At 8:30 this morning, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics will release the employment report. My guess is that it's going to show that hiring slowed in January while the unemployment rate was flat.  Nothing unexpected there since I've been listening carefully to our clients since October with a steadily increasing number of comments of "let's see what happens with the elections", and much more loudly in January: "let's see how the new Trump directives shake out".  Since one of our mantras with our customers is to only focus on those things that you yourself can control, and since most of us cannot control these larger events, what does come to mind this morning is an opportunity during this graduation season to hire the best seniors coming out of the universities that surround our companies:

• Of course, you want the best, and, of course, they are very bright!  Many of us joke about the very positive differences we see in these young men and women compared to when we were in undergraduate school.
• They want to work. They want to work "in the office" both for the experience and the mentoring potential.  They are very disciplined, having carried five or six courses simultaneously while balancing sports or other outside-the-classroom activities.
• They are digital natives resulting in their "natural" abilities to rapidly utilize any technologies from deep-dive CS courses-all of which include deep experience in AI, to the use of digital marketing analytics to hands-on experience with CRM platforms to the ability to adeptly and effectively communicate both in their writing skills and in their abilities to present.

The ask this morning is to reach out to your contacts at any of the extraordinary colleges and universities that surround your business. Participate in the many career fairs that are now starting in February.  At Tufts, for example, we have one next Friday.  If you want to be more personal, connect with Career Services at the university where you went to school and take advantage of your alum status. To be more personal yet, connect directly with the relative department chair and explore with that person what you're looking for.  And, of course, you can always connect with me for my own extraordinary Sales or Marketing students or any of my 30 colleagues within the Derby Entrepreneurship Center or connect directly with Tufts Career Center.   

On the student side of the equation, since I've felt for some time that I could be doing a better job in preparing my own 150+ students every year, I just completed one of my "How-To" free books, this one titled "The Marketing of Me" which you might want to flip through and potentially send on to your own college kids. This grew out of a speech I made this past fall to Tufts parents where I started with a comment that if "as professors we are not concerned about preparing our students for the best jobs, then we shouldn't be teaching".   The book is meant to fill in the details of what it takes to land great jobs today that goes far beyond the somewhat useless practice of writing resumes.

Have a great day selling today, and "enjoy" what looks like a snow-event weekend.  Personally, at 5:00 AM this morning, I was still trying to chip away at the ice from yesterday.  

Working on your 2025 Sales plans!

For a few ideas on how to customize your own sales planning for 2025, click here for our just updated, no-cost "Writing the Winning Sales Plan in 2025, outlining ideas on structure, sales models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best salespeople.  A hands-on "how to" guide for real salespeople written by real sales managers.

Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com, and let's discuss your own sales planning ideas for this year.