Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Summa!

Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, sales management, sales coach, sales planning, sales producitivity, business tools, business planning, business plans, The Competitive Edge, writing a business plan

Thanks for closing the Q on time and even squeaking in those last few orders on Friday afternoon before the closing bell !  This morning, whatever the number was, it feels good to have the wind at your back and a new page open to a new week, a new month and a new quarter !  Still lots of room between now and the end of December.    

Tags: business planning, business coaching, business plans, strategic planning, strategic

At Derby Management we are big believers in constant education and focused networking to refine your skills, learn new strategies and grow professionally.  We strive to provide our clients superior service through our own knowledge and experience since all of our team has sat in the chairs-just like you-as CEOs, heads of Sales and heads of Marketing of both startups and middle market companies in a wide variety of industries.  

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales training, business tools, business plans

Tufts University $100K New Ventures Competition

The business plan pitches were Wednesday, and the awards were made last night. This year yet another company, Mimir Insights, with several of my marketing Alums won the top prize in High Tech. This is what real entrepreneurship...at the street level...is all about.  Congratulations to all of the entrepreneurs!!!!

Tags: entreprenurial, business plans, Tufts university, marketing plans, entrepreneurship

Thanks very much for the comments and ideas from last week's blog post on "The (first) Five Rules".  As promised, here are the remaining five.  It may well be that you have your own, so let me and our readers know about your ideas by commenting below...

Tags: sales coaching, sales coach, sales tools, sales plans, business planning, business plans, sales planning meetings

Tags: closing sales, business planning, business coaching, business plans, best sales practices;

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”                   -Mike Tyson

If your last image of Iron Mike chewing off the ear of Evander Holyfield was a bit too graphic, then maybe some of the following highly positive quotes might be more representative of the reasons for careful planning...just so that you don't get punched in the face.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices, sales planning, sales plans, business tools, business planning, business coaching, business plans

Coming off the Thanksgiving break after one too many slices of pumpkin pie, I'm feeling pretty good about sales specifically and business overall right now.  A couple of solid weeks of selling left in the year.  Everyone at the firm is maxed out with work.  January's outlook appears to be reasonably ok.  Teaching at Tufts and MIT are in exam modes. The stock market is humming, and the economy in general seems to be more positive...even though the fundamentals (little things like debt, GDP growth and jobs) aren't that much better.

Tags: sales management effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management boot camp, business tools, business planning, business plans, sales boot camps, best sales practices;

A couple of times a week, I stop by Honovan's Cleaners to drop off laundry.  Right around the corner, Honovan is the epitome of uber customer satisfaction.  Open 12 hours a day, six days a week, she accommodates everything that I could possibly need. 

I don't want to be bothered with tickets, so years ago, Honavan simply told me "no tickets".  I don't want to wait in line.  Simple solution for Honovan was to give me a laundry bag.  I mentioned to her that I loved the fact that she opened, at 6:30 and then complained that the shoe repair store didn't open until 8.  That day, Honovan became the drop off place for the shoe repair guy.  Not satisfied with just laundry, shoes and, of course, alterations, a few years ago, she expanded to do the commercial laundry for many of the hotels in the Back Bay. 

Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, business plans, how to write a business plan

  If it's summer, then it's time to do the annual rewrite of our
  free ebook-Writing the Winning Business Plan 

Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales, sales management boot camp, business planning, business plans, how to write a business plan, writing a business plan