Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
Sales Performance
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” – Aristotle
Results are about performance. Sustained great results is about maximizing performance over time. The foundation to great performance lies in purpose, culture, values, and leadership. Performing well s developing the right strategies, the right organizational structures, putting the right talent in place, identifying the right processes, programs, systems, tools and metrics. Finally, it is about consistent execution. It’s about organizational and individual habit formation.
We work with clients in all aspects of maximizing performance. Whether it is developing strategies, recommending programs, putting the right structures and talent in place. Developing and implementing the right processes, systems and tools.
It may involve assessing current capabilities, both organizational and individual. Or assessing market and industry changes, developing recommendations for responding to those changes.
Finally, it’s about consistent execution. Training people in what needs to be done and best practices in doing these things. Measuring progress, putting corrective actions in place.
We are a collection of operations focused executives, working with our clients in developing their strategies, putting everything in place to implement those strategies, developing and supporting the change management efforts, supporting and refining the execution, then continuing to refine these to drive constant improvement.
Our goal is to help individuals and organizations to OutPeform their competition.
Sales Performance Posts
It’s Not Your Job!!!
Last week, I had another “argument” with one of the highest performing CROs I’ve been privileged to work with. We’ve worked with each other, in various roles, for about 10 years. Our “arguments” are conversations where we push each other very hard. We are comfortable with them, because we know we are in lockstep on […]
Outsourcing Our Thinking
Foreword/Forewarning: This is a bit longish, my apologies. But hang in there. At the end, I’ve included a special treat. I asked ChatGPT to weigh in on these ideas. She lets loose! It’s hilarious, but painfully on target. Enjoy!! About 14 years ago, I wrote a post, Outsourcing Our Thinking. There, I discussed my concern […]
Thanks AI, I’ll Keep Maintaining My Calendar……
We’ve seen the 100s of articles, the 100s of prompts, the 100s of cheat sheets focused on saving our time. Theoretically, I don’t have to manage my calendar, to-do lists, follow ups, anything. I don’t have to worry about the responses to queries, or the follow ups to the meetings. All that time spent on […]
Meeting Commitments
On Friday, I realized I had failed at something—miserably. A few weeks ago, I met with a great team. We had an exciting project, we agreed on the action plan and next steps. This action plan was highly dependent on some things I committed to. Two and a half weeks passed. The person leading the […]
“I Can Do It Better Than Them…..”
Marcus Cauchi has been writing a provocative series of posts on mistaken sales management behaviors. The posts and discussion are fantastic, make sure you read them. He asked for my thinking on the issue. We see all sorts of bad management behaviors. Some of it seems to be driven by a compulsion to “help” our […]
The Hidden Cost Of False Efficiency
My friend and mentor, Lahat Tzvi, wrote one of the most fascinating posts on AI I’ve read. Be sure to read it! In it, he coined the phrase, “The Hidden Cost Of False Efficiency.” It’s such an important concept–and at the root of many of the challenges we face in growing our businesses. I’ve written […]
The “Lost Generation”
I’ve been writing a series of posts on business fundamentals. Nothing new, but a refocus on the importance of the basics any of us learned in our Business Fundamentals 101 courses. The concept of revenue growth has been around for millennia. I suspect after Eve sold Adam the first apple, she went back with a […]
A Thought Experiment: “Don’t Bother Me With That Sh*t!”
Let’s do a thought experiment. Imagine we have a seasoned seller. We start providing new tools and technologies focused on improving efficiency. Imagine, “Use this AI tool, you need to 10X your personalized emails….” Alternatively, we say, “You need to build your pipeline….” Or we say, “This is the playbook, stick to it!” Or, “Follow […]
What’s Happened To Business Fundamentals?
Seeing this title, some of you may be thinking, “Dave’s such a broken record. He keeps talking about business/financial acumen in our GTM strategies…. Enough already!” Well, this is another business/financial acumen post–but with a different twist. I will continue to write how important it is to understand our customers’ businesses and engage them in […]
Automating The Things We Weren’t Doing Anyway……..
So many sellers are enthralled with all the time saving things AI does for them. Things like updating CRM, other data entry, generating reports, doing research…… The lists go on. The argument is, “Look at all the time it’s saving!” But the problem is, too many people weren’t doing these things in the first place. […]
Performance Quotes
““Dave helped us translate our strategic planning process from an annual exercise into the development of a plan the whole organization could get behind and execute. With Dave's support, the team came together and established a clear focus and priorities. The team felt the process was valuable in developing a pragmatic plan, focused on executing those things most critical to achieving the objectives our leadership team had established. Finally, the process established a solid framework for future strategic plans. Dave not only delivered on his commitments but delivered more than was expected.” Vice President Strategy and Planning
“I got a recommendation from a business colleague to reach out to Dave regarding our sales process for our startup. So I did and shot out an email where I asked for some tips on how to better leverage our sales process. Dave responded the same day where he asked if we could hop on a call, and of course, I was a bit amazed at his willingness to go head-on with our current challenges. During our conversations, I told him about a recent deal that had stalled and asked if he had any advice on how to get in a better position moving forward. He gave me some good advice and I also got two action points I could execute immediately. The following day I had a client meeting where I held a presentation and I took one of the action points into that meeting. After the presentation was completed I got the deal, and the client highlighted the expertise we had shown with our offer. Dave’s recommendation was perhaps the one thing I felt was the game changer from what we had done in the past.” Eivind Jonassen, Cofounder and CEO
“As a result of the program on Value Propositions, we have turned around and closed sales of more than $60 million within 45 days of implementing the principles you taught us.” Senior Vice President of Global Sales
“We brought David into our company to help us with our sales and go-to market strategies. His thoughtful and systematic approach exposed areas for improvement which resulted with an improved plan. All our employees benefited, especially when each of our team members shared their knowledge and practical experience across our group. We ended up a stronger, more cohesive and focused team due to David's leadership.” Ray Connelly, Vice President of Supplier Strategy
"Partners In EXCELLENCE differentiate themselves from other consulting firms we've used by providing practical implementable deliverables and then providing support and guidance during execution. Most consultants use a canned, one-size-fits-all methodology…. Because Dave Brock has real world experience in sales, marketing and management, his recommendations are tailored to his client's environment and are readily implemented." Vice President, Marketing
“In the past couple of years David has been a critical mentor, coach and partner to me. Throughout our engagements we together developed the Sales Execution Framework (SEF) which has been foundational for the continuous personal and professional development of my team, especially in the areas sales process mechanics, sales process, sales methodology and our operating system. Hands down this is the main reason why we realized high double digit profitable growth in the past couple of years and are confident we can sustain that in the years to come" Rene Voorhorst, Senior Head Global Account Management