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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
“Look At Our Dashboards”
Recently, I was having a discussion with an executive team. Proudly, they said they were data driven and bragged about the dashboards they used to manage the business. They asked me to look at the dashboards to provide recommendations about what they might be doing. I looked at the dashboards, at first glance, I was impressed–tracking pipeline, tasks, lead disposition, prospecting, mix, accounts, perormance by sales person, and more. Very impressive, pretty much what I would want–in fact it made my job working with them much easier–they had most of the data I would want to look at. Then I […]
Coaching Managers
We all know, or should know that one of the highest impact activities managers can do with their people is coaching them, enabling them to discover and learn how to continually improve their performance. But what about managers? We seldom hear about managers, yet coaching managers–at all levels even up to the CEO is critical in maximizing their performance and, in turn, enabling them to maximize the performance of their people. Perhaps, the most impactful way to help managers understand the importance and impact of coaching, and learn how to coach, is through their managers setting great examples in coaching. […]
Micro Improvements, An Update — Losing My Way
Long time followers of this blog know that I’m a tremendous fan of the concept of micro improvements. The underlying concept is “how do I get 1% better each day.” Cumulatively, if I improve 1% every day, I will be over 37 times better at the end of the year. I’m a huge fan of Marshall Goldsmith’s approach, and have adapted some of his principles to my continuous learning/improvement process. I score myself on 20 criteria everyday. Some as simple as, “Did I do my best to exercise? Did I take the time to meditate” Some more abstract, “Did I […]
Just Promoted, New Sales Manager!
You’ve just gotten promoted. You’ve moved from being an individual contributor to managing a team. As you reflect on what do you do in your new role? How do you transition from being a great sales person into being a great sales manager. The mistake, though completely logical and understandable, is to think, “What made me successful in the past? What got me here?” This is followed by the logical conclusion of, “I need to do more of the same!” It’s perfectly natural to think this way. But it’s a huge mistake. The job of sales manager is different. The […]
We Need Sellers Who “Sell,” Not Take Orders
I’m suppose, after all the years I’ve spent working with “sales people,” I shouldn’t be surprised. But I continue to be stunned by how few people who are in sales roles, truly sell. Too many are information concierges with an agenda. They are dependent on a prospect finding them, who has done all the heavy lifting. They’ve determined they have a problem, they are doing their homework, they have questions. Need discovery in these cases is not about the customer business needs, challenges, but about the product or service the customer seeks. Changing customer views is more about shifting their […]
Prospecting Is Not An Event!
We get so much about prospecting wrong. We reach out to people who are far outside our ICP, people we should never be talking to, wasting our/their time. We contact other prospects, only to pitch our products and services, ending with, “Are you interested, can I invite you to a demo.” We don’t do our homework, we don’t understand the customer, their challenges or where they might be interested in helping. We inundate prospects with email after email, call after call, LinkedIn messages, texts, everything. We believe “volume” is the path to prospecting success. And every once in a while, […]