This past Wednesday, I started to see a few hundred downloads of my ebook on "Writing the Winning Business Plan", and then a few hundred more on Thursday, and already early this AM, lots of detailed questions from readers. Then I realized that it's that time of year that new students in the MITx course on business planning were gearing up, and this is a core read. The book is also used in my own teaching every fall at MIT in the ME course taught by Dr. Chun, who asked me 21 years ago if I could assist in teaching a few business principles to his undergrad and grad students. That exciting experience, which continues every fall at MIT, also led me to the opportunity to teach at Tufts 16 years ago.
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Tags:
marketing productivity,
small business management,
business coaching,
how to write a business plan,
marketing planning,
writing business plans,
2022 business planning
With the Olympics underway, what do you think?
As I listen to some people this week, the feedback I too often hear seems to focus on the surrounding negatives of Covid, the cost, the lack of attendance and the decline in viewership...all of these external factors which, in the real world of the athletes, have nothing to do with the extraordinary athleticism that is taking place.
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sales effectiveness,
business coaching,
Tufts university,
entrepreneurship,
jack derby professor at Tufts,
social entrepreneurship,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts
To a boring fault, I am all about planning...
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Tags:
sales plans,
business coaching,
strategic planning,
Tufts marketing projects,
Tufts internships,
student intern marketing projects,
interns for marketing projects,
how to write a marketing plan,
how to write a sales plan,
marketing planning
At Tufts where I'm a professor for two courses-"Entrepreneurial Marketing" and "The Science of Sales", a decade plus later, I have the luxury of bringing back our alums from these courses who are now experts in their own fields at their companies to teach portions of our 13 week semesters.
The exciting results are...
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Tags:
sales effectiveness,
marketing effectiveness,
business coaching,
how to close sales,
meeting networking,
sales management productivity,
delivering great presentations
With 30 years of skiing anchored firmly in my Vermont winta' roots, I've now spent the last 25 years only snowboarding gaining a new love for old trails and new woods and parks that I would have never explored on skis. I still remember the taunts and laughs from my skier buddies I left behind, but as with anything new, I've learned to find the best coaches and study harder and longer than others.
This winta' morning, I find myself at the NH beach trading my Big Boy Ariens snowblower back in VT for shovels that fit NH winding paths and decks that overlook a very angry ocean. It will actually be good to grab some fresh air and quick exercise today between six zooms and a board meeting. One of the benefits of WFH.
Love winta'...but cannot wait for March 20th, the official start of spring and leaving behind dark mornings and getting back out into the VT woods with my chainsaw or looking for seaglass on the NH beach. I do love the rhythm and the variety of the NE seasons...most of the time
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Tags:
sales coaching,
sales effectiveness,
closing sales,
marketing effectiveness,
sales management boot camp,
business coaching,
how to close sales,
improving sales productivity,
sales success,
how to write a sales plan,
planningsalestodayinacovidworld
With Valentine's Day Sunday, I find myself once again in the woods of Vermont this morning with a -4 degree temp and "yet-another-dusting" of four inches. Just enough that it will ice unless attacked by "Big Orange", my brand new 30" Ariens delivered by the superb sales guys up the road a piece at Brown Enterprises. For variety, I work out of the NH beach Monday through Wednesday, drive to Boston following Wednesday's Tufts class, check on the now-vacant office, pick up the mail and then drive to VT.
I work here in VT on Thursdays and Fridays...and then, depending on the weatha' for the weekend, stay or leave. I love the variety of the rural VT woods and the NH sand. It's my own own stress-reducer keeping my head screwed on and the entire weekly process reaffirms my love of what I do.
After 30+ years of management consulting including 20+ of teaching at MIT and Tufts, I have the opportunity to work with the management of hundreds of companies every year and hundreds of both students and alums at both universities. I love the work, the challenges, the extraordinary variety of both problem solving and creating new sales opportunities along with the inherent management coaching that goes along with it. This is all I do, and I can't imagine doing anything else except a little snowboarding in the winta' (but not this year) and surfing in the summa'
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Tags:
entreprenurial,
marketing productivity,
business coaching,
how to close sales,
sales success,
sales effectivness
About 20 years ago, I found myself having breakfast meeting after breakfast meeting with both entrepreneurs and managers of established business walking through my initial review of their business plans especially at the beginning of the year. For me, it was lead gen for follow-on consulting work, but actually expensive lead gen since it took a ton of time and way too many fattening $30 Marriott buffets. There had to be a better way, so I began the first edition of a what was then a 30-page free ebook titled... Writing the Winning Business Plan"
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Tags:
business coaching,
strategic planning,
writing a business plan,
business planning meetings,
writing business plans
January is the most critical time of the year for the entire management team to get their fingers deep into the crankcase oil of the entire engine of the business in order to achieve...
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Tags:
sales management effectiveness,
sales enablement,
business coaching,
how to close sales,
business planning meetings,
how to write a sales plan,
writing business plans,
forgetsalesstrategyfocusontactics
Too often we business types roll our eyes to the ceiling when we think about academia. Our images of university life immediately flash back to our own college days, but that image has little to do with the reality of university life today.
Today, college students are wicked bright, very hard working and highly focused on jobs, careers and the social impact of making a difference in the lives of others. As a group, current students and alums for the past eight or ten year are a massive category with huge numbers, but they also have far less spending power due to the very high cost of housing in general and the massive student debt that they carry.
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Tags:
sales productivity,
sales management,
improved sales management,
small business management,
management,
business coaching,
leadership
