzzled when nothing changes. But walk into almost […]
Choosing The Easier Work And Calling It “Management”
Every day, I see new tools being announced. These tools, apparently, turn things upside down. We can see reports that were previously unimaginable. Examples of new reports and dashboards fill my inbox or social media feeds. AI is giving us the capability to keep our pipelines and forecasts updated with the latest changes in real […]
Fixing The “Noise” Does Not Fix The Problem
We’ve seen it before. The scenarios are different, but what lies beneath them is always the same. A crisis hits. A big customer leaves. A quarter gets missed. Key people quit. Something breaks. Leaders spring into action. The first reaction is always the same. “We have to fix the problem!” And the fix focuses on […]
We Don’t Start With AI!
Companies are spending more on AI than ever before, even as the cost of AI itself has fallen. The price of running an AI query dropped 80 to 90% over the last two years. Total enterprise AI bills are skyrocketing anyway. Average enterprise AI spend rose from $1.2 million in 2024 to $7 million in […]
The Bait, the Book, and the Real Answer
I just published “Old-Timers Are Right About What We Are Seeing. We’re Wrong About Why.” A friend sent me a note in response. He framed it as a CEO’s question, but I knew exactly what he was doing. He was testing me. His note read: “Dave, this is brilliant. You have summarized the change and […]
Leadership Testimonials
"After reading the Sales Manager Survival Guide and being impressed with David’s expert understanding of sales and relevance to our industry, we engaged David directly for a Sales Manager coaching program. The content was excellent and David’s engagement with our managers was outstanding. I highly recommend David and Partners In Excellence if you want to take your sales to the next level. " Brad Colledge, Executive General Manager
“I was asked to take the role of managing a sales organization. Having no prior sales experience, the task seemed quite daunting. Thankfully, David Brock was there to give me direction and encouragement. Yes, David helped me understand the sales process; however, more importantly, David provided me with firm, but supportive critique that has proved invaluable to me. David never soft-pedaled his approach with me. Instead, he spoke to me as an executive, and expected me to live up to the call. In addition to direction, David provided me with the encouraging words that I needed to believe in myself, and that I could be successful in my new role. “ Scott Dixon, Managing Director
“Dave sets himself apart in the industry with his ruthless focus on preparation and sales discipline. Dave's mentorship and coaching is designed to ensure I focus on the most qualified opportunities, bring exceptional value to each customer interaction, and win more deals. He has been an indispensable mentor and transformational influence.” Mary Grogan Strain, Business Development Manager
“Dave Brock literally wrote the book on sales management! Dave provides critical insights that are thought-provoking and directional. Better yet, Dave not only provides a different perspective, but he also has the ability to work with clients to build solutions that positively impacts sellers and coaches alike.” Jim Wood, Vice President of Sales
One of the greatest gifts a coach can give to a coachee is to help them think more accurately about themselves, about their challenges, and about the various ways they go about solving those challenges. But Dave’s gift is something more. So much so that Dave’s helped me to fundamentally shift the way I think to begin with. This process has resulted not only in increased performance, but in a continual learning process that hasn’t stopped since our first coaching session. It’s an honor to call him my coach and a privilege to continually learn from him, even on the days between our coaching sessions! - Nate Tutas
When I was about to move into my first sales management role I reached out to Dave after I had read his book that really resonated with me. It was fantastic to have Dave as a coach and sounding board during those first months and it really put me on the right track to succeed in the sales management role and also set the foundation for me to progress from that. Didrik Moe, EMEA General Manager
