Making A Difference Podcast: Recent Episodes
Dave Brock
Podcast for Partners In EXCELLENCE. Discussions on sales, marketing, busines strategy, leadership and other professional topics.
This is the AI generated discussion of my post: "Time To Customer Acumen....." The article is very deep and detailed. As much as I tried to simplify it, I couldn't get it to where I wanted to. That's where this discussion is brilliant. They have managed to translate this post in a very nice, easy to understand way. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/time-to-customer-acumen/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, "Solve For" Vs. "Solve With," The Real Role Of A Seller. Enjoy!
Here's the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/solve-for-vs-solve-wit-the-real-role-of-a-seller/
This is the AI discussion of my article, Would Your Customer Notice? As usual, I really like how they bring the words I write to life. This is outstanding! Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original article. https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/would-your-customers-notice/
This is an inspiring AI generated discussion of my post, Adapting To Today's Realities, A Ruthless Pragmatist's Guide. I'm fascinated how they take my ideas and simplify them further! Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/adapting-to-todays-realities-a-ruthless-pragmatists-guide/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, The Value IS The FRICTION. I'm constantly amazed at the quality of these discussions, but more importantly, how these seem to bring greater clarity to what I am trying to say. This is really good! Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-value-is-the-friction/
This is the AI generated conversation about my post, "When 'Value' Is No Longer 'Value'" This is one of those few conversations that is actually better and more clear than my article. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/when-value-is-no-longer-value/
This is a very nice AI generated discussion of my post, What Is Coaching? Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post. https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-is-coaching-3/
This is a really excellent AI generated discussion of my post, Mechanics Over Meaning. I really like how they expand the concepts I talked about in the article. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/mechanics-over-meaning/
This is the AI generated discussion of the post, Prompts Won't Save You! The Thinking Underlying The Prompt Will.... I always find it funny to hear these AI characters talking about themselves. It's a good discussion, enjoy!
Here is the link to the post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/prompts-wont-save-you-the-thinking-underlying-the-prompt-will/
This is the AI generated discussion of my article, Our Models Limit Us Dangerously. I really like how they unpack the ideas, presenting them from a slightly different perspective than I have. Enjoy!
Here is the link to this article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/our-models-limit-us-dangerously/
This is the AI discussion of my article: The Quiet Power Of Knowing Who You Are. This discussion is stunning! Partly because this article is deeply personal, but the way the drill into the ideas, capturing the essence of what I was trying to say. Be sure to take the time to listen.
Here is the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-quiet-power-of-knowing-who-you-are/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, 14% Of Sellers Drive 80% Of Revenue. The discussion is fascinating, it looks like the algorithms have changed. It's a little more debate oriented, even pushing back on the positions I'm taking. I really like this new positioning in the discussion. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/14-of-our-sellers-drive-80-of-revenue/
Here is the AI discussion of my post: If What We Sell Is Change, Why Is It So Difficult For Us? It's a concise, good discussion. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/if-what-we-sell-is-change-why-is-it-so-difficult-for-us/
Here is the AI based discussion of my article, Embracing The Messiness Of Buying And Selling. It's a concise, but really imaginative discussion. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/embracing-the-messiness-of-buying-and-selling/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, Stop Selling Solutions, Start Framing Problems. I really loved this conversation, some how just hearing the verbal exchange was so clarifying. Enjoy!
Here Is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/stop-selling-solutions-start-framing-problems/
This is the AI discussion of my post, "AI is taking your job!" Ho-Hum, Yawn! Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/ai-is-taking-your-job-ho-hum-yawn/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, "What Happened To 'Voice Of The Customer?'" It's really outstanding, they bring more life to the article. Be sure to listen, Enjoy!
Here's the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-happened-to-voice-of-the-customer/
This is the AI generated discussion of my article, Moving Beyond Customer Experience, What About "Customer Entanglement?" I really like this discussion. The concept of customer entanglement is very complex. This discussion takes a little different approach than I did with the article. It helps clarify what I'm trying to express. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/moving-beyond-customer-experience-what-about-customer-entanglement/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post: What If We Started Thinking About Durable Revenue and Revenue Quality? I really enjoyed this discussion. My writing, sometimes tends to be very complex. I like the way this was translated into more understandable examples. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-if-we-started-thinking-about-durable-revenue-and-revenue-quality/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, There Is NEVER "Just One Way!" Enjoy!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/there-is-never-just-one-way/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, Love The Problem, Not The Solution. It's short, sweet and one of the best of these discussions. Enjoy.
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/love-the-problem-not-the-solution/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post: What If Our Sellers Had More Autonomy?
It's longer, but has a couple of segments. The first 8 minutes is a general discussion about issues raised in the article. The remaining discussion talks about how we might put some of the practices I recommend in place. If pressed for time, listen to the first 8 minutes. If you want to learn more, listen to the full thing. In any case, enjoy!
Here is the link to the original article:
https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-if-our-sellers-had-more-autonomy/↗
This is the AI discussion of my post, Minimum Viable Metrics. It's actually very good, the characters developed some different perspectives that better address the issues of critical metrics. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/minimum-viable-metrics/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, Have You Learned Your Lesson Yet? It's interesting, they took this discussion in a slightly different direction than I intended, but the ensuing discussion is actually quite good.
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/have-you-learned-your-lesson-yet/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post: Achievement, Trying Hard, Participation, Apathy..... It's an interesting discussion, I'm not sure I agree with all the perspectives. What do you think?
Here's the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/achievement-trying-hard-participation-apathy/
This is the AI conversation about my post, Distraction and Focus. As much as I try to train this, I do notice hallucinations. Nothing tremendous, and most of the time not distracting. But listen for them. Enjoy!
Here is the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/distraction-and-focus/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, "A (Not So) Comedy of Errors." The discussion, as most of these are, is actually quite good.
But there is a major hallucination at about the 9:50 mark. The characters completely make up a story and outcome, which has no relationship to the post. I left it in, just because it's curious how these happen. I tried, instructing the tool to change it. I got variants of the made up story, but could never eliminate the hallucination.
Enjoy!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/a-not-so-comedy-of-errors/
This
is the AI generated discussion of this post. These discussions are always interesting, but there is a particular irony in this discussion. The AI agents are expressing themselves as "human characters," talking about "building better humans." I went through 3 iterations in training the tool on this particular article. I tried to get it to recognize these AI characters are trying to express things as humans, but what would be more interesting would be to recognize they are only AI agents, an it would be more interesting to have an AI perspective of this issue.
I failed in trying to get it to shift the perspective. So, while the discussion is very good, it's so interesting to recognize this is AI thinking it is behaving as humans would behave.
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/building-better-humans/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, Your're A Loser, And That's A Great Start! Enjoy
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/youre-a-loser-and-thats-a-great-start/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, Are You Achieving Your Potential. Enjoy.
The post can be found here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/are-you-achieving-your-potential/
This is the AI enabled discussion of my post, "Where's The Passion?" This discussion is different from previous discussions (perhaps the model has been retrained), it offers some critique--not just agreement. It also poses challenges to the reader. I'd be interested in your reactions to this discussion. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/wheres-the-passion/
Here is the AI discussion of my post, Customers Can't Tell You Their Needs. I had an interesting reaction listening to it. There were some areas where I disagreed with them. They were taking a bit of a traditionalist sales approach in their discussion. But there were a couple of places where they came up with some intriguing new ideas. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/customers-cant-tell-you-what-they-need/
Here is the AI discussion of my post, Cheat Codes. It's actually better than the article, enjoy!
(If you still want to read the article, here it is: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/cheat-codes/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, "Metrics Don't Produce Revenue." The speakers present some great analogies to illustrate the core issues.
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/metrics-dont-produce-revenue/
This is an AI generated discussion of my post, "I'm Trying To Think, But Nothing Happens." (A riff on the old Three Stooges episode. Enjoy!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/im-trying-to-think-but-nothing-happens-2
This is a fascinating AI generated discussion on my article: "They Responded To Our Outreach!!"
At the end, while they credit me for this insight, it's actually not something I had thought of for this post. In a sense, it's a hallucination, but a very useful one! Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/they-responded-to-our-outreach/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, "What About Quality?" Again, it's a fascinating discussion. Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-about-quality/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, "What Are You Looking For In A Candidate?" As sometimes happens, I think this discussion is actually better than the post. Enjoy!
Here is the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-are-you-looking-for-in-a-candidate/
This is actually one of the best AI generated discussions about one of my posts. This is a discussion of my post: "What Would You Do For Free, All Day Long?"
The one annoying thing, though, is the speakers tend to complete each other's sentences.
Here's the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-would-you-do-for-free-all-day-long/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, "Are Your Managers 'A Players?'" Enjoy!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/are-your-managers-a-players/
This is the AI discussion of my post, Until People Are Asking The Questions, Our Answers Are Irrelevant. Enjoy!
The original post is at: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/until-people-are-interested-in-the-questions-our-answers-are-irrelevant
Here is a very thoughtful AI generated discussion of my post, Activities Don't Drive Strategy! Enjoy!
The original post can be found here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/activities-dont-drive-strategy/(opens in a new tab)
Here is the AI generated discussion of my article, Loss Aversion. The original article is here:
https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/loss-aversion/
(opens in a new tab)Enjoy!
This is one of those AI generated discussions of a blog post. I'm embarrassed, but it's far better than what I originally wrote. This is long, but worth listening to the whole thing. It's on my post, When Deals Stall! Enjoy.
The original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/when-deals-stall/
This is one of the best AI generated discussions of my articles I've experienced. It's a discussion of my article, Reflecting On Founder Mode. Enjoy!
The original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/reflecting-on-founder-mode/
Here is an outstanding AI generated discussion of my post, RevOps Can And Must Do Better. It's actually one of the best discussions I've seen this tool generated.
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/revops-can-and-must-do-better/
This is the AI generated discussion of the article, "Doing The Things We Don't Want To Do!" Enjoy!
Here's the link to the original article: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-things-we-dont-want-to-do/
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, "Who Is This Important To?" Enjoy!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/who-is-this-important-to/
This is the AI discussion of the article: Pushy Vs. Pushing, A Matter Of Context. They are beginning to pick up my weird humor, ending this discussion with a real "groaner." Enjoy!
The original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/pushy-vs-pushing-matter-of-context/
This is the AI discussion of my post, "Is The Problem You Solve The Problem Your Customers Have?" They go off target a few times, but those discussions are also interesting. What do you think?
The original post is: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/is-the-problem-you-solve-the-problem-the-customers-have/(opens in a new tab)
This is one of the most fascinating discussions of my posts I have seen. It's an AI discussion of my post "Getting Out Of The Building." Enjoy!
Here is the link to the original post: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/getting-out-of-the-building/(opens in a new tab)
Here is the AI generated discussion of my post, "Tilting The Numbers In Our Favor, In Praise Of Lazy Sellers." Enjoy!
The original post can be found here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/tilting-the-numb…-of-lazy-sellers/
This AI discussion of my post, Quid Pro Quo and Caring is fascinating! Hope you enjoy it. The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/quid-pro-quo-and-caring/
It's fascinating to listen to this discussion of the limits and potential dangers of AI--conducted by two AI agents! I always hate to confess this, but it may be much better than the article itself. Enjoy the discussion!
Here's the link to the original article! https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/surrendering-to-ai/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, The "Illusion of Service." Here is the link to the original article. https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-illusion-of-service/.
This is the AI discussion of my post, "We don't finish enough things." Enjoy!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/we-dont-finish-enough-things
Here is the AI discussion of my article "Seek First To Understand...." I'm embarassed, but this discussion is better than the article ;-) Enjoy!
The original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/seek-first-to-understand-2/
This is the AI generated discussion of my article, Forcing Customers To Buy The Way We Want To Sell! This discussion goes a little off the rails in the later parts---still trying to train the AI to be more focused. But it is still an interesting point of view.
The original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/forcing-customers-to-buy-the-way-we-want-to-sell/
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, Calling Me Out. The original post is: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/calling-me-out
This is the AI generated discussion of my post, "Our Customers Don't Care About How We Want To Sell To Them!" The original post can be found here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/our-customers-dont-care-about-how-we-want-to-sell-to-them/
Enjoy!
This is the AI generated discussion on my post "Rethinking Scaling...." These discussions always surprise me, they bring up perspectives I hadn't thought of in writing the post. This is no different. While I had focused on business growth and re-imagining possibilities, they expanded it into personal growth. Absolutely fascinating!
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/rethinking-scaling/
This is an AI generated discussion of my post "Busy or Productive?" The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/busy-or-productive/
This is an AI generated discussion about my article, "The 'Tell Me More' Problem." I'm almost embarassed to admit this, but the conversation is better than the article!
The original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-tell-me-more-problem
This is an AI generated discussion of my post "AI Is Not A Differentiator." Frankly, this discussion went some places I'm not sure I agree with, but the perspective is interesting. Enjoy!
The link to the original article is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/AI-will-not-be-the-differentiator.
Here's another fascinating AI generated conversation about my article, "This Is Just The Way Things Are....." The original post can be found here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/this-is-just-the-way-things-are
This is an AI discussion of my post: More Meetings or Better Meetings! The original post is: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/more-meetings-or-better-meetings
This AI discussion is interesting. It's AI agents talking about what sellers (humans) should be doing with the time AI frees up. It's based on the blog post, AI, Freeing Up Selling Time. The original post is here:
https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/ai-freeing-up-selling-time
This is a fascinating AI generated discussion of my post, "The Problem With 'Solution Selling'" The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-problem-with-solution-selling
This is an AI generated discussion about my article, "The CEO Card." It's interesting, when I first listened to this, I thought, "They have it all wrong!" But as I listened further, they get to the root issues and provide very powerful recommendations.
The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/the-ceo-card
This is an AI generated discussion of my post, Information Asymmetry. Here's the link: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/informaion-asymmetry-2
This is an AI generated discussion of my blog post, "Are You Interested In Your Customers?" The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/are-you-interested-in-your-customers
Another fascinating AI based discussion on my blog post, "Control Disguised As Coaching." The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/control-disguised-as-coaching
This is a fascinating AI discussion of my post, "Do Your People Look Forward To Working With You?" Take time to listen to it, they actually added ideas that I hadn't thought of in writing this post. The original is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/do-your-people-look-forward-to-meeting-with-you
This is an AI generated discussion of my blog post, Helping Your Customer Imagine New Opportunities. Here is the link to the original post: Https://patnersinexcellenceblog.com/helping-your-customer-imagine-new-possibilities
Enjoy!
I'm using a very clever AI tool to discuss the article in my blog post, Can You Do What AI Can't? The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/can-you-do-what-ai-cant/
They make one error, they refer to my good friend Charlie Green as Green, Charles H. Wanted you to know who they are talking about.
This is an AI generated discussion about my blog post, What is Coaching? The original post is here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/what-is-coaching/
Enjoy the discussion!
This is an AI generated discussion about my Improving Win Rates blog post. It provides interesting views of the article. The original article can be found here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/improving-win-rates/
This is an AI generated discussion of a recent blog post, "Win Rates and Prospecting." You can read the original post here: https://partnersinexcellenceblog.com/win-rates-and-prospecting/
Too often, sellers view procurement as an adversary, focused only on price reduction. The reality in modern procurement is much different. They share the same objective as sellers, seeking to help their organizations make the best strategic decisions.
I had the great pleasure of speaking with Cheryl Hayes, and experienced supply chain perspective about how sellers and supply chain can work more effectively with each other.
I was privileged to be featured on the 100th Episode of Mark Hunter's "The Sale Hunter Podcast"
We are celebrating our 100th episode on #TheSalesHunterPodcast!
Today we welcome guest David Brock as he shares how salespeople can use AI as an educational tool, and even as a debate partner, but that humans connecting to customers effectively is the real end goal.
We can’t get too focused on how much salespeople are going to exploit AI because we’re forgetting our buyers will too. Listen in for great tips for using AI as a starting point in prospecting.
ChatGPT cannot be the end point, but it can be the starting point. Dave Brock shares how salespeople can use AI as an educational tool, and even as a debate partner, but that humans connecting to customers effectively is the real end goal.
We can’t get too focused on how much salespeople are going to exploit AI because we’re forgetting our buyers will too. Salespeople run the risk of becoming unnecessary and irrelevant if they can’t show they understand the prospect and understand their business. Listen in for great tips for using AI as a starting point in prospecting.
Visit partnersinexcellenceblog.com to see what else Dave Brock has to say!
We are overwhelmed with technology solutions to help sellers. Despite huge investments in technology, utilization by sellers is actually pretty low.
How do we look at technology and how do we get sellers to use these technologies effectively? Join me in a discussions of how Corey Richardson, SVP of Sales for Teamworks is driving performance through the use of Akoonu.
Jeff Freund, CEO of Akoonu, joins us to discuss how vendors can work with companies to maximize the value they achieve in their technology implementation.
Corey Richardson, Senior Vice President of Sales, Teamworks: LinkedIn
Jeff Freund, Founder and CEO, Akoonu: LinkedIn
I had the opportunity to have a great discussion with John Smibert, Wayne Moloney, and Jeff Clulow, authors of the Wentworth Prospect. We discussed why they chose to present some very powerful sales approach in the format of a novel. It was a fun discussion, how you enjoy!
In Q1/2020, the world turned upside down. Covid-19 was spreading around the ----more----world. Businesses, Schools, Social Events, Communities went into various types of shut down. Work from home, Distancing, PPE became part of our lexicon.
This didn't mean businesses shut down, they just changed. For sales people, it changed not only where we worked, but how we worked--with our customers and with each other.
We adopted new methods and tools to work with our customers. Customer engagement and selling started going virtual. We leveraged traditional tools, the telephone, email, text, Slack, social networking and other technologies. We leveraged newer video technologies like Zoom, Teams, collaborative white boarding and other tools.
But sales success, customer and employee engagement is much more than just the tools. It's about connecting with people in new ways.
Every organization is learning what this means and how to effectively sell. Join me as I talk to Lisa Pope, Executive Vice President of Americas Sales for Epicor. We had a fascinating conversation about how her team adapted, what they've learned, and where they are going.
Channels have always been a critical part of most organizations' Go To Customer strategies. They are critical to extending our coverage of the market, accessing markets with specialized expertise, and in helping provide our customers more complete solutions.
Managing channels for optimum performance in the face of rapidly changing buying processes and cloud based solutions creates challenges neither suppliers nor channel players have faced in the past.
For example, many of the IT centric products and services are seeing radically changing buying--shifting out of IT into end users. This drives a change in the channel, helping them shift their approaches to the buyers or finding partners that have access to those buyers.
Shifting from business models where products/services were sold outright, to today's models where products and services are frequently packaged as "As A Service" offering requires new business models, new skills, new capabilities both in the supplier and channels.
Rapid digitization of our customers businesses provide yet another challenge and opportunity to both suppliers and channel participants.
Managing these transitions, helping partners manage these transitions is a very complex process. It requires new thinking, new relationships, new partner enablement programs, and in some cases new partners.
Simon Minett, Head of Global Sales Operations for Unify, has been leading their transition from a primarily direct field sales orientation to a channel deployed orientation.
The discussion Simon and I had, is one of the most fascinating and wide ranging conversations on this topic that I have had. We cover everything from managing the transition to channel first, developing capability in the channel, shifting priorities and business model, rising complexity and managing that complexity, to critical elements in channel performance management and enablement.
It's a longer discussion than normal, but this topic is so critical, it was important that we cover this topic in some greater depth.
I hope you enjoy this podcast as much as I enjoyed the conversation with Simon Minett!
The cost of a bad hire in sales can be millions of dollars. We can't forget the hiring and salary costs are the smallest part of our investment in sales people. The biggest part is the opportunity costs----lost business and opportunities--- if we make the wrong choice.
Too many managers are pretty cavalier about the process, the interview someone, see if there is "chemistry," then make a hire. Too often, they settle for what they get, not invest the time in finding the right high performers.
Al Drucker has a completely different approach. He has a rigorous screening process---first he's very clear about what he's looking for, he builds a "competency model," against which he evaluates candidates. He leveraged behavioral tests and assessments. Finally, he has a rigorous interview process, invoving everyone from his assistant, presales support, other managers and sales people. He expects people to prepare for and go through role play and presentation scenarios. Through this rigorous process, he does everything possible to make sure he is recrutigint "A" players.
But the job doesn't stop there. Al recognizes that even the best people will fail unless they are onboarded correctly.
Join Al Drucker and me in a fascinating discussion about what it takes to recruit and onboard "A" players.
Thanks Al for a great discussion!
Any kind of organizational transformation is hard. But imagine tranforming your entire approach to the market. Think of the challenges of moving fromp primarily a direct field sales structure to a hybrid structure, with heavy reliance on channel partners.
Why would you do this?
What are the challenges in making this happen?
How do you learn in the process and continually improve?
I cover this and more in my discussion with Colin McLean, Senior Vice President of North American Sales and Service Providers for Unify.
It' a fascinating discussion of transformation at a very large scale.
Recently, I had the opportunity to discuss good and bad sales metrics with the folks at Leadfuze's Sales Manager Podcast. Most of this conversation was based on chapters on performance management and metrics in the Sales Manager Survival Guide.
The podcast originally was published here: https://www.leadfuze.com/podcast/006-dave-brock-sales-manager-survival-guide/
This copy is provided with their permission.
Can sales people create value? Leading up to this conversation, Leanne and I had been somewhat in disagreement about this topic. As we discussed it, I think we found ourselves more in agreement than not.
Join us to hear us discuss the following:
- What is value?
- Can sales people create value?
- How do we discover what the customer values?
- How do we communicate and articulate value to the customer?
- How do we deliver value?
- How do we assess the value that customers realize?
I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I did.
Would you invest 45 minutes every day in training your sales people? That's at least 10% of their time every day! Listen to Tory Hornsby, COO of Power Sports Marketing discuss how he invests this time every day in developing the skills of the team.
The payoff? Over 25% growth year over year, and huge increases in sales productivity.
This is one of the most fun interviews I've done. Tory shares his formula for success in driving the highest levels of performance from his sales teams. It's not only the time they invest, but it's the structure of how they conduct the training meetings, the value of repetition in cementing skills, and how they get ownership within the team for the training and new skills development.
Listen to this interview, outright copy Tory's approach--but commit to the investment in developing your people for the long term. I'm certain you'll see your results skyrocket!
As a separate podcast note, I'm pleased to introduce you to Chris Frascella. Chris is our podcast manager. He's really going to up the quality of each podcast and help me up the volume of materials we make available for podcasts.
Is selling SaaS solutions different than selling other complex B2B solutions? Certainly, the business model and revenue stream looks different. Rather than making money in a single transaction, the revenue stream is spread over the period of a subscription. As a result, customer retention and renewals become critical in order to maintain the revenue stream.
But how different is it really? As we discover in this discussion with Chris Palmisano, the fundamentals remain the same.
I couldn't think of anyone better to discuss this topic than Chris Palmisano. Chris is current Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Business Development at Solarwinds. Prior to that, he was a sales executive at Google.
Chris has a wonderful, pragmatic perspective. I hope you enjoy listening to him as much as I enjoyed the discussion.
A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of participating in a great discussion on coaching with Thierry van Herwijnen. Thierry had asked me to participate in his series of podcasts on his Sales Enablement Lab Site.
The core topic of our conversation was on Coaching. We had a wide ranging discussion on how sales managers could integrate coaching into their daily activities, how to leverage reviews as powerful coaching opportunities, different approaches to coaching, and finding the time to coach.
The original of this podcast can be found at Thierry's site--along with a number of other outstanding interviews. If you want perspectives from some of the leading sales enablement people in the community, make sure you visit the site and subscribe to his podcasts.
In the mean time, enjoy this discussion!
There are 3 questions that are critical to your ability to win a deal. Do you know what those questions are? Do you know how your customer would answer them --- for each deal in your pipeline?
If you don't know the answers to these 3 questions, then you ability to win a deal is seriously compromised!
Pardon my rant in this podcast. The highest leverage of a manager's time is in coaching their people. It's the manager's job to get people to perform at the highest levels possible. Coaching is a key tool for doing this.
So given this, I get a little upset when I hear from sales people that their managers don't coach them.
Enjoy the rant, would love your views.
The folks at Openview Labs asked for my comments in new models for sales and marketing integration. The original video and post can be found at How To Achieve Sales And Marketing Integration. I've condensed a few of the key points into this podcast
Recently, John Golden and Eric Quanstrom of Pipeliner CRM, and I had a wide ranging discussion on the high costs of a sales person. Our discussion ranged from hiring, onboarding, training, coaching, sales process and more. Sales people represent multi-million $ investments, maxmizing the return on those investments is critical!
I hope you enjoy the discussion as much as I enjoyed participating!
As start-up start to gain traction in their home markets, the top executives, with some prodding from their investors, look to globalize. It's an important expansion for any business, but with start-ups it's particularly challenging. Supporting growth in home markets, while simultaneously trying to open new markets stretches any organization to the breaking point. Learn some of the considerations in doing this successfully in this discussion.
I had an opportunity to discuss Entrepreneurialism In Selling with Nikolaus Kimla, CEO of Pipeliner CRM. It was a wide ranging discussion with Nikolaus and I challenging each other's ideas. It's a bit of a long discussion, but based on those who participated in the webcast, I think you will find it worthwhile to listen to the whole thing.
Customer experience is hot---but people tend to misunderstand what it means and how to create effortless customer experiences. This discussion with Dione Hedgpeth looks at how we have to look at customer experience differently. Dione shares the journey she and her team at Apptio are on. We cover a wide variety of topics including designing the customer experience, the importance of the underlying principles in customer experience design, creating low effort customer experiences, segmenting the design, embedding it in the organization.
It's a great conversation! Listen and learn.
Recently, I was interviewed by Peter Simoons for the Collaboration Business Podcast.
In our conversation we explored many elements of collaboration. Like how to keep people in different time zones and places in the world in sync and in-collaboration and we talked about how to partner with customers.
The original podcast can be found at Enter A Collaboration Only As A Last Resort.
Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Steve Gershick on Leadspace Radio.
We had a wide ranging discussion on sales, marketing, and business, covering topics like creativity, innovation, problem solving, and change.
We spoke of the importance of process, constant simplification, and the challenges we all face in becoming prisoners of our own experiences.
I hope you enjoy listening to this 26 minute interview as much as I enjoyed the discussion with Steve.
Sales Operations plays critical role in enabling sales people and partners to perform at the highest levels, enable customers to easily buy, and communicate to the rest of the organization. Katherine Tate is one of the best sales operations executives I've met. Listen to my interview on a wide range of sales management, operations, and sales effectiveness topics.