Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
This is Dave Brock’s Blog.
It offers my views on a variety of business, sales, marketing, and leadership topic. My goal is to make a difference for you, the reader, in both your professional and personal lives.
About 6 months ago, I became obsessed with both the concept and power of making micro improvements. I’ve written about it several times, here are some articles you may find interesting: Plateauing, and Micro Improvements-A Progress Report. Most of us focus on massive improvements we make over time, for example, “How do we improve productivity by 20%, how do we grow in ‘double digits?’” The concept of micro improvements is, how do we make small improvements in what we do every day. While it may be a fraction of a percent improvement every day, collectively after several months, you find […]
Read MoreIn a recent conversation, a colleague made a very astute observation, “Structure isn’t strategy, structure it there to support the implementation/execution of strategy.” It was so simple and obvious when he stated it, but too often, I think we forget this as we drive performance in our organizations. We make our strategy about the “structures” we put in place–whether it’s the organizational structure, or the methodologies/tools/processes we use. They become the ends, in themselves, rather than the means. As things move forward, and we struggle to meet our goals, we focus on these structures, often loosing site of what we […]
Read MoreOver the past several weeks, I’ve been sitting in a number of pipeline and deal reviews. While the companies are in very different businesses, different solutions, different sales processes, different sales force maturities; I’ve noticed some patterns: Deal quality is not where it need be. Average deal sizes seem to be eroding. Average sales cycles are increasing. Win rates are declining. People are struggling, but working very hard. They are closing deals, but things are very tough, and people are working very hard. Somehow, they aren’t hitting their goals. As we dive into their pipelines, I start seeing, the deals […]
Read MoreWe are consumed by metrics. We measure everything–Activity levels, call/meeting volumes, emails, customer “touches,” pipeline health/volume/velocity, forecast accuracy, quota performance, and on and on and on. Metrics are important. They are an indicator of our progress in achieving our goals, they help us understand if we are on target or drifting off target. Without these indicators, it’s difficult to be focused, effective, efficient. Without metrics it’s easy to lose our direction. “If you don’t know where you are going, any path will get you there.” But it’s important to understand what metrics can do and their limitations. Too often, the […]
Read More