A crisp 55 in the Seaport where I am at 7 this morning.  Probably 45 down at the Winhall General Store in Vermont and just cold enough to start planning seriously about filling up the woodshed. While the weatha’ dictates my long list of Fall "To-Dos" that need to be done at the NH beach and in the VT hills, with only five more selling days left in the Q, quota success for the balance of this year is all about detailed account planning:

• Weeks now, not months. The actual days are 60; the real days are 50.
• Account Playbooks by the month, not the quarter
• Activities, not strategies. Strategies are for 2023, activities are next week
• Metrics are now daily analytics, not weekly trend graphs

The Reality of Business & Tufts

If the real world of Sales & Marketing has somewhere between 50 and 60 days left in the year, it’s pretty much the same rhythm at Tufts and any university.

• We’re 3 weeks into our Science of Marketing course
• Wednesday, my students visited their host companies and met management F2F
• Objectives were tightened, metrics were detailed, and schedules confirmed
• 3 weeks from now, mid-terms
• Final presentations first week of December
• Management decides 40% of the grade based on the marketing plans delivered

I personally love the energy and the tightened schedules of the Fall. Our customers are balancing finishing the year while management is already thinking through the primary growth strategies and tactics for 2023.   At the same time, teaching at Tufts is speeding ahead with a ton of work and very exciting events at the Derby Entrepreneurship Center.  This time of year, I am also consistently asking everyone for internships and full-time jobs in May for my best students.  Interested?  Just connect with me, and I'll connect you with the best!

The fall Big Clean

And then in two weekends from now, “The Fall Big Clean” happens in Vermont with five young, sub-30s showing up to get the house and the woods winter-ready.  

The ingenuity of this particular picture occurred last fall when I sold five acres of my woodlot and then realized that the woodland gazebo needed to be moved 200 feet.  I'm thinking about my tractor and winches and the pouring of a new foundation. 

The much more entrepreneurial team cut 10 logs from dead trees, set up a system of rollers over gravel that they dug on the site and a couple of hours later, the job was done.  

On one hand, the Fall, which officially kicks off today, is about the rhythm of the calendar, the quarter and the weatha’. But, in reality, it’s really all about our ability to plan ahead!   A deep winta's comin', and that comment-in my assessment-relates both to the weatha' and to the economy-and the time for planning starts right now.

Have a great weekend!!!

Just some thoughts for a Friday early afternoon to think about over what looks like a spectacular weekend when I'll be back in Boston working with customers since right now, there's just not enough time in the weeks!  Always happens in the rhythm of the fall!

At any time, if you want to discuss your own marketing planning for the rest of this year, just connect with me for some quick ideas and feedback. There's no cost to a call or two, plus I love listening and talking about this new rapidly changing world of marketing and sales, which is nothing like the old days of 2020! In the meantime, take a look at our 2022 edition of our Writing the Winning Marketing Plan in 2022.

www.derbymanagement.com  
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.