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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
Focus On Your Customer’s Need To Buy, Not Your Need To Sell!
All sales people, today, sell solutions. At least that’s what most sales people say they are doing. If sales people are really acting consultatively, selling solutions, why are so many customers sick of sales pitches? We hear customers saying:“They (the sales people) always come in here pitching their latest products andtechnologies without telling me how it solves our problems.” “They say they have solutions before they even know my problems.” “The sales person doesn’t understand my business.” “They tell me about the products, I have to figure out whether it will solve my problems!” “They just want to push their […]
Surviving Through Tough Times, Things We’ve Learned
A client called my attention to an article that I wrote during the last downturn, the Internet Bubble. As I re-read it, it is still applicable. The past year has created new professional and personal challenges. Almost every business faces tough new realities. Focusing their strategies and sharpening execution are the top priorities of most of the executives we work with. I thought it useful share a few of the things we have learned with our clients or observed in the performances of other companies over the past year: Down markets bring all past “sins” to the forefront. The robust […]
It’s Not Your Customer’s Responsibility To Do Your Job!
Yes, this is another post about what professional sales is all about. It seems too many of us just spend our time talking about how fantastic our products/services are; how much superior we are to the competition; how the customer cannot afford not to buy our products and services. We focus our time on presenting FAB’s: Features, Advantages, Benefits. We spend most of our time on the pitch and too little time understanding what the customer is trying to achieve. Yet later, mostly when we lose the deal, often when our customers raise objections, we can’t understand why they just […]
Dramatically Increase Sales!
Seth Godin seems to come up with the simplest and thought provoking ideas. I can’t improve on it, so I will only repeat it. But I encourage you to go to his site, and read this and the 100’s of others he has. Seth’s idea for the “Easiest Cheap Way To Dramatically Increase Sales:” Call or write your customers, saying: “I know that times might be tough for you. Is there anything I can do to pitch in and help?” Thank you, Seth!
Does Management Really Want The Truth?
I’m a great fan of Michael Wade’s column in US News and World Report. He just published a provocative article: On-Staff Whistleblowers Can Help Companies Prepare for Disaster. The article was interesting, but I found the comment from “Chris of NJ” most interesting. As many businesses see disaster striking all around, Michael suggests that large organizations charge a small number of bright “maverick’s” chartered with the task of identifying potential disasters within organizations, before they strike, bringing them forward to management so they can pre-empt them and act. Interesting idea, I’ve seen some organizations do this with internal resources, and […]
How To Handle An Established Sales Rep Who Won’t Engage In New Account Development?
Paul Castain raised this issue at LinkedIn. It’s an interesting question. Let me reposition it with a challenge I’ve seen in many organizations. You have a “top sales performer” — they make their numbers, often lead in the numbers, but don’t do a whole number of other things. As Paul raised, they might not spend time bringing in new accounts. they might refuse to do forecasts or update the CRM system, they might overspend on expenses, they might sell only a few products and refuse to sell the broad portfolio of products they are expected to sell. There can be […]