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
I've been a student of marketing now for decades. I teach it, I practice it, I study it, and I always seem to be running fast just to keep up...which is exactly why marketing is so exciting today. So that I never overthink the subject, the profession or its complexities, I always come back to the simplicity of Regis McKenna's iconic February, 1991 HBR article, "Marketing is Everything", which still rings true today...maybe even more so today...as I re-read this morning just one paragraph from the article.
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Tags:
sales management effectiveness,
sales effectiveness,
marketing productivity,
how to write a business plan,
how to write a sales plan,
marketing planning
Yesterday, I completed my virtual follow-up visit with my cardiologist, Dr. Michael at MGH. It's hard to even use those words, "my cardiologist" after being diagnosed with "massive heart disease" (another uncomfortable choice of words) five years ago with 100% of one artery blocked and 60% of another.
The only reason I lived was that I had grown two new arteries which "naturally bypassed" the two diseased arteries. Who knew? Not me! Not my Vermont country doc who had incorrectly diagnosed my shortness of breath as asthma and loaded me down with three different scripts for inhalers which I used for years before moving back to Boston and new docs at MGH.
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Tags:
Sales Best Practices,
Sales Management Best Practices,
sales effectiveness,
sales enablment,
how to write a business plan,
sales planning meetings,
2020 business plans,
2020 sales plans
Been a wicked busy and wicked cold January, so not much in the way of blogging, but now with this leap into February, I’m back at it. It was my great grandfather Horace, who lived up the road a piece in the beautiful town of Poultney, Vermont, who talked about 8 months of snow, 2 months of mosquitoes and 2 months of “just damn poor sleddin’”. My family has lived in this valley for just about 250 years, and what I know is that it takes real work to live here. Vermont’s beautiful on one hand, and just hardscrabble tough on the other.
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Tags:
entreprenurial,
how to write a business plan,
writing a business plan,
Tufts university,
entrepreneurship,
Making Tough Choices,
jack derby professor at Tufts,
Tufts Entrepreneurship,
Tufts Entrepreneurship Center
Ever been on the other side of the Team?
- Not included by the Cool Kids?
- Left out of the really important front-office activities?
- Relegated to "those people back in the factory"?
How did not being on the Team feel?
...Not so good , I expect.
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Tags:
Sales Optimization,
Sales Best Practices,
sales and marketing best practices,
sales management,
sales effectiveness,
sales enablement,
sales management training,
sales training,
sales producitivity,
how to write a business plan,
improving sales productivity
It's that time of year again...
...when, just like the snow guns at Stratton in mid-November, and the family's angst over Uncle Ernie, once again, making a fool of himself at Thanksgiving, the pressure's on to submit the perfect 2014 business plan to the board or your boss by December 1st.
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Tags:
sales coaching,
Sales Management Best Practices,
sales enablement,
how to write a business plan,
sales boot camps
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.
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Tags:
Sales Best Practices,
sales,
sales effectiveness,
sales enablement,
business plans,
how to write a business plan
