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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 Email Query
I get these every day. “Hi Dave, I just wanted to follow up to see if you received my last email? In case you did not, I’ve included it below. Let me know if you’d like to jump on a quick 10-15 minute call to discuss. Have a great day!” It was signed by the sales person and the original email was attached. I responded: “Yes, I received your last email. My lack of response should be an indicator of my total lack of interest.” Why do sales people do such stupid things? Why are they trained to do such […]
Complexity Is Just An Excuse
There is no question, our worlds are very complex. The challenges our customers face are complex. The challenges we face within our organizations are complex. The challenges in engaging our customers and trying to solve their problems are complex. Complexity is a reality! We’re surrounded by, enmeshed in and consumed by complexity. Sometimes, I think we revel in complexity, “Real men (and women) do complex stuff! It takes a tough man (and woman) to solve tough problems! Simplicity is for weenies!” But then someone comes along and disrupts all of that. It’s a hot start-up, someone with a new idea. […]
Solution Provider Or Problem Solver?
As sales people, we are supposed to provide solutions to our customers problems. We either lead with Insight, making customers aware of opportunities/problems and incenting them to change; or we find a customer that knows they have a problem and is looking to solve it. At some point, we present the customer a solution to their problem–hopefully they accept ours, implement it, and we’re all happy. But that doesn’t mean we’re problem solvers! I was suddenly struck by this in reading Tim Ohai’s post, I Can’t Say It Any Plainer: SOLVE the @$%! PROBLEM! I think we confuse proposing and providing […]
Our Success Is Based On The Misery Of Our Customers!
OK, maybe misery is too dramatic, but at its core, unless our customers are “miserable” we will never be successful in selling them. This morning I was having a conversation with a sales person in a healthcare related company. We were discussing his sales strategies, value propositions, and how to get customers to buy. Finally, possibly in frustration, I blurted out, “Your services create value for people in misery. If they aren’t in misery, you’re wasting your time and their time.” In hindsight, I felt a little like Gordon Gecko declaring “Misery is good!” As crass as it sounds, all […]
Burying Our Heads In The Sand
Everyone acknowledges the world is changing, perhaps faster than many want, but it is changing. Change isn’t the issue, it’s a fact. The issue is, How Do We Respond To/Deal With Change? There are probably five ways of dealing with change. Instigators! There are the first movers, the innovators. People who imagine new possibilities, creating great new business models. Those creating previously unimaginable products and services. Those not bound by, “This is the way things have always been done.,” but imagine new possibilities, pursuing them with vigor. If you are one of these (be sure you are and not a […]
Who Is The Customer?
Some of you are scratching your heads. What’s Dave getting into? Aren’t customers the people that buy our stuff? Aren’t they the prospects we go after to convince to buy our stuff? It’s actually a tougher question than it appears to be. Answering the question requires deep insight into what it is we do better than anyone else in the world, and who needs what we do. Answering the question also demands that we identify who we shouldn’t be selling to. But clearly identifying the customer is critical in focusing our sales and marketing where we have the greatest insights, […]