Dave Brock
Dave Brock is the founder of Partners in EXCELLENCE, a consulting and services company helping to improve the effectiveness of business professionals with strategy development, organizational planning, and implementation. Dave has spent his career working for and with high performance organizations, ranging from the Fortune 25 to startups, including companies such as IBM, HP, Nokia, AT&T, Microsoft, General Electric, and many, many more. The work Dave does with business strategies is closely tied to personal effectiveness of the people in the organization. As a result, Dave is deeply involved in the development of a number of training and coaching programs.
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Lots of Activity, But No Results!
Everyone I encounter is very busy. Virtually everyone I meet works long hours. Their schedules are filled with meetings, calls, all sorts of things. Many people seem to wear their “busyness” as a badge of honor.
Insight: The Convergence of Strategies
Insight has become the buzzword for engaging today’s buyers. We are supposed to teach our customers—helping them identify new opportunities, areas to improve, problems they may not realize they have.
“Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face.”
Most sales people I speak with claim they have a plan—often I think they thought they had a plan, but really didn’t. But whether they do or don’t, so many sales people get off course in their sales efforts. They encounter difficulty, are put off their plan, and just play catch up through the rest of the buying process.
A Plan Based on “Bluebirds” Is Not a Plan
Bluebirds are parts of what happens with every sales person and in every territory. However, we can’t build a plan based on bluebirds. If we did, our plan is pure wishful thinking.
The Not-So-New Principles of Sales
The discussions that swirl around the profession about new methods, tools, and techniques are exciting. They have the ability to help us improve and improve what we can achieve with customers.
Salesperson as Entrepreneur
When you think about it, sales people have an awesome amount of freedom—but also a huge amount of personal responsibility. In many senses, we really are entrepreneurs.
Why Are They Buying?
Until we and the customer have really internalized why they need to buy, every deal is at risk. What are they trying to achieve? Why are they trying to do it? What are the consequences of not doing it? Why is it important to them now? What’s driving their need to do something?
Unique, Differentiated, But Are You Relevant?
It’s critical that we differentiate our offerings and solutions from the alternatives the customer is considering. Marketing, product management, and sales all spend endless hours trying to figure out that differentiation, to create that edge. But too often we get it wrong.
Losing the Negotiation Before It Starts
Sales people seem to be obsessed with negotiation. They read books, they take all sorts of classes, they strategize “negotiation” sessions. Oddly, when I push on the negotiation issue, most negotiations that sales people focus on are about price.
Don’t Answer That Objection!
A few days ago, I was tagging along with a sales person on a call. It started well, then the customer expressed an objection. That’s when things started to go wrong.