End of the summa’-back to work-back to school-back to Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Aug 28, 2013


It's been a really great summer !

Lots of work, lots of time to do "field research", and lots of time to think about the upcoming four months of Sales and Marketing activities between now and the end of the year. 

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management training, sales boot camp, sales management boot camp

Take Control of Your Time #3...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Aug 21, 2013

 

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management training, sales boot camp, sales management boot camp

Which side of the table do you sit on?...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Aug 13, 2013

 A couple of days last week I went over to Vermont,
 explored the woodlot up on the ridge and basically locked 
 myself away during all of that rain to do some intensive 
 work. As I was working on material for the fall semesters at
 Tufts and MIT along with the new content for our October
 Boot Camp, it led me to really, really appreciate the sun at
 the beach.  I love Vermont-7 generations and all that-but for
 the choice of VT mountains or NH beach in the summa', I'm
 choosing the NH beach. Just don't let any of the good ol'
 boys on the bench know about this down at the Winhall General Store since I may not be allowed to bring my trash to the dump (sorry, in proper Vermontese, I mean "transfer station").

I've been spending a lot of time this summer thinking through the decision makers on the other side of the table.  As a salesguy, coach, blogger, I'm typically focused on "our side of the table"

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Tags: Sales Optimization, sales, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales boot camp, sales management boot camp, sales producitivity

Taking Control of Your Time #2...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Aug 06, 2013

 Speaking of time, did you notice, it's getting colder and darker 
 every morning.  Can't stop the seasons.  Can't lengthen 24 hours.
 Can't change the length of the month or the quarter.  All we can
 do is use our time more efficiently, effectively and comfortably.
   "I must govern the clock, not be governed by it"  -Golda Meir

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Tags: Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales enablement, sales training, sales effictiveness, sales boot camps

Managing & Taking Control of Your Time...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Aug 01, 2013

 
 We're all squeezed for time. 

  No new news here.  We continuously balance our work and 
  personal time commitments.  We endlessly shuffle our
  schedules cutting off 15 minutes here and there to be able to 
 squeeze in another call, another meeting or just maybe a vacation day here and there.  We know that there is no such thing as Work-Life Balance except in the fantasy world of academics, and what always loses out in trying to create that balance is that over-rated sleep thing. 

Up at 4:00 yesterday, after a 2 hour trip, I found myself at a customer's at 8:00 and then spent the afternoon in Providence at a quarterly board meeting.  The company is doing great, and perhaps not coincidentally the meeting began and ended with comments from the senior management in this high-performing business about the fact that they were more stressed for time than ever before.  They commented that there customers' demands for their time were accelerating at a quicker pace and that those same customers were constantly being pressured themselves by their customers and the new normal of their retail markets for even quicker deliveries and faster design cycles. 

Arriving back in Boston just before a customer dinner at 7, I managed to squeeze in a few minutes with my friend Brian, a long term EVP at one of our customers.  With 5 weeks of vacation every year, he proudly told me that the only way that he had figured out how to use any of that time was to put himself on a regimen of taking Friday's off.  Cute idea, but in the reality of Brian's unforgiving schedule, let's see just how many weeks that works...as in NEVER!

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Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales, sales management, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, closing sales, sales boot camp, sales management boot camp