On a particularly cold, wet and gray Vermont morning as I look out at the remnants of the two feet of snow earlier this week in addition to it being the last selling day of the quarter on Good Friday before Easter Sunday, I've was thinking a lot about "rhythms" on the drive up from Boston last night. Take Easter for example since everyone including me has been commenting on "how early Easter is this year", the simplest way to explain the date of Easter is that it falls on the first Sunday after the full moon that follows the spring equinox. Bottom line is that it's more complicated than that, but the simple fact is that there is a definitive rhythm to setting the date of Easter. Next time it will be on March 31st btw will be 2086.
TAINT
There's a rhythm to the seasons of course, but sitting here in my Vermont office looking across the field and realizing that when I was here two weeks ago, I was out raking grass, all I know right now is that I will have to push the boys out a weekend or two for our annual "Big Clean Spring Weekend". I am sure that the Boys on the Bench down at the General Store this morning will be talking about the weatha', and the fact that "It Taint Winta", and "It Taint Summa".
THe Rhythm & Reality of Q2's 65 days
But there is no mistaking the fact that today is the last selling day of the quarter, and in the way that I've always thought about The Science of Sales, Monday is the beginning of the most important quarter of the year.
The rhythm of our selling process has been set. It's now firmly in place and whatever changes needed to be made have been completed. The January sales meeting is a distant memory, and the reality of increasing quotas has been agreed to. Marketing has developed new tools, Value Propositions have been drilled and drilled some more, and on Monday, we set out to execute on a very definitive rhythm of only 65 selling days.
- Q2 is all about execution. No more planning other than a week ahead and the fine tuning of calls.
- All about executing on the math behind our KPIs.
- My close friend and Tufts alum, James Stone, from HubSpot came to lecture in our Science of Sales Course 3 weeks ago and drilled into all of us the criticality of having an established process-"One Single Source of Truth", and the fundamentals of "Start with the math that you need to achieve at the end point and simply work backwards day-by-day to get to today".
Of course, having the discipline of execution, the leadership of strong and experienced management along with the efficiency and ease of use of a powerful CRM like HubSpot are absolute necessities in making sure that we will make our number beginning on Monday. I am always very excited about the fact that around 125 of my alums are at HubSpot, mostly in Sales. One of the most successful sales machines in tech coupled with an outstanding culture and always listed as "best place to work". If you want to learn more about why HubSpot, just dial me up.
For me, as I look across the results of our customers for Q1, I am very confident that 2024 is going to be a great year. That's exactly what we were forecasting last year at this same time, and where and what we're forecasting for '24. But, first, the reality of Q2 begins Monday! Day by Day! Step by Step!
Have a great day selling today and a wonderful Easter Weekend!
jack@derbymanagement.com and 617-504-4222. Connect anytime!
www.derbymanagement.com
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.
Q2 is THE PERFECT TIME TO execute on 2024 SALES PLAN!
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