Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Some rules don't change in the rhythm of business or being a professor at Tufts!

As a skier since I was 5 and a snowboarder-only since I was 50-the beginning of the snow season continues to bring immediate positive emotions and a few practicalities to the forefront especially at this time of year. I've been involved in the ski & snowboard industry as a board member, as an entrepreneur and as a manager off and on for decades. Very exciting and rewarding times, and for those of you who may think that working in the industry would be a wonderful opportunity to be out on the hill, the reality is just the opposite since from Thanksgiving through mid-February, you're working every day, all the time.  

No matter who you or I voted for, it's good to have this election behind us, so we can get back to work. 

-too much division
-too much distraction
-too much caution

Time to get back to work and focus on moving ahead!

Just completed Week 9 of the 13-week semester this past Wednesday

At the end of every semester, I end with "The 3 Rules of Jack" which focus on life lessons.  Rule #2 is to consistently practice life-long learning in everything that one does.  Maybe that's an advanced degree (60% of my students do this post graduation). Maybe it's an individual work-related course, or perhaps it's pursuing a personal love of painting or sailing, learning another language, or in my wife's case, welding.  After watching two generations of students and many, many generations of friends, those individuals that are the most stimulating, those that have the most fun, and those that live the longest are those who stretch themselves to continuously learn.

I have the excitement of living on the NH beach, working in Boston, teaching at Tufts and spending time in Vermont.  If it weren't for the NH-Boston commute, the daily rhythm would be perfect, but it is what it is, and even the length of the commute has a seasonal rhythm of its own with the fall being the worst.  At least the drive is a good time for podcasts.

I don't know about you and your college experience, but my undergraduate years at BC were largely focused on balancing classes, taking copious notes, prepping for exams, working part time jobs and commuting back and forth-rain or snow-on my $250 motor scooter.  I was younger than most, wicked naive about what to expect and how to act, and very rarely got the opportunity to critically think.  When I had the opportunity 22 years ago to teach at MIT, which I still do every fall, and I'm now in my 20th year at Tufts teaching Marketing and Sales, I structured everything around activating critical thinking among my students by working in teams around complex projects. In fact, that's exactly what we've been doing in our consulting practice so transferring that discipline of project-based critical thinking to the classroom has been very direct.  

Surprise!  Surprise!
The leaves are falling in Vermont!  

When I was in in Vermont last weekend cranking up the leaf blower, I realized that the natural rhythm of the Fall was well underway. 30% early color in my woodlot and lots of buses full of leaf-peepers. Stratton's ad this morning featuring this picture marketing the fall festival next weekend and early discounts on ski passes made it official for me. 

 In the very unique state of Vermont, 25% of the annual tourism dollars happen in the next two or three weeks with busses from Ohio rolling in daily filled with seniors waiting to buy tiny, overpriced jars of maple syrup.  Right now, the rhythm of the seasons in Vermont is all about marketing as it should be!

I know that my Marketing manager friends who are reading this title are now cringing since they live in the real world of attempting to balance strategies and long-term initiatives with the day-to-day necessities of filling Q4 MQLs metrics.  And then of course, at this time of year, there's the requirement to figure out their 2025 marketing plans with the added pressure from their CFO of keeping their expenses the same.  And all of this within the very compressed time period of the next 8 weeks.  This is exactly why I try to make Marketing simple; otherwise, there's just too much to deal with and too often the resulting plans never gets to the results we need. 

Every day, depending on customers, quotas, and students, I spend a bit of time reading daily blogs from both McKinsey and Gartner on the revolutionary changes in the practice of the science of sales.  I've been preaching, experimenting, practicing and teaching these processes and tools at MIT and at Tufts for more than a decade, and all of that has been pre-AI.  

Yesterday afternoon, between sales calls, I clicked to a short McKinsey post that was pushed to me titled "How Generative AI Could Reshape B2B Sales", and it started with the headline of...

Sales stands on the brink of a profound transformation. The fundamental role of the seller may not change, but the power of gen AI ensures that the art of selling will look very different in the future.

My students and I have been actively using AI for the last two years, but as I read that blog, which from an academic standpoint was "interesting", it didn't give me anything that I could use to hammer down sales in the next 62 days. I filed it away in my growing library just outside my office of physical stacks of "interesting" articles this year, and then decided to replace "interesting" with "necessary" which led me to go back to Old School tactics that I...and maybe you...can do something with on Monday. 

Old school is to count the Available Selling Days left in the year, which by my count is 62...unless of course, you think that you're going to be productive in the days before and after Thanksgiving or any day after 
December 20th. Even if you're thinking that you might have those days, your prospects do not, so, let's just use "Jack Math" says we have 60 days left in this year to sell and end above quota.  

Increase your Windshield Time by 50%

Faced with a 90-minute commute most days into Boston or Tufts, I am a huge supporter of online work, and although I like to believe that I can be very productive making calls from the car, the reality is that there's not too many customers for me to talk with at 5:00 AM or 6:00 PM.  On the other hand, at this time of year, when I can arrange a F2F meeting, that's what I push. I have an online calendar on every email that is open to customers and students, and right now I block out large sections of time for customer travel.  

If you're a manager-an RM, a VP or a CEO, this is the perfect time to travel with your AEs and AMs for classic, old-school account reviews and teaching sessions. One of our very successful CEOs spends 75% of her time on the street with customers during this time of year! 

The 80%/20% Rule Still works in B2B

We've been at this for a long time. We love data which we've been collecting and reading about for decades, and the data from most B2B markets clearly states that approximately 80% of annual revenue comes from 20% of our customers. There's a bit of Jack Math in those numbers, but in general, the 80/20 Rule rules.

The core of your 60-day plan then is to spend your time with that small number of Key Accounts

• You can certainly visit every key account in the next 30-45 days.
• A superb time to review the year and work on or close any open opportunities.
• No better a time than F2F to ask: "What does it take to close this?"
• Since every business is currently working on their 2025 plans, ask about that plan.
• As a trusted advisor, ask if you/your company can help with their 2025 planning.
• You know them; they trust you: simply ask for more business to close this year!
• One of my very successful CEO's, always asks: "What added value can we provide?"

30-60-90 Plans

We're fingers-in-the-dirt planning guys, so we require written 30 days plans from every salesperson whether they're a BDR, an AE or AM, an RM or a VP.  It's an easy-to-complete templated format stored in the CRM that outlines big block activities by week over the next 30 days. In fact, personally I always push for 60 and even 90-day plans, but just earlier this week, I got pushback from a VP telling me:  "my guys don't have the time to do all of this planning".   Ok, so no 90-day plans, but if a salesperson-to whom I am paying a lot of money-cannot take 45-60 minutes once a week to update their plan every Sunday for the next 30 days, I already know that that person simply can't be productive.   

Have a great day selling today!!!

working on your 2025 Sales plan!

For a few ideas on your own sales planning for 2025, click here for our "Writing the Winning Sales Plan, outlining ideas on structure, sales models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best. 

Give me a call and let's discuss having us facilitate your 2025 planning process. 

I drive a ton of miles and there's nothing like a quick call as I challenge the end of day commute out of Boston to talk about your current thinking for this quarter with a few specific ideas. 

www.derbymanagement.com  
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.