Gotta have Rhythm!

I've always loved music of any kind! I grew up on 1940's jazz, I love classic 60's rock (never missed a U.S. Stones concert), I tolerated disco, love early rap and have a special place in my head and heart for soul and funk.  

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Tags: sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, marketing effectiveness, how to close sales, sales success, how to write a sales plan, marketing planning, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 business planning

The sky is falling! Recession! Inflation! OMG!

As an "older" salesguy, I've seen it all:

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Tags: sales coaching, sales tools, best sales practices;, sales success, how to write a sales plan, sales effectivness, writing sales plans, 2022businessplansuccess

Runnin' out of time...

We're always constrained by time...or more accurately, the lack of it and the accompanying pressures of the lack of time! 

We think about it! We plan everything around it! We're constantly checking our phones, our watches, our calendars and everything else that defines our digital and analog worlds, and it always seems "there's never enough" and that we're "runnin' out of time"... all the time!

 


Ok, so we all know that time itself is finite.  It might be too long or way too short, but it's always going to be bound by nanoseconds, days, months quarters and years.  I have on a very visible shelf of my bookcase here in the office, a fossilized Nautiloid that is approximately 400 million years old just so that I can be frequently reminded to put into perspective the contributions of a 100-year life and my 18-hour workdays.   Most importantly, what I've come to realize about time is that I and you need to love what I do, and at this advanced time in my life, I simply love to work, to teach and to build companies.


9 Days

For those of us who sell stuff and manage others who sell stuff, there is always a daily, monthly, and, in the world of most businesses, the all-important quarterly clock that places points on the board.  We measure and are measured by others in comparison numbers to our quotas and what we are currently doing balanced against the metrics of last quarter or last year and a long list of other blocks of time.  For example, this coming Monday provides us with 9 more days left in the all-important second quarter, which is going to be interpreted by each of us as "just" or "not enough" or "plenty of".   I find that each of those words are typically defined by just how well a salesperson actually plans their own time over a longer period, but, in general, unfortunately most salespeople do not plan their time very well! 

  • We get caught up in the complexities of selling without a formal sales process 
  • We too often end up doing the job of what Marketing or Service should be doing 
  • We simply do not take the time to plan out the 20 key selling days in any month

As a test of this, ask any salesperson today to show you their plan for the next 9 days or what their detailed plan looks like for July, and too often the response will be "I'm working on it".   This is not because salespeople do not work hard.  It's the exact opposite in that too many salespeople simply work without a detailed weekly, monthly and quarterly workplan.  

A 30-60-90 Day Plan

Right now, all of us are focused on finishing the Q and then most probably our primary focus will be on what we're going to be doing for the 4th!   Next weekend, on the 25th, is actually a perfect time to rough out the architecture of what a broad outline of your 90-day sales plan would look like.

  • How many actual selling days will there be in each month?
  • Then, subtract your own vacation days 
  • Then, subtract days immediate to the 4th and Labor Day
  • Be realistic about Fridays in the summer
  • Blend in your business travel schedules for July and August
  • Take out time for sales training and standard weekly/monthly sales meetings

Now plan out what you have left around your own quota and specific sales objectives for the quarter.  That's the easier part. Then take what's left and break that available time down into weekly plans based on your specific monthly quota objectives.  That's where the rubber hits the road!  For more details, click on our "Writing the Winning Sales Plan in 2022", or just connect directly with me at any time for some quick pointers of how to do this. 

To put work/life balance of time into perspective, here's an interesting article from the WSJ this week: 
https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-have-only-so-much-time-are-you-using-it-right-11655043558

 

Have a great day selling today and a superb Father's Day Weekend! 


After a three-hour dead-stop traffic jam on Route 2 late Wednesday afternoon trying to get to Vermont, I simply gave up, turned around and headed back to Boston, so it's the NH beach this weekend and not the VT hills. 

At any time, if you want to discuss your own sales and marketing planning for the next 30 or 90 days or the rest of this year, just connect with me for some quick ideas and feedback. There's no cost to a call or two, plus I love listening and talking about this rapidly changing world of Sales.  

www.derbymanagement.com  

Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Tags: sales effectiveness, sales tools, how to close sales, improving sales productivity, best sales practices;, sales success, how to write a sales plan, 2022 business planning

the science & guessing of forecasting...

First, on what looks like a spectacular weatha' day here on the NH beach, I'm officially declaring today as "The End of Winta".  I'm Done.  It's Over.  Totally Finished! 

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Tags: sales coaching, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, marketing effectiveness, how to close sales, sales success, writing sales plans, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts

Always good to have birthdays!

Every day, as part of my routine, before or after a sunrise run on the NH beach or on the VT dirt road, I take a look at LI and FB birthdays of the people I'm connected with. 

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Tags: sales effectiveness, closing sales, sales management boot camp, how to close sales, sales success, how to write a sales plan, writing sales plans

Need to get on the other side of the table...

With a heat wave blanketing southern Vermont, it's 34 degrees out by the barn this morning at 7:00. 

Like you, I'm prepping for a busy day with two critical sales events on today's calendar to actually close deals I've been working on for two months.  Just need to get to that high five twice before 5 tonight.  Totally confident...almost

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Tags: sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, how to close sales, best sales practices;, sales success, how to write a sales plan, writing sales plans

It's January, it's wicked cold, and we gotta sell some stuff...

Minus 5 right now out by the barn this AM. 

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Tags: sales enablement, sales tools, how to close sales, improving sales productivity, sales success, how to write a sales plan, sales effectivness, planningsalestodayinacovidworld, 2022businessplansuccess

The number is 40ish

Actually, the real number is 39, but I wanted to push, extend, and stretch it to 40, but in the real world of Sales, and more importantly in the world of our customers and prospects, it's impractical to think that we will actually have 40 selling days left in the year.  Definitely 39 but probably only 35 given travel and prep days before Thanksgiving and Christmas, and then no experienced salesperson would ever plan on any of those days between Christmas and New Year's as real selling days.  Even if all of the decision makers were working that week, experience has taught us that the forecasted probability of getting all the required signatures from the legal, finance and purchasing departments is lower than low!  

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Tags: sales coach, sales enablement, marketing effectiveness, sales management boot camp, how to close sales, sales success, how to write a sales plan, planningsalestodayinacovidworld

Congratulations on finishing the Q on plan!

First, and most importantly this morning is to congratulate you on finishing the Q on plan! 

I never use the word "hopefully on plan", since "hope" has no place in today's fast-paced environment of Sales or Marketing.  It's always great, of course, to be "lucky" every once in a while, but that's like hitting Powerball last Wednesday night or hoping the Patriots win this Sunday, so I'm going to stick with congratulations for finishing the Q on plan!  

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Tags: sales coaching, sales effectiveness, closing sales, how to close sales, best sales practices;, sales success, how to write a sales plan, writing sales plans

Leaf Peepin' in Vermont...it's the season

Vermont Rules

As you know, I love Vermont and spend about 30% of my time working from there with more time on the weekends doing what every Vermonter does: shovel snow, rake leaves, tend my woodlot and plant gardens.  Plus, every time I'm there, including this weekend, I always take some time out to admire the unique beauty of Vermont by walking down to the river or just looking across to the now-turning leaves on the other side of the pond just up the road a piece.

Six generations of my family before me were born and lived in this same valley, and although I call myself "a Vermonter", I always leave out the fact that I was born and lived my early years in a tough neighborhood on the south side of Chicago.  Maybe I'm "a-kind-of Vermonter" since I've lived in this same valley for 50 years, but I do know my place in that I am not "a true Vermonter".   Those are Vermont Rules!

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Tags: sales planning, sales success, sales effectivness, writing business plans, planningsalestodayinacovidworld, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 business planning