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.

sales and the boston police department For the past six years, I've had the privilige of working with the senior command of the Boston Police Department as we strategized and tactically figured out how to reduce crime in the City of Boston.  Under Ed Davis's direction, and now with Bill Evans' highly capable leadership as Commissioner, along with a deeply experienced senior leadership team, violent crime has been reduced every year for the past five.  More then ever, given the nature of the detailed planning and tactical training that these men and women do, I'm convinced that Boston will continue to reduce its crime rate continuing to make our City one of the safest in the U.S.  

A fair amount of what we've done over these years is to consistently plan more strategically and for longer periods of time. Answering questions of "Where do we need to be 12 to 18 to 24 months from now?" "What do the communities expect from us in terms of safety?" .  "How can we communicate better both internally and externally?"  All easy questions; all complex answers, but each of them attacked, discuussed and tactically solved as a leadership team.  With these and numerous other strategic questions, we've created detailed objectives that defined success in terms of their end points and then backfilled into those with tactical plans and detailed monthly metrics and milestones.  Not very different from what all of us do in our corporate planning experiences.  Except that at the BPD, the results are often real life and death situations and not just the fear of missing this month's sales quota.

A short period of time after the tragic events of last April, the team and I came together for a day of "lessons learned from the bombings".  Certainly, the scenario of a bombing at the finish line had been previously mapped out and tactically trained for.  What was different in this case was the actual timing of the explosions.   As a result of our planning sessions, a series of discoveries were identified, additional tactical plans were put in place and multiple training programs were created and executed.

As a result of all of my involvement in all of this detailed planning, highly coordinated tactical execution, and most importantly, consistently repeated training, when I hear from some sales managers that they cannot plan or cannot forecast because of...

  • the vagaries of the weather
  • "this is a new market"
  • the competition's new products 
  • ...and lots of other excuses,

I always think about the management of the BPD and compare their sitution...

  • A large, complex and old (1st in the nation) organization
  • Unions, civilian staff and chain-of-command structures
  • Complex data flows everywhere
  • Weather makes a significant difference in the crime rate

And yet, year after year, the officers of the BPD, reduce the crime rate even with lower budgets and the demands of complex political and cultural requirements from a diverse number of communities.  

What's the secret other than the dedication of these individuals?  

  • It's better planning
  • It's better tactical detailing 
  • It's consistent training
  • It's written playbooks


Boston Strong resized 600

So, when we watch the Boston Marathon this year and cheer on all of the runners and give our financial support to the victims from last year's tragedy, think about the lessons that you can take away from the event itself and the BPD's planning and training processes and apply them to your own sales organization.

The reasons for thinking through this process should be the same since you want your sales and customer support people to be more highly trained, more focused on their customers and more supportive of the overall mission of your business.

 

So ask yourself...


  1. What's your training schedule look like for the balance of the year?
  2. Do you run a certified training academy?  
  3. Do you hold quarterly peer-to-peer reviews of what worked & didn't?
  4. Do you have Q2 playbooks in place for all of your key accounts?
  5. Do you conduct field training?  Do you video your training?
  6. Do you have easy-to-find video libraries for your salespeople?
  7. Are your salespeople all armed with smartphones and tablets?
  8. Are they totally fluent in social selling?
  9. Is all of your data centralized and data entry mandatory?
  10. Have you trained all of your people for 30-60-90 Day Plans?

I'm obviously passionate about the BPD and all of the great stories of their dedication and heroism. Perhaps, most importantly, I see how a highly organized and well-planned series of strategies, tactics and training programs works in a complex environment.  As a result, I'm convinced that if we, as managers, were to consistently incorporate some of the same ideas, and especially their commitment to tactical training, into our own sales departments, the results for our companies would be huge...just as they have been for the BPD!  

By the way, if you happen to be at the Marathon this year, just take a minute to thank the officers that you see there.

Good Selling! 

 Jack Derby 

Head Coach
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Tufts Marketing

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 environment of Marketing and Sales.  As a result, I...

  • teach marketing as tools: SWOT, Value Props, CMS, segmentation, pricing, and so on
  • wrap in four HBS case studies to support both marketing strategies and tools
  • take road trips to Brainshark and HubSpot since we use their technology platforms in class
  • accept complex, semester-long marketing projects from six real companies
  • assign those company projects to teams of five juniors and seniors
  • blend class content into each of the company projects

Which leads me to look for 6 new companies each semester. 

Right now, I'm taking applications for the upcoming fall, 2014 semester.  If you're interested, please email me at jack@derbymanagement.com, and I will send you an overview of what's involved and instructions.  Last November, I had 32 companies request information, and we accepted 6. Currently, I have two companies signed up, so I'm looking for four more.

A truly unique opportunity for both the companies and the students.  

...which is the primary reason why I teach.  The other reason is that the process of teaching a subject like Marketing, that changes dramatically every year, hopefully keeps me to remain on the competitive edge for both Marketing and the coming revolution in Sales.  And finally, it's a lot of rewarding fun!

Please let me know if you're interested.  

 

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