Partners in EXCELLENCE - Making a Difference
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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
Discounting And Defending Value
We try to create value with our customers. Our value has various elements. The value we bring to our customers in helping them navigate their buying journey. After all, we are experts, while our customers struggle to buy.The value our solutions create in solving the customer problem, or enabling them to address new opportunities. Hopefully, this is quantified in terms of ROI or some other financial metrics.The personal value we create for the individuals involved in the buying process. Things like, “keeping their job,” “simplifying their lives,” etc. While difficult to quantify, these are important elements of the value we […]
Are You Solving For Symptoms?
Symptoms are the indicators that something is wrong, something is not functioning/performing as it should. When we have symptoms of a cold, we already have the cold. We can’t do anything to prevent it, perhaps, we can just make things a little easier to manage through it. And, we may miss the opportunity to prevent the cold from recurring. In business and sales, we see similar things. We see symptoms or indicators that something is not right, or not working. We address those symptoms–and we may get through until the next time, and the next, and the next…. But symptoms […]
Do Work That Inspires You!
There are no easy sales or leadership jobs. The work is tough. As much as we try to find shortcuts and the “Easy Button,” we have to do the stuff that produces the results we are accountable for. We face challenges every day. Finding and engaging our customers. Developing and executing strategies that facilitate our customers’ buying journeys, culminating in shared success. Aligning internal resources to support our work with customers. Dealing with problems, both those that our customers have and within our own organizations. Everyday, we see increased complexity, more disruption, information overwhelm, constant change. Our customers go through […]
Imitation May Be The Sincerest Form Of Flattery, But It Sucks As A Business Strategy
Sometimes when we lift our heads up and look outside our day to day work, our roles, and our companies, we look at others. We may look at our competitors and what they do. We may look at high performing companies, and what they do. We may look at individuals and how they work. We see others do things that are very successful and aspire to achieve the same success they do. We are tempted to copy or emulate what they do, thinking, “If they are that successful, if we did the same things, we will be successful, as well.” […]
When The Formulas Don’t Work
We spend a lot of time trying to figure out what works. We look for methods, processes, programs, tools, systems, training that help us achieve our objectives. Sometimes they work, at least for a while. Sometimes they don’t work. Sometimes, too often, we don’t give them the opportunity to work–abandoning them to chase some other miracle cure. It doesn’t take a lot of brilliance or insight when something is working. You just keep doing it–perhaps refining it to continue to improve. The problem is when the formulas don’t work. We don’t take the time to understand what’s happening. We don’t […]
Pleeaaasse….. Can I Be Selected To Give You My Money…..
A close friend–a consultant who is one of the best sales experts I’ve met forwarded me a prospecting letter he received. There is nothing good about the approach. In fact, it reeks of arrogance and condescension. Even worse, it purports to challenge my friend in an area in which he is a recognized expert. Here’s the letter, names/links adapted…. Hi Don, Hey Don, [Carl] here. [Ben] “green-lighted” me to offer you a free 1-on-1 analysis of your current sales development pipeline. If that interests you, let’s talk. Apply to book a call with me here. Just to give you an […]