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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
Strategic Partners—How Important Are They To Your Sales Strategies — A Survey
Over the past 2 months, we have written a lot about Strategic Parnerships and Alliances as part of your sales strategies. Two of the posts are:Sometimes All We Want Is Good Customers, Sometimes All Customrs Want Is Good SuppliersIf Your Suppliers Are In Trouble, Then You Are In Bigger TroubleWe’ve gotten a lot of queries and comments from people who have seen these articles. Many share our views that strong supply chain relationships are critical to successful implementation of their sales strategies. As a result of these conversations, we have decided to research this issue more deeply. We are looking […]
Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture On The Future Of The Profession, Part 3 of 3 – What Do We Do?
If you’ve made it this far through the series of articles, you probably want to quit your sales job and become a hermit in the mountains. I’ve certainly created a bleak picture. Thank you for your patience and dligence in hanging in with me! However, I am tremendously excited about being a sales professional and for the future of sales professionals. I think the dismal picture I’ve portrayed, also provides an opportunity for real progress and growth for sales professionals. Note—I’m focused on a small audience—people who are or who are committed to becoming the highest levels of performance in […]
Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture On The Future Of The Profession, Part 2 of 3 — Not Just A Sales Problem
In the first part of this post, I focused primarily on the sales function and challenges we have created for ourselves. However, what we face is not just a sales problem. There are some things that keep us from being as effective as possible that are not just the “fault” of sales people, but which do contribute to our inability to sustain high levels of effective performance. Some of it is “business culture”—in general, some of it is “regional culture”—that is North American, European, Asian, and so forth. Some of it is “industry culture.” These represent attitudes, behaviors, practices, expectations […]
Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture On The Future Of The Profession, Part 1 of 3
Let me start with an apology, I will probably gore everyone’s ox in this post. My intention is not to pick on any group of sales professionals, but to start a discussion about the state of the profession and to stimulate ideas on how each of use—as individuals, leaders, influencers might improve the practice of the profession. I’ve actually split this post into two, Part 1 addresses issues that are primarily driven by sales. Part 2 looks at systemic business issues, beyond sales, that impact how we perform. Part 3 focuses on what we can do about these issues, both […]
Tips For Selling To Manufacturers
Thanks to the folks at TheCustomerCollective and Oracle for sponsoring a terrific eBook, Selling Through A Slump. It’s a great resource for every sales professional. You really should download the eBook and use it as your playbook to help you in growing your sales within different market segments. I was asked to write the section: Selling To Manufacturers. To tantalize you to read more in the eBook, I’ve published the tips I recommended below: Selling to Manufacturers Yes, we know the story, the manufacturing sector is had hit. Plants are closing, companies are looking to get rid of excess capacity, […]
What’s It Take To Be A Major Account Rep?
The other day, a sales person I had coached a few years ago called me up. He was getting a big promotion to handle one of his company’s largest customers. He called to ask me what it took to be an outstanding major accounts rep. The guy was already a great customer focused sales person, so we didn’t spend much time on those areas. I reeled a number of thoughts off the top of my head. I know I’ve missed some, it would be great to have your ideas. The non-prioritized thoughts were: The major account rep has to understand […]