Jack Derby, Head Coach

Jack Derby, Head Coach, Derby Management As founder and Head Coach of Derby Management, Jack Derby and his managers provide strategic planning, and sales and marketing optimization services to growth and middle market companies. Prior to forming Derby Management, Jack served as CEO of Mayer Electronics Corporation, President of CB Sports, President of Litton Industries Medical Systems, CEO of Datamedix Corporation and President of Becton Dickinson Medical Systems. For his work in the entrepreneurial community, Jack was named to Mass High Tech’s All Star Team. He also received the distinguished Pro Bono Publico award from the Smaller Business Association of New England, the Meritorious Service Award for the Association for Corporate Growth, and the Vincent Fulmer Distinguished Service Award from the MIT Enterprise Forum. He is a frequent speaker at numerous sales meeting and business organizations including the Association for Corporate Growth and the MIT Enterprise Forum of Cambridge, where he was Chairman of both organizations. He is a Professor of the Practice at Tufts University, where he teaches two courses: “Entrepreneurial Marketing” and “The Art & Science of Sales”. In 2015, Jack received the Henry and Madeline Fisher Award given to the best teacher on campus, an award that is voted by the graduating students and the faculty. He is the first faculty member from the Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies Program to be given this recognition. He is also a lecturer at MIT, where for the past nineteen years, he has taught classes in business planning and marketing to undergraduate and graduate students in the Mechanical Engineering Department. Jack is currently an active board member in a number of companies, including the Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Accounting Management Solutions, Aviant Hospice, Brainshark Corporation, Chase Corporation, Rome Snowboards, Reiser Inc, and Tufts University’s Entrepreneurial Leadership Studies Advisory Board. He is also the past Chairman of Common Angels Ventures, one of the most active seed and early stage investment funds, now rebranded by Jack and management to Converge Ventures.
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Recent Posts

Focus on what you can control...and that's a lot!

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Mon, Apr 13, 2020

We've all heard this phrase- "focus only on what you can control"- numerous times now over the last 10 chaotic weeks.  This Monday morning I'm merely suggesting that we give it a solid 60 minutes of detailed thinking during this week bringing the clouds of buzz in that phrase down to the streets of reality with a small number of carefully planned activities that we can totally control.

 
3 critical baselines we can totally control:

  1. Our Personal Health: 
    Most importantly, focus on your personal health and the health of your families!  That's always Job #1 and that by itself will take us through this chaos!  Once our own health and that of our family is solid and has been locked down, then we can figure out everything else. 

    Since by now everyone understands the basics of what it takes to remain healthy, I'm recommending ramping up those basics 2X over the next four months. Keeping ourselves healthy during the heat of this summer will be very difficult to say the least.  For a solid example of what it means to ramp up the basics, take a look at leading healthcare and certified nursing advocate, Jenn Loughty's hand washing site  

    Our Business Health: 
    Ramping up the basics of our business health was outlined perfectly last week by my good friend, noted author and acclaimed speaker, Jamie Turner in his 60SecondMarketer blog on
    "7 Strategies to help your business get through the crisis."  Definitely a worthwhile read! 


    This is stuff we already kinda' know, but now's the time to ramp it up 2X ...and squash the curve!


  2. Our Sales & Marketing Processes:
    We can totally control the necessary pivots to our Sales and Marketing processes and the tools that we're using right now in Q2.  We obviously can't "control" our actual sales results...couldn't before and certainly can't now..., but we can totally control what "Activities" we're planning and executing!


    For years I've been a student of strategy and business planning, and this simple graphic has always been a solid guide to center me when I'm working with our clients. In today's world of planning what we will be doing in marketing and sales, this is not a time when we should be focused on either vision or strategies. This is a time to be laser focused on the next 90 days with everything riveted on the tactical execution of activities.

    If there is a strategy, it is to survive, and survival is about executing battlefront activities!  

    Does it make sense?
    This is a very simple question to ask ourselves in our week-by-week and month-by-month battle planning of activities between now and the 4th of July since at the latest you should not be planning out further than that.  

    Get down to the street level and go through an analytical thought process of sense-making by yourself and ideally with your sales & marketing team.   

    Get your head out of the clouds of strategic planning and ask yourself "Does it make sense?" as you focus on the activities necessary to sell to customers in mini-territories of streets and not states and you launch Inbound-Only Marketing campaigns to one industry and not five.

  3. Our Sales Forecasting:
    We've now been living in this increasing chaos of the unknown for about eight weeks, and I continuously hear questions like I heard on a webinar I was on last Monday week with the amazing Laurie White, President of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce 


    - The question was asked by a head of sales: "How do I forecast in these times?" 
    - Me: "Plan out only 4 weeks!".  (2 weeks ago, it was 2 weeks.)

    - He:  "My boss wants to see a forecast out to December"
    - Me: "Just say no. Plan out 4 weeks listing 5 assumptions. In 2 weeks, do 4 more.

    - Me:  "Focus 95% of your time on your current customers!  
    - Me:  "Focus 100% on your value propositions & not on your products"

Sales Management Boot Camp:  May 12th & 13th
"Successfully Managing Sales in Chaotic Times"


If you want to understand what it takes to successfully manage, sell, train, ramp up and forecast in these chaotic times, work with us online in a highly engaged, hands-on Sales Management Boot Camp!  

  • Two three & a half hour team sessions on the mornings of May 12th and 13th 
  • One-on-one Coaching Sessions on May 14th 
As part of our Sales Management consulting, we've been running two to three F2F boot camps a year for 20 years.  Held in partnership at MIT with other leading sales management experts focused on dramatically increasing sales productivity, enablement and readiness, we've run intensive one and two-day F2F highly engaged camps bringing together CEOs, Presidents and Sales Managers from a wide diversity of industries. 

  • We actively engage everyone in our unique strategy of "Process-Tools-Technology & People".
  • We dive deep into real-life tactics that you can start using immediately the next week.
  • We focus on developing street-level playbooks of Activity Plans

Now, we're bringing that expertise online with the same level of deep practicality and active engagement that's resulted in hundreds of notes of thanks from managers and presidents of both large corporations and mid-market companies covering a wide range of markets. 

The primary coaches will be George Simmons and me, with guest speakers featuring Colleen Honan, CSO of Brainshark and James Stone, Director of Mid-Market Sales at Hubspot.  Two leading mid-market companies focused on sales and marketing productivity with two highly successful sales execs who have figured out how to adapt and sell in this period of unknowns.

Click here for more details and then just connect directly with me for any questions at jack@derbymanagement.com, and I will set up a call with you right away and get you registered!

 

If at any time, you have a need for a confidential sounding board, just connect at any time.  Text or email me, and I will quickly set up a call. 

Obviously, no cost-just an opportunity to listen intently and make a few recommendations based on decades of experience.

Have a safe and positive week !

Please stay safe & connected!
jack@derbymanagement.com
Head Coach, Derby Management, experts in...
-Sales & Marketing Productivity
-Business and Strategic Planning
WHAT WE DO AT DERBY MANAGEMENT

Professor, Tufts Entrepreneurship Center
-Entrepreneurial Marketing
-The Science of Sales 

 

 

 

 

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Tags: sales planning meetings, sales forecasting, sales success, sales effectivness, writing sales plans, writing business plans

In the belly of the beast

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Apr 03, 2020

This is exactly where we hoped we would not be, and yet, here we are today in the belly of the beast.  

Not many of us any longer are hoping that this situation will get better, since what we have experienced most recently in the harsh reality of the last seven days, clearly defines that the personal and business impact will become a lot worse before it improves.  I am neither capable nor technically equipped to make any projections, and my personal business expectations are just as good or as bad as yours, but having said that, I, like you, run businesses and, like you, I'm a pragmatist, and I know that we are in this chaotic situation for a long time until vaccines hit the market.  

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Tags: improving sales productivity, Making Tough Choices, sales management productivity, creating trust in sales, 2020 sales plans, writing sales plans, sales readiness

Prepare, Be positive & Stand up!

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Mar 26, 2020

No one needs to tell us how difficult this is!

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Tags: sales forecasting, sales leadership, sales management productivity, sales effectivness, 2020 business plans, 2020 sales plans

Throw out the plan and survive!

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sat, Mar 21, 2020

Typically, at this point in the selling season, I'd be writing this morning about the end of Q1, telling everyone to crunch it for this final week ahead, and begin prepping for the upcoming most important quarter in any selling year,   But, not today!

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Tags: business planning, writing a business plan, Making Tough Choices, 2020 business plans, 2020 sales plans, writing business plans

Fear & Hope?  What can I do?

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Mar 06, 2020

In a time of fear and concern regarding the personal and business impact of the COVID-19 virus, where do I turn? 

My recommendation is listen only to the experts! 

If I listen to most radio channels or watch David Muir on the evening news, in all respect, I don't know whether I should immediately drive to my Vermont bunker up on the ridge and hunker down with my six months of rations, or merely drive to Home Depot and pick up more antiseptic wipes. 

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Tags: sales planning meetings, sales success, value propositions, Sales Hiring & Onboarding, how to write a sales plan, creating trust in sales, 2020 sales plans, writing sales plans, sales readiness

Sugarin' season in Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Feb 27, 2020

The rhythm of the seasons...Taint spring yet

I was reminded yesterday of the inevitable rhythm of the seasons both in VT and in the world of Sales.  It seems that for some yet unknown reason, a decision has been made to redo the kitchen in Vermont.  Not that I was consulted or even asked in this decision process, but I was told that a decision had been made all the same. Given this, I reached out to my friend Steve at Homestead, the company up at the end of the road a piece that does the plowing in the winta', the lawn in the summa' and basically everything else from landscaping to construction at the VT house.  

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Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, sales enablement, sales boot camp, improving sales productivity, sales leadership, sales effectivness, sales motivation, sales readiness

Most sales "training" is a waste of time

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Feb 21, 2020

Good morning!  looks like a great Friday coming into a sunny weekend!

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Tags: sales planning meetings, sales forecasting, Sales Hiring & Onboarding, sales management plans, sales effectivness, sales motivation, 2020 sales plans, writing sales plans, sales readiness

In Sales you need to have a backup key !

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Feb 14, 2020

Every year I travel about 40,000 miles between the NH beach, the Tufts campus in Medford, the Derby Management office in Boston and the Vermont house alongside the Winhall River up the road a piece from Brattleboro. 

Because of the miles and the typical wicked tough New England weather, I totally love Subarus. Cheryl, my #1 Subaru salesperson, and I will soon be celebrating our 10th car together as soon as the pre-ordered 2020 four-cylinder turbo is delivered in a couple of weeks. 

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Tags: sales hiring, sales success, sales effectivness, 2020 sales plans, writing sales plans, sales readiness

Workin' hard into February

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sat, Feb 08, 2020

As I write this on a 14-degree sunny Saturday morning, I'm just in from snowblowing deep in the woods of Winhall (or Bondville) Vermont (pop.647).  Known by the State of Vermont, the town of Winhall is-according to the Feds-also the village of Winhall in the town Bondville.  Or maybe it's the other way around. Hard to figure.   

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Tags: sales leadership, sales success, Sales Hiring Perfectly, sales management plans, sales management productivity, selling trust, sales motivation, writing sales plans, sales readiness

Strategy is kinda important, but activities are critical

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Jan 31, 2020

Super Bowl Sunday & Sales 

For months, everything in the NFL has been on the line, and it all comes down to this Sunday when the two best teams in the country define the 2020 Champion!  

Not all that different than viewing our own Sales scoreboards at the end of the sales year on January 1, and of course. starting today for January and then in any of the following months and quarters.  Metrics count everywhere in business and in our own personal lives, and achieving metrics always result from executing activities from planning strategies and tactics.

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Tags: sales enablement, sales boot camps, sales readiness, superbowl of sales