Bored at Board Meetings

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Jun 18, 2010

Two weeks ago, I led the deal team to sell Hybricon, one of the companies where I was a director, to Curtis Wright, a multi billion dollar global corporation. A perfect match between the businesses and a great deal for everyone. This now brings my board activity down to six private companies, plus the time I put in as a director of two not for profit business associations. It sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t, and is about consistent with what I’ve done for the past 20 years including being a director of a public company.

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Tags: Management; Board of Directors

Movin’ the Needle – How Fast to Step on the Gas?

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Jun 17, 2010

Last week I was able to combine visiting one of my most engaging customers, Lake Sunapee Bank in the picture-perfect town of Newport, NH, with talking to my favorite economists, Brenda.

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales effectiveness, selling, selling skills

Gaining Perspective

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Jun 17, 2010

Just got back from my almost-daily early morning walk up and down the beach. Today looks like another overcast but pleasant day, but duty calls, and I’m off to the Boston office. Last Sunday, there was fog so thick that it was hard to see the ocean since it was just at that tipping point between fog, heavy mist and light rain-all of which made my daily search for sea glass impossible.

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales effectiveness, selling, selling skills

Sales Training-Ugh!

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sun, Jun 06, 2010

I happenned to be with Mike McEachern, the CFO of Brainshark, one of our favorite customers, the other day, and we got around to talking about plans for the weekend.  Among the countless normal “HoneyDo” tasks that all of us are faced with every weekend, Mike was making sure that he squeezed in sufficient time to put 50 miles on his road bike.  Mike has been a serious biker for a number of years now ever since he started participating in the Pan Mass Challenge, one of the biggest charity rides in the country.  In the winter, when the snow and nasty cold don’t favor his training requirements, he hits the ice every week with a local hockey team.  When I asked Mike why all the physical conditioning, the answer was simply, “Just to stay in shape.”

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Tags: sales management, sales management effectiveness, improved sales management, sales management training, sales training