August Beaching...and More Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Aug 07, 2015

August_Day_at_WorkGetting ready to take the rest of August off and hunker down on the beach with my goal of a book every two days.   15 days, hopefully 10ish books on sales and marketing starting with my buddy, David Meerman Scott's new book, New Rules of Sales & Service.  

For five years, David's iconic book on The New Rules of PR & Marketing has been required summer reading for my Tufts marketing students, and this year, this Renaissance-Kind-of-Guy decided to change it up and go off and explore the world of Sales.  If you have not read his PR & Marketing book, and you're still scratching your head trying to figure out social media and blogging, this is the perfect entry vehicle to the now-not-so-new world of marketing.

The real point here is that this very accomplished author and worldwide speaker who has, along with the founders of Hubspot, created the framework and the phrasing of "Inbound Marketing", decided that he did not want to be branded as "just "The Inbound Marketing Guy".  

He and I met on stage in Canada about two years ago, giving speeches respectively on Marketing and on Sales, so I was very pleased to learn earlier this year that he had come over to my side of the revenue equation bringing his creativity to the now very rapidly changing world of Sales.  My own experience and projection about the world of Sales is that the practice of selling is nothing like it was back in the old days-five years ago-and it's about ready to go through a new revolution of fundamental change during the next year.  

In his free time while not writing sales and marketing books and giving speeches around the world, David is a very accomplished surfer and also a student of NASA's Apollo program which led to his authoring the fascinating and highly acclaimed book, Marketing the Moon, two years ago.

After I met David, I asked him why he took a shift to do the Moon book, and his response was immediate telling me that it's very important to him to reinvent, to explore and to learn about other categories of life outside the norm, and in this case, the norm had become "marketing", and specifically "Inbound Marketing". While he will always be noted for his insight, his expertise and his challenging of "standard" marketing, I learned that he also had a personal fascination with the Apollo program ever since John Kennedy challenged Congress in May of 1961 to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade.   

david_Meerman_Scott_2014-resized-600As I've been thinking ahead to the balance of the month on the beach and thoughts of reading books, asking DM Scott to visit us again at Tufts, polishing my surfing and getting prepared for teaching at MIT and Tufts next month, I'm also going to spend some concentrated time thinking through taking on an additional challenge and a personal reinvention or two.   As a result, I need to get inside my head a bit, as a salesguy, a manager and as a coach, and come up with at least a few short term answers to...

 

  • What's my vision of added success by the Summer of 2020?
  • Do I have any fears that would hold me back?  Easy answer:  "yes"
  • What's the one year plan that brings me successfully back to the beach next summa'?
  • What's the next big challenge going to be?

All good thoughts and the perfect time of year to unfold my mind a bit while I get lost in a series of marketing and sales books for the next couple of weeks.   

Change is good; remarkable change is better.  Good Selling!

Have specific sales questions that you want to bounce off me or any of our other coaches, just email me, and we'll set up a time to talk. 

Enjoy the Beach!

  Jack Derby 

Head Coach  

Derby Management...for 25 years
-Sales & Marketing Productivity Experts
-Business & Strategy Planning Specialists
-Senior Management Coaching

Box 171322, Boston, MA 02117
617-292-7101
Jack's Cell: 617-504-4222 

 describe the image describe the image  linked in

 

 

 

Tags: sales productivity