13 Weeks Later @ Tufts
- I start looking for new sales & marketing projects on 10/01 and 5/1
- The syllabus w/projects are sent out on 12/26 and 07/05
- 6 marketing & 4 sales projects for 2 very oversold courses
- 1 week later, the newbies need to tell me which project and why
- Bios are circulated to me and teams of 5-6 are formed
- Reading and research begins 30-45 days before class begins
- 13 weeks later, complete plans are presented to management
On the last day of the course in the last 15 minutes, I talk about, 'Jack's 3 Rules'
Rule # 1: Connections are Forever
Make all the connections that you possibly can. Cherish them. Treat each of them with extraordinary care. Store them, use them and communicate to them all of the time in LinkedIn, Twitter, FB and Insta. Never let those connections go stale and unused!
This week, I met with David K. in my office at Tufts. Haven't seen David, a brilliant product/market genius, president-level guy in 15 years since we sold EarCheck, a wonderful startup, founded by Sandra Kimball, where I was CEO and Dave was a critical part of our success. David's daughter is now at Tufts, and he found me when I made some recent noise at Tufts...which I often do, so he stopped by to chat.
Dave and I played the "whatever happened to..." game for 15 minutes, and he mentioned a critical person on our EarCheck team. While Dave was sitting there, I looked up that person on LI, and we talked about how important our success was due to that person.
Two hours later, I was talking to one of my seniors about a potential job. She mentioned the company, which seemed very familiar, and then I realized that the familiarity was because I had just pinged the company two hours before when David and I were reminiscing about "whatever happened to?". My student now has an interview next week with that long lost person, who is the president of that company.
In life, in business, in love and in family, cherish your connections!
Rule # 2: Learning is Consistently Continuous
Each semester-now 20 years at MIT and 10 at Tufts-I realize just how much I don't know.
At the end of every semester, I tell my students that everything which had been learned over the prior 13 weeks, is on that last day, obsolete.
Whether you're 21 or 33 (the age now of my oldest Tufts alums) or 43 or 53, to be in business at any level, I believe that you must consistently push yourself to learn more, to study more, and to test yourself all of the time.
I read a book a week, and in the summer often two. I'm fascinated by the intersection of technology in Healthcare and in Sales and Marketing, and I like nothing more than exploring new apps and platforms. My Summer Beach Bag is filling up quickly, and below you will find two new MUST READS if you want to push your own world of Sales & Marketing.
Summer reading
