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Making A Difference – Thoughts, Observations and Opinions
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.
Latest Posts
Stop Heroic Sales Efforts!
We’ve each seen Heroic Sales Efforts. They’re something to behold and, for a few moments, to revel in. Heroic sales efforts are those where a sales person or a team have taken an impossible situation–something they probably shouldn’t have won, but through sheer effort, force of personality, dealmaking, or some other reason won a deal they probably shouldn’t have won. If you are involved in one, there’s an unforgettable feeling of elation, and adrenalin rush, and to be honest, some relief. You and your colleagues, often, revel in stories about the “one that didn’t get away,” for some time. Often […]
Social Selling Is So “Last Year’s News!”
Last week, I happened to be attending SAPInsider’s CRM2015 Conference. Every once in a while, it’s great to attend these types of conferences, both for what you learn and the people you meet. One of the things I also love is there is usually a lot of great market research and data. At this conference, there has been some great research on how customers buy. It’s not surprising, actually it’s very powerful in reminding us of fundamentals that persist. The research shows…… Drum roll please….. Customers leverage many different channels, sometimes simultaneously, through their buying process. They will use whatever […]
Why We Have Fewer Choices In A World Of Wider Choice
Whether as individual consumers, or organizations, there’s an interesting paradox. The number of choices we have is expanding at a huge rate, sometimes the rate of change and volume of choices is overwhelming. At the same time, often unwittingly, we are narrowing and having are choice narrowed–and perhaps in ways that create unintended consequences, or can be very damaging. Before I go forward, I need to give a couple of illustrations, so you can follow my thinking. If you look at my Amazon account, my whole world of reading and literature is covered by the following categories: Biographies (tending towards […]
Obstacles, Setbacks, And Recovery
As good as we are, often, we spend a lot of time recovering from something that has gone wrong, obstacles, or setbacks. It may have been a mis-step, an error, something that didn’t work, a failed strategy. Often the need to recover isn’t the result of things we have done, but shifts or changes caused by others. Shifts in our customers’ priorities, actions taken by our competitors, environmental or external factors beyond our control. And there are always the impossible to anticipate things that, if not handled correctly, could stop and defeat us. Stuff happens all the time that threatens to derail what […]
Learning From Sales and Marketing Automation Vendors
Two of the hottest markets for “tools” are Sales and Marketing Automation markets. There are thousands of vendors/solutions, growing by 100’s every year. 10″s of billions are being spent to implement these tools. All of the vendors clamor for attention and visibility. Whether it’s spectacular events like Dreamforce, or the constant emails, “thought leadership,” articles, webinars, and other programs they leverage. All of these vendors want to “teach” us, which seems right. But, I’ve discovered the secret to learning from these vendors. The best way and most efficient way to learn from these vendors is not to pay attention […]
Ignorance Or Ineptitude?
The words, Ignorance and Ineptitude, catch your attention immediately. Being accused of either provokes an immediate reaction. It may be hurt or disappointment. Possibly defensiveness or denial. Sometimes the “fight” response comes up, “Who are you calling…..?” Whatever the response, these words, when applied personally are offensive and they demand our attention. I’ve been re-reading Dr. Atul Gawande’s, The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right. While the book came out years ago, it’s worth a quick review. Gawande talks about Ignorance, the Lack Of Knowledge; and Ineptitude, the Failure To Apply That Knowledge. Ignorance or lack of knowledge impacts […]