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.
Find me on:

Recent Posts

I'm looking for a few good Tufts Marketing Projects-fall, 2014

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Apr 15, 2014

Each semester at Tufts, over a period of 13 weeks, I engage 30-35 students in a unique, hands-on, tools-based experience of preparing them for the real world of business in general and specifically the complexities of working in today's exciting environment of Marketing and Sales.  As a result, I...

Read More

Tags: Tufts university, Tufts ELS program, Tufts Gordon Institute, Tufts Marketing, Tufts internships

Planning for the Boston Marathon...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Apr 10, 2014

April 21st marks the 118th running of the Boston Marathon.  Considering the tragedy that occurred last year, this particular marathon will be steeped in pride and emotion as a record number of runners participate to show their support for the event and the runners, along with their respect for those who died and were injured in last year's horror.

Read More

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales management training

How to Think About Innovation & Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Mon, Mar 31, 2014

Driving back from running one of our boot camps in Rochester last Friday, I decided to stop at the house in (the frozen tundra of) Vermont rather than make the drive even longer by continuing on to the NH beach.  Looking at the house, as I drove in late Friday afternoon, I noticed that there were...

Read More

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales optomization, 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.

Read More

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

Birthdays, Social Marketing...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Mar 18, 2014

Last week I celebrated my xx birthday.   No magic number.  No big celebration.  But, as a friend of mine from my daily high school email posse remarked... "Having birthdays is a whole lot better than not having them".  James Geshwiler and Maia Heymann began our 8:00 Monday morning  status call at Common Angels by singing "Happy Birthday".  Mike Schumann, VP of Sales at Salsify, asked through Linked In how it felt to be 49? I responded, of course, that "I wouldn't know...yet." 70 of my FaceBook friends chimed in with best wishes and another couple of hundred through Linked In. And, yes, I did get two actual paper birthday cards...from the cats.  And, oh yeah, I bought myself a car as a birthday gift.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales management training, sales training, sales boot camp, sales management boot camps

Cheerios, not Wheaties has the best Sales Value Proposition

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Mar 07, 2014

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, there was an interesting marketing article on Wheaties.   Most of us grew up with the marketing tag line of "The Breakfast of Champions" ringing in our head along with pictures of Michael Jordan, Dorothy Hamil, Michael Phelps and similar top level athletes featured in full color on the outside of the box.  Wheaties actually taste pretty good! The problem is that although they are an iconic 91 year old brand, they no longer sell very well. 

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales enablement, sales effictiveness, sales boot camp

It doesn't matter if you're right; it matters that you're understood

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sat, Mar 01, 2014

Recognition for this title to Seth Godin in his blog last Saturday.  A Tufts grad, Seth has a knack for minimalism both in his blog content and in his persona.  As I was reading his blog, immediately I thought of how important a statement this was for the sales people at most companies.  And the reason for that are these disturbing facts below from a recent study at the Harvard Business School:

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales management boot camps

Training for the Gold...and more Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Feb 19, 2014

Now that we've settled into the actual competition of the Olympics and moved past the media distractions of uncompleted hotel rooms and relentless weather reports of melting snow, the pure athleticism in Sochi is just outstanding.  World records and gold medals are decided in hundredths of a second after skiers and skeleton sleds plummet downhill at 80 miles an hour while hockey teams play repeated rounds of sudden death overtime.  So far, this Olympics has been both exciting and heartwrenching (my snowboarding friend, Lindsey Jacobellis ,falling) to watch.  

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, selling skills, sales training, sales management boot camp

Love...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Feb 13, 2014

With Valentine’s Day tomorrow, does it ever cause you to ask, “Who?", or maybe more fitting in the world of Sales, "What do you really love?”  

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales management boot camp

It's February. Are you confident that your sales team is ready?

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Feb 11, 2014

You're one month into the year, and already you should have a pretty good idea as to whether your sales team is tuned up, armed with the right tools and ready for what just might be another rough and tumble year ahead.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Management Best Practices, sales management boot camp