You probably heard last week's better-than-expected Jobs Report numbers, and hopefully it marks a continuing trend. The summary headline was "Total employment rose by 130,000 in January.".
Unfortunately, that headline by itself tells a very misleading story for my students and your kids who are 2025 college graduates or are the upcoming graduating class of 2026!
Tags: marketing productivity, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025SalesPlanning, 2026 Marketing Planning, How to find the perfect job
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, closing sales, Sales quota, Tufts Entrepreneurship Center, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
Hopefully, everyone shoveled through Snowmaggedon 2026 without too much impact. Here at the NH beach, with two driveways, two snowblowers, a plow service, and most importantly, two high school brothers who live down the street, we weathered also giving me time to talk with the boys about high school, summer jobs and college choices.
Tags: finding sales jobs, finding marketing jobs, Teaching entrepreneurship, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, How to find the perfect job
Yesterday, returning from the Boston office to the NH beach, I just "stopped by" Market Basket in Portsmouth to pick up the standard "Extra Milk, Bread & Eggs."
Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
Mid-January today, and already it seems like we’re deep into 2026. Certainly, it's deep into winta' weatha' this morning since when I left the NH beach at 5:00, it was all of 10 degrees with a wicked wind. Normal New England weather following the natural rhythm of the NE seasons.
Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Making Tough Choices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
Mid-December, with a ton of advance planning, I left the normal work rhythm of the NH beach, the Boston office and the final exams of Tufts and retreated to the woods of Vermont to focus on long overdue projects, planning for our upcoming 2026 sales and strategy meetings, and, of course, preparing the house for Christmas.
With boxes and more boxes of ornaments and cascades of tangled strings of lights themed around various colors trucked over from the studio, the house becomes a somewhat chaotic and mildly disorganized process that somehow always ends up in the right space.
Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, Making Tough Choices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
As anyone who reads these weekly meanderings from the NH beach where I live, the Boston office where I work, the Tufts classroom where I learn or the general store in the town of Winhall, VT (pop. 769), seven days a week, I'm 95% focused on the mechanics, the math, the processes, the embedded exciting technologies, and...of course...the people of the sciences of Sales and Marketing!
Tags: Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, A wonderfully warm and safe Christmas, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
You can make your own count this wicked cold morning as to whether the actual selling days left are either 7 or 9, but the reality is that the end of this year's quota is just about here, and the remaining tactics we have left are all about closing.
There are actually 34 different tactics one can use to close a B2B order, but at this time of year, I find the most effective are:
A very simple tactic is to simply write a series of personalized emails tomorrow morning to your customers, your referral partners and to your prospects. This does not need to be anything lengthy, but it does need to be human, so please stay away from the bland "Happy Holidays" and nothing else.
Tags: Sales Best Practices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, A wonderfully warm and safe Christmas, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
Having struggled through the wonderful commute from Boston to the NH beach last night, I'm ready to declare that it is now officially winta'!
6" at the beach, when I set off to Boston this morning after shoveling the driveway at 4:30.
Driving in and out of Boston ...especially in the winta'...is all about the preplanning of one's schedules down to 30-minute time blocks.
Exactly the same rhythm all of us in Sales need to be doing every day for the rest of this month!
Tags: Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning, 2026 Sales Planning
I spend 30% of my 80-hour work weeks in Vermont, which I find is the perfect place for figuring out large projects, writing business plans and creating complex sales playbooks. I enjoy the view out the office window and the ability to step outside and walk in my woodlot for 30 minutes when I get stuck. It's almost perfect...except for the heat problem.
Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
