Dave Brock
Dave Brock
Dave has spent his career developing high performance organizations. He worked in sales, marketing, and executive management capacities with IBM, Tektronix and Keithley Instruments. His consulting clients include companies in the semiconductor, aerospace, electronics, consumer products, computer, telecommunications, retailing, internet, software, professional and financial services industries.
Working Hard
I meet thousands of sales people a year. Most of them really care about the job they are doing. Most of them work very...
How Do They Buy?
I write constantly about the buying process, understanding how customers buy, how we align our sales process with the customer’s buying process, and how...
Proving That Math Works
Every week I sit in reviews of all types. It may be a corporation or start-up’s business plan or business strategy. It may be...
Beginning, Finishing, The Space In Between
Yesterday I had the privilege of spending a day with the founding team of one of the most exciting start-ups I’ve seen in years. ...
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...
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...
Imagining Customer Conversations In 140…..
It seems attention spans and communications are contracting and getting abbreviated. Politicians address the deepest most important issues facing all of us with nothing more...
Just Solve The Damn Problem!
I was oddly amused and somewhat saddened observing a situation from the sidelines recently. I wish it were an isolated situation, but it’s far...
“How Much Follow Up Is Too Much?”
I just got a great question, “How much follow up is too much?” The sales person was concerned about annoying the customer with too much follow...
It’s Never “Just A Matter Of Training.”
I was speaking to a friend the other day. He’s VP of Sales Enablement for a large technology organization. He had just come out...
“Only The Paranoid Survive”
“Only The Paranoid Survive” was written years ago by Andy Grove, then Chairman of Intel. It told the story of the transformation of Intel from...
Late To The Party!
Ever show up to a party late? Groups have formed, everyone’s deeply engaged in conversations, the good food’s gone. When I’m late, I wander from...
“Everyone Has A Plan Until They Get Punched In The Face”
I love this quote from Mike Tyson. Most sales people I speak with claim they have a plan–often I think they thought they had...
When Are We Going To Understand, It Really Isn’t About The Product!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been on the road constantly, I think I’ve logged over 50K miles, sat in dozens of meetings, account/deal/call/pipeline...
Fifty Shades Of Forecasting
It’s the end of a frighteningly busy week. So my mind’s fried, and I start considering silly things. A few weeks ago, I wrote “Reality (Sometimes)...
RFP’s Suck!
My friend Jim Keenan is stirring up the pot with his latest blog post, Finally The Truth About RFP’s. Be sure to read it...
Rethinking Qualification, Has The Customer Qualified Themself?
The other day, I wrote an article about, “How Much Do You Want To Spend?” The subsequent discussion has been causing me to rethink many of...
“How Much Do You Want To Spend?”
“How much do you want to spend?” “What’s your budget?” These and other questions are classic qualifying questions sales people ask. To tell the...
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. ...
Does Your Customer Have A Plan?
I recently wrote a post suggesting we “Stop Giving Customers Choices!” It’s stirred up some really great discussions. I thought I’d add another post...