Given the confusion and uncertainty in every market that we're involved in as to the current business landscape, there continues to be a lack of clarity in how to plan for 2026.
Having said that, as we've experienced in every September-November annual planning cycle, most management teams will ultimately come together in an timely process. Like the seasons of the year, this fall planning process maps the natural rhythm of business, and well-performing management teams always figure it out. My advice for this season's planning cycle: Focus only what you can control and don't get distracted by politics or by national and global economics. Be aware, of course, of what's happening around you, but run this year's planning sessions on the mechanics of your products and your marketing and sales go-to-market tactical planning focusing on what your customers want and how they want to be sold and marketed to. In 2026, we believe that success will be all about customer mapping.
One of the outputs of your business plan cycle will be your 2026 hiring plan. What we're experiencing is that this is a great time to be hiring with more people not only available, but at a much higher degree of quality...at least in Sales and Marketing. BTW, for what it's worth, our forecast for 2026 is very positive!
Read More
Tags:
Sales Hiring Perfectly,
entrepreneurshipfortherestofus,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts,
2025 Business Planning,
2025MarketingPlanning,
2025SalesPlanning,
2026 Sales Planning,
2026 Business Planning
No, it's not The Season, this is the other one...the end of the Summa of '25. One can already hear it in the language being used by parents with their kids, most of whom are already back in school.
Read More
Tags:
Sales Best Practices,
HubSpot Tips,
Making Tough Choices,
2026 Sales Planning,
2026 Business Planning,
2026 Marketing Planning
During a "normal" non-Summa' work week, I spend 20-25 hours in traffic commuting from the NH Beach to the Boston office or to Tufts. It is what it is in America's worst city for traffic and accidents. In the world of "Things That You Don't Need to Know", Boston drivers are 244% more likely to get into a collision than the national average. This year for me has been especially "interesting" with 24,000 miles added on already through July plus a major repair caused by my losing argument with a concrete post in the Tufts parking lot.
Read More
Tags:
Sales Optimization,
Sales Best Practices,
Sales Management Best Practices,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center,
2025 Business Planning,
2025MarketingPlanning,
2025SalesPlanning
It's early Monday on a perfect summa' morning as I head off for a two-week Vermont mountain-top retreat to first explore, then consider and finally plan out the next year or so looking toward the end of 2026. The weather this summa' for me has been spectacular with a perfect balance of rain, sun and lots of heat, which I love.
Read More
Tags:
Sales Best Practices,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts,
2025 Business Planning,
2025MarketingPlanning,
2025SalesPlanning
I was out running on the NH Beach this morning and picked up too much sand and a small pebble in my way-too-loose Saucony's. I tolerated it for the run out, but then reaching the end of the seawall, just sat down, took off the shoes, shook out everything, laced up and motored back.
I'm a pretty bad runner and basically, it's an excuse to get out on the beach at 6:00 AM when the weatha's as superb as it's been.
Read More
Tags:
Sales quota,
Making Tough Choices,
Sales Hiring & Onboarding,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts,
2024 sales and marketing best practices,
2025 Business Planning,
2025MarketingPlanning,
2025SalesPlanning
The very good news is that we are now only 50% into the summa' approaching "The Dog Days of August". You know the flip side of this good news/bad news equation regarding the remaining 50%, so I will save you that depressing note.
Although later today, I'm driving away from the NH beach where I live even with today's forecast of a perfect beach weekend, my "Summa' love of reading books will simply be transferred to the outside deck in Vermont.
Read More
Tags:
Sales Management Best Practices,
business planning,
best sales practices;,
creating trust in sales,
bloggingacriticaltool,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts,
2025 Business Planning,
2025MarketingPlanning,
2025SalesPlanning
If you're confused about the direction of the current job market, there's a reason for that given the weekly changes on tariffs and immigration, the unanswered questions raised by the recent legislation and the unknowns of the wars in Israel and Ukraine. All issues with serious consequences, which, of course, leads to business uncertainties which directly results in delays on hiring decisions. Underlying any discussion on today's job market is the fact that while the overall unemployment rate is little changed since May, the number of unemployed has risen each month since February, the longest streak since 2009.
Read More
Tags:
Sales Hiring & Onboarding,
Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts,
2025 Business Planning,
2025MarketingPlanning,
2025SalesPlanning
We have always had the privilige of living in the the United States and believing in its foundational truths even though too often we have been divided because of ...
Read More
Tags:
4th of July
Today, June 20th, marks the official beginning of astronomical summer with the arrival of the summer solstice.
It becomes the longest day and shortest night of the year, offering maximum daylight hours to pick up the phone and start selling this morning before kicking off the weekend tomorrow that we've all been waiting for since the wicked days of February, the long weeks of March and the last 7 weekends of rain here in New England.
The Science of Our Longest Day...
The summer solstice occurs when the North Pole is tilted closest toward the Sun, positioning our hemisphere to receive the most direct sunlight possible. At exactly 10:42 AM EDT today, the Sun reaches its highest point in the sky, marking the precise moment of the solstice. This astronomical phenomenon has been celebrated by cultures worldwide for thousands of years, and for good reason...it represents the peak of solar energy.
The Science of Time and Sales Efficiency!
- As an "A" / "A+" salesperson, you work on average 60-65 hours a week.
- From those 3,120 hours a year, subtract 15% as normal "non-productive" time.
- Reduce that number by 15 days of well-deserved vacation.
- Reduce that number by 10 company holidays and then by 5 sick days a year.
- We're left with 2,352 hours which is our "Available Time" to Sell baseline
- Our collected data for 10 years at the firm shows only 61% of that is going to be spent actually selling (39.7%) or prepping to sell (21.4%), which leaves us with about 1,300 actual selling hours a year assuming that an "A" level salesperson is 90% effective in utilizing their time.
- That 1,300 number at 90% is relatively direct to achieve assuming you have a customized sales process, quarterly playbooks, CRM fluency, certification, interlaced tech tools and quarterly training sessions.
- Bottom line: the average B2B salesperson starts with around 3,000 hours, loses 2/3 of that in non-sales administrative time, non-customer meetings and necessary travel and ends up with 30-35% of prime time to sell. Our job as professional salespeople is to make sure that we're utilizing that available time scientifically with the best tools, coaching and team training.
Daylight Hours: Your Time Dividend Today
Depending on your location, today offers a generous helping of daylight that won't be matched again until next year. Here in Boston, we'll enjoy approximately 15 hours and 5 minutes of daylight making today both a psychological and physiological boost which extends directly into our physical and mental well-being as we begin our sales day today.
Have a superb day selling today with nearly 15-19 hours of daylight at your disposal. My recommendation before I hit the phone for an 8:00 sales call today is that you you should take some of that extra sunlight today before you head out for the first non-rainy weekend in 3 months to broadly plan out the next 75 days or so until Labor Day.
Think about Taking time this summa' to update your Sales playbook!
Think about taking a day out of this Summa' to work with us to tune up...or maybe actually create your first sales playbook. Our free how-to ebooks for general ideas:
"Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
"Writing the Winning Business Plan"
"Writing the Winning Marketing Plan"
We facilitate ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best people. We're real salesguys who continue to play and coach the game every day.
Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com and let's discuss.
Read More
