Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

'Tis the Season...

Well, not really THE season, but it is...

The Business Planning Season for working on, discussing, talking through, arguing about and spreadsheeting over and over again various strategic business plans, tactical department plans and the ever-important sales and marketing activity plans.  

Ultimately, every sales account plan, every marketing strategy and activity plan, every hiring plan, financial plan and product development plan will roll up to be your company's 2016 business plan.  Perfect in its creation and, somewhat by definition of what it is-a plan after all-flawed in its forecasted end points.  My own rule of thumb is that if the plan was met perfectly an entire 12-14 months later from its creation, then the management team probably didn't stretch themselves far enough.

Another good concept to carry into this business and sales planning season are the quotes from Eisenhower and Patton who both noted that the planning process itself is much more important than the actual plan that results

Superb weekend last weekend and clearly fall is in the air!  

The Corvette took me out for a drive to Vermont the weekend before, and the back roads were already packed with buses from Indiana and Ohio filled with Leaf-Peepers.  This is the season when The Boys on the Bench down at the Winhall General Store in the town where I live (population 647) are thinking long and hard about how to squeeze in their deer hunting trips before the first sightings of the New York City and Jersey skiers appear with their long lists of well-paying jobs that need to be done the hill opens at Thanksgiving.  

Over the years as a student of the profession of Sales, i've been trained in...

This summer proved to be a test of my Sales & Marketing studying abilities...and, I think that I just may have passed the test

Earlier this year, I underwent open heart surgery.  What did I know beforehand?  Not much, I found out

Getting ready to take the rest of August off and hunker down on the beach with my goal of a book every two days.   15 days, hopefully 10ish books on sales and marketing starting with my buddy, David Meerman Scott's new book, New Rules of Sales & Service.  

Hopefully, you're taking time at the beach in August and not worrying about attending any meetings.

My belief is that the whole purpose of August is to cram in as many of your vacation days as possible, since when business ramps up in the post Labor Day Crush you're out in front of it...recharged and ready to sprint toward December's end of the year craziness.   

August for me is about reading.  Reading about...

- What's new in Sales?
- What's new in Marketing?
- What's new in business strategy?

My goal is a book a day, but it comes out to be more like a book every other day...just because some days aren't beach days, and turn into meeting days.

"There's only one single source of the truth"

Sales Stats

With the first six months of the sales year behind us, the Big Scoreboard in the boss's office says it all:  

July 4, 1776.

There's so much written about sales leadership, my eyes gloss over.  

By now, I've listened to countless speakers, including the legendary Zig Ziglar, viewed hundreds of videos, and probably read a couple of hundred books and who knows how many blogs on the subject of sales leadership.  The problem is that most of the training advice focuses on the motivational, which too often disappears into the wind as soon as the speech or the chapter has ended other than the notes taken and the highlights yellowed.