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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
The Questions We Are Afraid To Ask
I wrote, If You Were In Your Customer’s Shoes, What Would You Do? Gary Hart offered a thoughtful comment that got me really thinking (as his comments so often do). Gary posed the idea, in our very first meetings with a customer, we should always be asking the customer, “What prompted you to have a meeting with me?” I couldn’t agree more, this or perhaps some variants: What is it about our products and services prompted you to get in touch with us? Why are you interested in speaking with us? Why would you consider replacing your current solutions with […]
If You Were In Your Customer’s Shoes, What Would You Do?
Some time ago, I was doing a deal review with a great sales team. They were preparing for an important call on the key decision makers of a customer. They deal, if they won, would have been huge–$10’s of millions. More importantly, it would have displaced their biggest competitor–the current incumbent in the account. The customer was undergoing a huge expansion of their business–building new sites, all of which required massive investments in new solutions. The sales team had been invited by the customer to discuss what they could do. The customer was considering a potential shift from their current […]
The Problem With Turnover
Before my non-US followers get in an uproar, I’m not talking about the revenue type of turnover. I wanted to spend some time discussing sales rep turnover. I worry too many sales executives spend too little time understanding turnover and it’s impact on the organization. Even worse, are those leaders who tend to think of people as commodities, churning through people continuously (but those folks are probably not reading blogs like mine). Depending on the size of the organization and the level of turnover, it can be costing the organization $100’s of millions to billions each year. Several years ago, I […]
All Revenue Is Not Created Equal!
It probably sounds like heresy to talk about “Good Revenue” and “Bad Revenue,” particularly when you’re struggling to make your numbers and everything seems good. But that’s just the point, understanding what “Good Revenue” is, focusing on finding it, minimizing our time chasing “Bad Revenue” makes achieving the numbers much easier! Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, let me try to drive some clarity into the idea. Good revenue not only provides you the cash you get from the specific deal, but position you to build upon that base, creating more revenue, more easily. That may come through follow on sales […]
Performance Improvement — Looking In The Mirror First!
I get a lot of calls and notes from people genuinely interested in performance improvement. Often, it’s managers saying, “My team isn’t doing what they need to be doing,” or “This one person isn’t really cutting it.” Sometimes, it’s from sales people saying, “I know I could do better, but my [insert company, manager, CRM, tools, lack of training, even customers] are holding me back.” It’s human nature to look at the barriers to performance improvement as external. We tend to think, “If only these weren’t in my way, I could do fantastic.” I’m not talking about the chronic whiners or […]
We’re Efficient, But What Does That Do To The Customer Experience?
The other day, Jim Keenan and I were chatting about a number of things (mostly my envy of his upcoming ski vacation at “Bump School.”) We started talking about productivity tools—some that each of us were using and some errors we see customers making. After our conversation, I started reflecting on the unintended consequences of many of our efficiency initiatives. Before I go further, let me be clear, I think effectiveness and efficiency are critical. Our efficiency initiatives must complement and reinforce our effectiveness initiatives—and that’s often where things start going a little crazy. Too often, it seems our strives for […]