“David Brock moves all the BS voodoo, glory stories, artistic behavior and perceptions away from Sales just to leave it what it really makes it successful, Hard work and Discipline, methodologies based on a Pragmatic conceptual framework and leadership skills to make it One of the Most rewarding assignments in business. This is a Must read for everyone in Corporate life WHO believes skilled Sales manager make a difference and skills can be trained/coached and amplified by the right processes.” Wolrad Claudy, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Board Director, Aria Networks
“Anything Dave writes in the areas of sales and sales management is must read material. If you ever have the chance to meet and get to know Dave as I have, you’ll realize he brings an exceptional combination of experience, insights, sense of humor, frankness and compassion that makes his advice so sought after and invaluable. Don’t let the experience part fool you either – Dave is as progressive a thinker in our field as anyone I know. He has now captured a career’s worth of insights about sales management and distilled into a framework for you. I promise you’ll enjoy this book. I promise it will help make you a better sales manager. And hey, your boss is going to ask you about it soon anyway.” Pat O’Brien, Vice President of Sales, Leadspace
“Front line Sales management has been, repeatedly, defined as the KEY position in any firm which generates the Profitability. If you’ve not got Sales Management right, then you will not be profitable, for long! Dave Brock’s book covers the THREE aspects: Manager, Leader and Coach. He offers frameworks, models and guidance that will initiate the New Sales Manager, and allow the established Sales Manager to “review and update” their game. The book is written from experience by a sceptical pragmatist, if it doesn’t work, it’s not in the book! If it’s in the book, then Dave Brock knows it works.” Brian MacIver, BMAC Sales Consultants
“Dave is the wise, deeply experienced, and highly motivating coach you always wished you had. Now you do. Every page is packed with practical and specific advice to those entrusted with the critical role of front line sales manager. Whether you’re newly minted, or a veteran yourself, I promise that you’ll be smarter, better equipped, and more energized after spending some time with this pro among pros.” Richard Bravman, Principal, Coastal Ventures and former CEO and Vice Chairman, Symbol Technologies
This is really a very insightful look at all the practical things a manager will have to handle, but I love the really thoughtful way you have also included bigger picture contemplations about the people, the personalities, the psychology….I took a lot of notes and one of them is that you see the forest and the trees, but you plant and arrange the trees into an orderly forest so that the reader can have the big picture and a map to explore the forest. Your reflections provide rest stops, but then we are off again on the learning path. That’s a knack, my friend. Alyson Button Stone, Freshdesk Marketing Team
“A mentor once told me that nothing happens till somebody sells something. As a young sales person trying to figure out how to actually sell something, I took that to heart and over the years have seen firsthand the jobs that were created and lives positively affected by effective sales people and teams. Overtime, I learned to appreciate the role of the front line manager in developing and leading those high performing teams. In his book Dave lays out the roadmap for anyone with the desire and perseverance to lead sales teams on the front line. The lessons are there for the taking, all you have to do is read and apply…over and over again!” David Northington, Chairman and CEO, Cloud Sherpas
“There are two kinds of business books: data books, and wisdom books. They each have their place. David has an absolutely unparalleled amount of experience, and could have written either, but let’s be clear – this is a wisdom book. The Sales Manager Survival Guide does not give you The Answer (not that there’s anything wrong with that); instead, it makes sure you’re asking the Right Question. If you could hire the wisest, most experienced sales expert to spend hours and hours with you – focused on your role as a sales manager – wouldn’t you be tempted? And now, for the price of a book, you can get just that. Treat this book like a trusted advisor. Go to it when you need perspective, a challenge, the occasional assurance. Each time you do, you’ll come back a little wiser for it.” Charles H. Green, CEO, Trusted Advisor Associates, Author Trust Based Selling, Co-Author The Trusted Advisor
“Who among us hasn’t benefited from a teacher, coach or mentor? What made them so special wasn’t that they provided the easy answers; their gift was a framework for problem solving. This is what Dave has provided here, a masterful framework from which sales managers can benefit from his years of experience and wonderful counseling manner.” Sean Harrigan, Retired President, CEO, B&B Electronics, Nexergy, SVP of Sales, Laird Technologies
“In the early days building Dassault Systemes to be the world leader in CAD, CAM, CAE (now called PLM) ; it became clear that focused sales efforts were critical to our success. We also learned, the quality of the results produced by sales was through inspired sales leadership and sales management. As Dassault grew, strong sales leaders were critical to our success with customers. Dave provided great leadership in helping us grow. Now he’s produced a practical guide to share his experience.” Francis Bernard, Retired Founder and CEO Dassault Systemes, Director and Board Member, Various Start-Ups.
“This is THE Go-To resource for all sales managers!” Mike Weinberg, Author of Sales Management Simplified and New Sales Simplified, CEO of New Sales Coach
Join The Discussion! Add your comments, observations and questions below!
I have just completed reading Dave’s book and it is a game-changer! Dave has meticulously covered just about every aspect of being a sales manager and has done so in his typical “no nonsense” style. Dave has been there and done that and it shows!
I would certainly recommend this book to existing sales managers as well as aspiring ones! You will not only come away with an in-depth understanding of what your duties are, Dave has given you the step-by-step instructions that you will need to excel thought your team!
Thank you, Dave
The most truthful common sense approach I was lucky enough to accidentally come across in a long time. I think if could have bene interesting to have the book actually map across an actual sales process he had used in the past to give a feel for it. This is missing fro many people-companies and I think he probably would have given a great set of pointers if he offered up a sample one. All in all a great read for any first time manager and more important a necessary read for any manager who has been doing the same old thing time and time again, but never finding real success.
Joe, thanks for the feedback. It’s difficult to choose one sales process and map the activities, since things vary so much across organizations. But you’ve given me an idea for a potential supplementary resource where I can provide more tangible examples. Thanks for helping me think this through.
Sales Manager Survival Guide is both broad and deep. The Table of Contents is *very* comprehensive. It’s deeper in some topics than others (or would be an unwieldy reference tome rather than an excellent resource), but there is meaty advice in every case. Even better – and perhaps more surprising given how opinionated I am – when I read the book, I agreed with Dave’s recommendations in every section, and that’s extraordinarily rare for me. (In that regard, it’s one of the handful of books I wish I had written.) The content of this book could easily be the framework for a sales manager development effort, and a guide not just to sales manager survival, as the title suggests, but to transform your sales force’s effectiveness, through highly-effective frontline sales management.
On the topic of sales management, specifically, ZS Associates’ work, Vantage Point Performance’s book (Jordan and Vazzana), Walter Rogers’ book, Mike Weinberg’s book, and Sales Readiness Group’s (Behar, Makela, and Jacoby) are some of the best, for me. Dave’s book now joins that club. We need to continue to spend more time enabling not just our sales reps, but our frontline sales managers. This book will help you do just that – it could easily be the foundation for a very effective sales manager enablement initiative.
I found the Sales Manager Survival Guide an excellent read and a fantastic refresher for someone who has been managing teams for some time. There is a lot of good old fashioned common sense in this book and focus on what matters, as opposed to what we tend to do on a day to day basis.
I now have my team leaders reading the book to ensure we are all in alignment and can work daily to better our teams and the outcomes for our customers.