In our Science of Sales course yesterday, the pressure is now ratcheting up as the students work toward their two-hour final presentations two weeks from now to the CEOs of their project companies who provide 40% of their grade.  

• Yesterday, Alice Ewell, a graduate from our Marketing course a few years ago, and now a heavily experienced VP of Customer Success, dialed in yesterday providing an amazing lecture on Customer Success complete with an in-class team exercise for each of our six project teams. During her lecture up popped the word "Checklist" identifying many of the critical components that one needs to consider in building a successful customer-focused organization with today's customer-first focus.  
• When Frank Yandrisevits, an extraordinary sales executive, also an alum from this course, came in a couple of weeks ago to outline different sales organizational structures along with the details of their required compensation plans, he also talked about using Checklists. 
• John Routhier, a Tufts grad from the 80's, a prior partner at Derby Management and now an Operating Partner at SNH Partners overseeing sales performance for the firm's portfolio companies, visited class just before the mid-term, he detailed the science behind creating exacting Sales Playbooks and numerous times he talked about the criticality of using Checklists.

I'm a huge believer in checklists ever since reading The Checklist Manifesto a decade ago.  Most books on Sales are outdated simply because what works today in the world of "The Science of Sales" has nothing to do with the practices of relationship and solution selling practiced before 2020.  Having said that the fundamentals of The Checklist Manifesto are well-worth your time for a quick read.

Usually, when I'm talking about the criticality of using checklists, I start by referring to my Subaru mechanic who needs to go through detailed checklists and get recertified every year on specific models.  I also talk about the surgical team of 10 who changed the plumbing in my heart a few years ago.  Everyone had a checklist.  Everyone knew exactly what they needed to do, and everyone was certified in their respective skills. 

As I was listening to Alice's lecture yesterday in class, I also realized that my prior student and now current TA in this course, Blake Freedland, was sitting right there, and I asked him if he would talk about the importance of checklists at the next class.  A certified pilot at the age of 15, Blake is an amazing young man recently teaching a full course at Tufts Experimental College on the psychology of flight.  This picture of him with his plane requiring a myriad of instruments and checklists on every flight says it all. 

Whether checklists are used for mundane car repairs or for life-saving surgeries or for pilots like Blake, using formal checklists in both running our sales organization and in running our companies needs to be an fundamental tool for focusing in a world of increasing distractions!

As we are jump into the deep end of the Q2 pool, this weekend, spend an hour and think through your own management checklist:

• Do you have a clear and well communicated sales plan for the balance of the year that takes your team from vision to reality every month starting right now with the remaining weeks of April?
• Do you have a short and very focused company and sales strategy that differentiates the fundamental value that you bring to your customers?.  Not products, not services, not benefits...but deep value as  specifically experienced by your customers.  Can your Sales and Marketing team effectively deliver that Value Propositon everywhere to everyone, or does it need a retuning?
• Have you re-aligned your organization coming out of Q1 since both the challenges and opportunities we will find for the balance of 2025 have changed dramatically from what we were planning back in December?  If so, make the changes now. 
• Have you heightened the pace and maximized both the speed and agility of your team?

It's time to update your 2025 business & Sales plans for what lies ahead

Think about taking a day out of April or early May to tune up your business and sales plans.  Here's our free how-to ebooks for a few ideas:

"Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
"Writing the Winning Business Plan"
"Writing the Winning Marketing Plan"
"The Marketing of Me"

We outline ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best people.  A few hands-on guides for real managers written by real managers with their fingers in the dirt.  

Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com and let's discuss your own Q2 plans!