With snowboarding just around the corner…in 35 days (but who’s counting?), I happened to take a trip to 1 Derby Lane in Waterbury, Vermont to see the boys at the best snowboard company in America, Rome Snowboards.  I’ve been riding Rome gear for 10+ years now, and it’s far superior to those other guys who also make a couple of boards in Vermont.  Having said that, I also need to mention that I do have a very strong bias toward Rome since I'm on their board of directors, and greatly enjoy working with co-founders, Josh and Paul.  Great company, great product and great management!  Come ride with me this winter at Stratton, and I'll show you.

While I'd like to believe that Josh and Paul named the street where Rome is located after their favorite board member, in reality, the Derby name is plastered all over Vermont as a result of various Derby tribes, including my own, pioneering into Vermont in the early 1700's.

What’s in the Vermont name?

Other than all the old jokes about more cows than people, and Vermonters being laid back and living in a different time zone, actually lots of firsts...

• first US issued patent
• first land grant college & the first private military academy
• first electric motor & the first pulp paper mill
• first state to abolish slavery
• first steel plow from Vermonter, John Deere
• and on & on...plus, after all, it is Vermont

So, what’s in your name?

As a salesperson, your name is absolutely your personal brand, and you need to protect it, build it, constantly polish it and always be focused on how you present yourself in everything you do-the way you look, speak, write and present yourself.  The question for today is whether you consistently think about this in terms of your own sales brand?  

• Have you updated your various sales tools to reflect your personal brand?
• When's the last time you redid your sales slide decks?
• When's the last time you updated your Linked In?
• BTW, your LI should have >500 names plus > 5 recommendations
• Are you using new sales technologies like Brainshark to present?
• What does your Outlook signature say about you & your company?
• Is your brand "salesperson", "strategic consultant" or "Trusted Advisor"?

Simple ideas, simple tools, but in this quarter, in this economy, your name and your personal sales brand just may make the difference in your ability to make quota!

Good Selling !!!

Jack,
Head Coach

For a few of our Sales Tools, CLICK on the toolbox...

It's that time of year again, when in my "other" job as a marketing professor at Tufts, I begin to think about company projects for my students for next semester. For 12 semesters now, we've woven the theory and tactics of the rapidly changing world of marketing into six real world companies. With five students per team assigned to each of these companies, the students are presented by management with complex, semester-long marketing projects ranging from detailed market research on new product launches to building complete marketing plans .

If you're interested in participating, just email me, and I will send you an outline of what's involved. The deadline for selecting the companies is December 1st, and we are limited only to six companies only each semester.