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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
What’s The One Thing?
I’ve been having a conversation with a good friend. He’s doing a project and has come up with a laundry list of critical issues that have to be addressed. I’ve been advising him to consider, “What’s the one thing?” His reaction is natural, “It can’t be one thing, it’s all this stuff. We have to pay attention to all this stuff.” Coming up with lists of all the issues we have to address is central to how most of us address and solve problems. We have to explore, analyze, and think about everything that impacts our ability to achieve our goals. Most […]
354 Sales Conversations In Just A Week!
I was astounded to read an article from a very enthusiastic sales person. He talked about the 354 conversations with C-Level executives he had in one week. The article captivated and horrified me at the same time. By now, you know I’m a numbers guy. So I started running the numbers. I thought, “Hmm, the typical work week is 40 hours…….. well, actually no, everyone works more than that…….” You can see where I’m going. I don’t know what the typical work week is, but let’s look at this data across 3 possible workweeks: For a 40 hour workweek, to […]
Lead Gen, Marketing, Nurturing And Other Musings
The other day, I wrote, Just Because I Downloaded Your eBook. I was surprised by some of the discussions from sales and marketing professionals. So I thought I’d continue the discussion. There were a lot of people who are offended by being asked for name, email, and other contact information for the eBooks and white papers. I’m empathetic. I always think before providing those, at least 50% of the time decide I’ll forgo the materials, out of fear of being inundated with mailings. There are too many–and too many that should know far better–that define “nurturing” as a daily pummeling […]
Relationships Are Rooted In Action
Relationships are important in selling. However, I think too many are have the wrong idea about what relationships are. Too many think relationships are rooted in the pleasant manner of a sales person, the quick smile, great conversation, quick wit, a slap on the back, supported by the occasional lunch or golf game. But relationships are really different, they are rooted in action. Relationships are not based on what we say, but what we do. The corollary is that our actions are purposeful and create value. Otherwise they waste time–and we can never build a relationship if we wasted time. Critical […]
Just Because I Downloaded Your eBook……
Marketing and sales really need to get their acts together. I’m almost hesitant to click on a download for an eBook or White Paper. It’s not for the inevitable box: Name, eMail, Company. Actually, that’s a fair trade for an eBook. I ask for the same, so I have no problem with that. Where I have the problem is the Phone Call or the Follow Up eMail—-“I see you are interested in our solutions for…….” You know what I mean. You can almost guess the automation systems people are using by the timing of the call or email. Some companies, I […]
Beating Lower Priced Competitors
I read an interview with a very well known sales pundit on the “6 Ways To Beat Lower Priced Competitors.” At the end, I sighed, thinking, “How can some of the ‘best in the world’ continue to get things so wrong.” There were six items listed, without knowing them, you can probably guess, they are the old stand by’s taught in every Sales 101 course. In certain situations, some may be valid–but that’s not my point. Whether they are right or wrong, is not the issue. How we determine what is important and differentiated is what’s critical and how we win […]