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
Why I Advised A Seller To Recommend Her Competitor
Yesterday, I had a fascinating conversation with an outstanding salesperson. She wanted to brainstorm her approach to a negotiation that had hit a wall. It was a multimillion-dollar contract renewal. The client had been a loyal customer for years, but now they were pressuring her for massive price decreases. I asked, “What is their rationale […]
Saving Time Is The Wrong Goal For AI
Virtually all the “hot tips, prompt cheats,” and other insights into AI focus on saving time. We want AI to do the work for us, so we can better spend our time elsewhere. Ironically, when I ask people how they are now spending their time, they shrug their shoulders and say, “More of the same….” […]
Why We Settle (And How To Stop)
You want to pursue excellence. You know you should. You’ve read the books, attended the training, made the commitments. So why don’t you? This isn’t a question about knowledge. You know what to do. It’s not about capability. You can do it. The question is why capable people, who genuinely want to be excellent, keep […]
A “Salesperson,” The Reputation We Have Earned
My friend, Lori Richardson, published a post on a debate she had with her dentist on salespeople. Describing salespeople, he made the statement, “Yea, those folks that lie and rip people off.” While that phrasing may be extreme, unfortunately we hear things like that every day. I’ve been a seller or deeply involved in selling […]
The End Of Year Scramble
It’s the near end of the year. In addition to preparing for the Holidays, you are scrambling to make your numbers. For a small few, you’ve got it in the bag, you may even be putting a few orders in your desk drawer for a fast start in January. But for most, it’s a scramble, […]
Our Use Of AI As A “Performative” Tool
There is a fantastic theatrical organization in my community, It’s called the B-Street Theatre. They bring in talent from all over the country to perform in fantastic mostly comedic shows. As a “patron,” every once in a while I get invited to a dinner with some of the performers. We talk about the shows, how […]
Stop Copying What High Performers Do, Copy How They Think
We are constantly examining high performers, whether it’s individuals or organizations. We study what they do, thinking if we do the same things we can be high performers as well. We examine the GTM strategies of organizations that have scaled to unicorn status, convinced that if we do the same, we can scale like they […]
AI Won’t Make You Excellent, It Will Only Make You More Of What You Already Are
Last week, I published the first of a series of posts, oriented around my upcoming book, “Is ‘Good Enough’ Good Enough.” It should hit the shelves in mid December. That post focused on “What Is Sales Excellence?” In that article, I asked whether sales excellence is really about results, or about something deeper—mindset and behaviors. […]
Meetings Slowing You Down?
Opened my inbox and was hit with an email titled, “Meetings Slowing You Down?” It was a vendor, offering an alternative to the painful process of sitting across a table from someone and trying to achieve a shared goal. This isn’t new, we use emails, texts, voicemails (I think I remember those), short videos, all […]
It’s Not About The Process……
I talk about the buying and selling process all the time. Everyone knows that you have to have a sales process, some even know it has to align with the customer buying process. Our CRMs come with predefined selling processes. Every training program incorporates some sort of process. But when I work with sellers, even […]
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