Why I Need to Become an Expert in Storytelling...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Aug 06, 2014

 

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Tags: Sales Optimization, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, selling, selling skills, sales training, sales plans, sales listening, sales producitivity

Success, Rewards, Corvettes...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Jun 26, 2014

To the uninitiated, the managers who never actually sold anything, the presidents who did not climb up the rungs from entry-level sales positions to become the #1 salesperson, and to the operations managers who regard salespeople as a necessary evil, the presumption is that money drives success in salespeople.  

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Tags: sales coaching, Sales Optimization, Sales Management Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales producitivity, sales culture, sales boot camps

Am I a Professional Salesperson? ...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Mar 26, 2014

Monday morning I was reading what turned out to be a really stupid HBR article about "professionalism".  It actually started with the interesting question of "Do your colleagues think you’re professional?", which got me to thinking about the perceptions that people have regarding salespeople in general. Unfortunately, the article then went on to attempt to tie "professionalism" to the way one decorates their cubicle and then tie that result into gender and race.  Note to HBR:  you really need to do a better job at screening your writers.

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Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management training, sales optomization, sales management boot camp, sales producitivity, sales boot camps

What Makes November the Wicked Month?...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Oct 30, 2013

30 years ago, during one of my "I think I will once again try to live in Vermont" sojourns, I remember working high on a mountain ridge one cold, wet fall morning pouring cement that we had laboriously carted up by buckets in ATVs for the footings on a microwave tower.  It was November and long gone were the colorful fall leaves and smiling tourists visiting the antiques fair down in the postcard-pretty town Weston.  It was back to the hardscrabble work of running a commercial masonry company building a series of towers all along the spine of Vermont.  That November and December, we worked until the ground froze hard with most daybreaks spent chopping through the ice that had crusted over our water storage from the overnight freeze.  It was during that period of what seemed to be a never-ending expedition of increasingly cold, wind-whipped, ugly, steel-gray days that I made a decision that I was moving back to Boston and would do everything I could to avoid November in Vermont. 

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

Are You Engaging?...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Oct 22, 2013

In St. John, New Brunswick, Canada this morning where I was a keynote speaker yesterday along with David Meerman Scott for the two day Engage Conference sponsored by the economic development and export trade offices of the Province and St. John.

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales optomization, Sales quota, sales management boot camp, sales producitivity

Where do we fit into the Scale of the Universe...and Sales!

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Oct 16, 2013

I spend most of every day, most weeks (except a couple on the NH beach and a couple at Stratton snowboarding), every month and every quarter thinking about and working in the professions of Sales & Marketing. 

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Tags: sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management training, sales training, sales plans, sales management boot camp, sales producitivity

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