Innovation
“Creativity is thinking up new things. Innovation is doing new things. “ Theodore Levitt (1925 – 2006), Renown economist
Innovating, continuously, is critical to sustained growth and success. But too often, we misunderstand and underexploit innovation. We tend to think of innovation as groundbreaking inventions, technologies, and business models.
But innovation represents so much more. Incremental innovation helps us continuously improve that which we already do. Improving our effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, and performance is critical for each of us, every day. Leaders must continuously drive performance improvement with everyone in the organization.
Innovation is not just about creating new things, it is about thinking and doing things differently. It is recognizing that what got us to where we are is probably insufficient to getting us where we want to be, we have do change.
We provide a rich set of workshops, tools, methods, and processes to support constant innovation—both within our own organizations and helping our customers innovate.
Innovation Posts
What About Leadership?
There’s a lot of discussion about sales managers and leaders. We tend to conflate these concepts, using them interchangeably. In reality there is a wide chasm between leadership and management. And I have been guilty in conflating these terms–and this is sloppiness. I woke up to this, today, reading an article, proclaiming the death of […]
Removing Our Blinders
Blinders restrict our fields of vision. Sometimes, blinders are helpful, perhaps necessary. When we need to focus intensely, minimizing distractions, blinders are very helpful. Imagine a founder, building an innovative new product, Purposely putting on blinders, eliminating distractions, perhaps ignoring naysayers can be critical to the successful launch of the product. Or if we are […]
The Continuing Decline Of Our Expectations…..
Over the past several weeks, I’ve been involved in a number of very disparate conversations. Mostly, focused on various aspects of our business, GTM, selling and other strategies. They all tended to look at various issues around performance, how we attract and engage customers, how we service and develop them. While each one of them […]
“If You Can’t Do It Yourself……”
“If you can’t do it yourself, you probably shouldn’t be using AI!” This was a brilliant observation by James Pursey in an outstanding seminar on AI in sales. The only modification I would make would be to say, “If you can’t do it excellently yourself, you probably shouldn’t be using AI!” James gets at the […]
AI Isn’t The Selling Point!
Recently, I was coaching a seller on a critical call he was about to make. His strategy to engage the CRO was to lead with AI and the capabilities it enabled in the product he was selling. “Why are you leading with this,” I asked. “I’ve noticed in my research that he talks a lot […]
What Are We Trying To “Discover” In Our Discovery Process?
A long time friend and colleague asked me to sit in a vendor meeting. He is the CRO of a midsized company (About $1B). We’ve been working on developing new strategies to drive growth. The organization had been very successful, but he was looking to transform much of what they did to achieve higher levels […]
Stop Waiting For The Customer!!
Most of our selling activities are driven by our customers. As much as we may try to pitch our solutions, they don’t care–until they care. We end up waiting for them to be ready to talk to us. Even then, too often, they are choosing to minimize or eliminate sellers, preferring rep free buying experiences. […]
Love The Problem, Not The Solution!
We are in enamored with, perhaps even in love with our products. We have endless lists of product capabilities. We revel in each feature and function that we can add to a demo. We compare our offerings to the competition, proud that we “check more boxes,” while they competitors claim the same–they are just checking […]
“Have You Learned Your Lesson Yet?!”
During the Holidays, together with family, often the conversation goes back to old memories. In one of these conversations, my Mom and Sister ganged up on me. They reminded me of the struggles my Dad and I had with my misbehavior. It seemed, stupidly, I kept doing the same bad things, over and over. I […]
Building Better Humans
We are, as we should be, enamored with the potential of AI, particularly LLMs. Every day, we discover something new that we can do with these tools. How we eliminate work our people have to do. How we improve our people’s productivity. How we eliminate our people and fully automate interactions with customers and each […]
Testimonials
“In a world populated by many, many self-proclaimed "thought leaders," Dave is the real deal--perhaps more than anybody I've met since I've been studying the sales, service and customer experience space. His perspective is informed by deep experience as an executive and business leader himself and by an insatiable curiosity about what's next in the field. I ALWAYS read what Dave posts and make it a regular habit to read anything he writes. We've spent hours together talking about business, new emerging technologies, the latest human psychology and behavioral economics work, you name it. Whenever I have a new idea for a book or article or blog post, he's one of the few people I tend to run the idea by...because he always makes it sharper and generally (though not always successfully) keeps me from sticking my foot in my mouth 🙂 If you have an opportunity to work with him, you should jump at the opportunity. You'll be very glad you did.” Matt Dixon, Co-Author, Challenger Sales, The Challenger Customer, The Jolt Effect, Co-founder DCM Consulting.
“It is DecisionLink's, and my, very good fortune to engage and collaborate with Dave. His brings vast knowledge, extensive skills and laser sharp insight to the sales and marketing domain...and much more. In a world overwhelmed with complexity and rife with buzz-words, fads and cookie-cutter approaches, Dave cuts through the chatter to hone in on the things that matter, that make an impact, that "advance the ball".
Perhaps more important, he is a wise steward of his talents. He gives unselfishly and takes an approach that "my best interest will be found in the best interests of my customers, partners and colleagues". Admirable...and smart.
A word of warning. If you work with Dave, lace 'em up and bring your best effort. It will be a challenge to keep up. It will be rewarding if you do.
Finally, Dave is a pleasure to be around. His reputation, character and integrity are evidenced in his many (and glowing) testimonials. He's a nice guy. He cares about others. He's fun to be around.
I look forward to our professional and personal relationship with Dave, and wholeheartedly recommend him in all regards.” Jim Berryhill, Chairman and Co-Founder
“Dave is that rare voice of reason in a cacophony of sales "leadership" noise. Dave has become my go-to resource for advice on business strategy, anything sales, and as a sounding board for all ideas. Never shy with brutal honesty he has proven invaluable to my success in a short amount of time.” Severan Johnson, Director of Business Operations
“Strategic Partnering is a key strategy in driving Novozymes innovation and growth in the coming years. The partnering programs and processes you have identified and helped us implement will enable us to become ‘Best In Class’ in collaborating and innovating in the future. We are already seeing improved results with our current partnerships.” Director of Partnering Programs
"Dave Brock is an innovator as he thinks different in his approach to the life/work challenges. His solutions approach is a truly unique as is it based in decades of front line application that makes it REAL and highly valuable. There is no one in this industry that matches his demonstrated capability to help, this coming from my own 52 year history in this industry." Mitch Little, Senior Vice President, WW Client Engagement