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
Performance Plans And Performance Planning
Perhaps I’ve not been paying attention. Recently, in conversations with clients and other groups, I’ve been stunned at how few have performance plans in place for their people. Having been raised in organizations that valued performance planning, I had assumed these were common place. Starting my selling career in IBM, we all had them. Much […]
“Short Cuts” Seldom Proove To Be Short!
I suspect it’s human nature to constantly be in search of short cuts. We want to get a desired outcome without doing all the work one would normally have to do to achieve that outcome. I continue to imagine, “Wouldn’t it be great if I could achieve my desired level of fitness, without having to […]
We Could Be Doing So Much More….
Sometimes our success limits our thinking about what we could be achieving. We think we are doing well, but we really should be doing so much more. I’ve written, often, about how we “settle” for win rates of 15-20% and are happy achieving our growth goals. While these organizations are hitting their targets, and sometimes […]
“I Don’t Have The Time To Coach!!”
I spend a lot of time with sales managers, at all levels. Too often, I hear the lament, “I don’t have the time to coach!” I ask to look at their calendars. As you might expect, the calendars are packed with meeting after meeting–on all sorts of things. Endless forecast and pipeline discussions–usually between managers […]
Trick Or Treat……
This morning, as a drank my morning coffee, I went through my email and social feeds. You can guess what I encountered. At first I chuckled, I thought, “These people have a great sense of humor and irony! Who could imagine such really awful prospecting. They must be playing with Halloween and “Trick or Treat.” […]
Mirroring
Early in my selling career, I was in a short training class. We were being taught how to “mirror” our customers. The concept of mirroring is it was a means of better connecting with the customer. We learned that if a customer leaned forward in their chair, perhaps indicating interest, we should lean forward. Likewise, […]
The Importance Of Follow Up
Not long ago, I was speaking with a group of sales managers. They were struggling with the performance of their people. We were talking about their account planning process. They showed me some current account plans. They weren’t great, but they were better than most I see. One thing that struck me, is that rather […]
Proving Math Works…..
There are countless data reporting tools available to sellers and managers. Each provides it’s own take on performance dashboards. Many provide deep insights into performance—your pipeline is anemic, your opens are declining, you aren’t hitting your meeting goals, your win rates are declining. Much of this is helpful, but sometimes there is too much data […]
“I Can Do It Better Myself!”
One of the biggest mistakes I see sales managers, particularly new managers, make is the view, “I can do it better myself!” It’s easy to understand this. They were probably top performers as sellers. They probably have deep experience and great capability. That’s part of the reason they’ve been moved into a leadership role. Many […]
“When All You Have Is A Hammer……”
I’ve been reading about comp plans for sellers. They are a huge challenge. A recent report cited: 97%* of leaders think there are challenges with their comp plans. 91% of organizations failed to hit goal, yet only 31% of them felt the quotas were unrealistic. 78% find their comp plans difficult to understand. And only […]
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