27 More (Kind Of…): Perfecting the ROI

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Mon, Nov 22, 2010

27 more selling days left in the year assumes that you (and more importantly, your prospects) are working this Wednesday, December 23rd and all 5 of the days between Christmas and New Year’s. The probability is pretty low that this is going to be the case, but days are days. The other issue that you need to consider in creating your own personal selling and closing calender between now and the rest of the year is that many of those days you define are not going to be fully available given the time of year with budget meetings and the end-of-the-year crunch.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness

27 & Counting-Be True to Your School

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Nov 19, 2010

So with just 27 more selling days left in the year, and you sitting there today frustrated that you still have not been able to break through to the key decision maker at your prospect, the purpose of this little blog series is to provide you with a tip a day. At this time of year, just leaving more voicemails and sending the same old emails is merely following of The Strategy of Hope.  Not a good strategy to follow at anytime and certainly not now.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales effectiveness, selling

28 More

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Nov 18, 2010

With 28 more days in the year to actually close deals, if you’re having trouble getting to Mr/Ms Decision Maker, take a hard look at the messaging that you’ve been using. Think about all of those voicemails, emails, and marketing messages that you’ve been hitting the Decision Maker with, and ask yourself the simple, objective question of … “So What?”  If you were sitting in their seat, is the messaging that you’re hearing definitive in terms of the actual value that your product or service is going to provide them when they buy? Or is it just a list of cuter, quicker, smaller, cheaper features.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, sales, sales management, selling, sales optomization, Sales quota

29 & Counting

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Nov 17, 2010

Today, there are 29 more days in the year in which we could close orders that are in our pipelines. Given typical sales cycles and the normal B2B complex selling processes, it’s almost impossible to believe that anything now that’s near the top of our funnels is going to move quickly downstream through the myriad of decision makers and signoffs so that it’s going to close before December 31st. So, right now, we’re talking about stuff in the narrow end of the funnel, typically in the stages that follow sending your proposals out: in some form of negotiation or in the seemingly black hole of “getting sign offs”.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness

Doing What Ya Love…

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sat, Nov 13, 2010

Just back from an early morning walk on the beach. Love to get out there on the non-snow weekends just after the sun has come up, smell the ocean, figure out what’s changed on the beach from the tides the night before and walk the entire length of the beach picking up the plastic sea trash. Gives me something do, justifies the walk and keeps me green-friendly something I’m not in my day-to-day business life.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales effectiveness, selling

Jack's Vermont & New Hampshire

Posted by Lynton Web Team on Mon, Nov 01, 2010

 

Read More

Tags: The Competitive Edge, november

Movin' The Needle: 39 Days (or so) Left in 2010

Posted by Lynton Web Team on Mon, Nov 01, 2010

1. 39-Still Plenty of Time

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, sales management training, sales training, business tools, business planning, The Competitive Edge, november

Please Stop the Whining !

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Oct 22, 2010

It’s bad enough that we need to listen to the politicians attack one another and tell us all of the negatives that their opponents are doing/have done. What I don’t want to hear is whining and complaining from underperforming salespeople in the 4th quarter about “how tough it is out there”, or that “our prices are too high”.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, improved sales management, Sales quota

Prep for the 57 Days Left in 2010

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Oct 15, 2010

Jack’s Vermont – Roots

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, selling skills

Rhythms & Balance

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Mon, Oct 11, 2010

Back in Vermont for the long weekend and find myself-as usual-trying to balance my time with the seasonal rhythms of the long list of “Things to Do Before The Snow” hanging in the workshop with the necessity of taking quiet time to do real work that just can’t be squeezed into the frentic workweek.  No complaints here since it is what it is, and, quite frankly, I enjoy the pace plus I have the privilige of working and playing in the mountains of Vermont and on the beach  in NH.  By the way, an interesting factoid is that Vermont used to be seaside property-500 million years ago-and the acclaimed Vermont marble is, in fact, created from miles of compacted seashells squeezed up from sea floor as the continents pushed toward one another over those millenia.

Read More

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales effectiveness, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, leadership