The Dog Ate My Homework Excuse Updated

Yesterday was the last content class in my Science of Sales course with 12 final presentations now scheduled for that course and my Marketing course during the next two weeks when the senior management comes to Tufts for 2-hour presentations on the final projects.  The students work with management each week and then management provides 40% of the team grade for these complex semester-long projects. 

There are no excuses in Sales Rule

These courses are based in formal processes, detailed tools, HubSpot software, and more than a few important "Jack Rules", one of which is that if you're late to class, and you have not previously notified your TA, you owe the class pizza fund $5.00.

It's actually been a no-incident semester in my Sales course until last week when one of our very active and most engaging students, whom I know very well from this and another course, was 5 minutes late.  Having some fun with him...while taking his $5.00...I asked him if he would update the archaic "But, the dog ate my homework" excuse that I grew up with, and here's what he came back with:

• The Green Line train stopped working, so I had to wait around for them to get it running again.
• I couldn’t email you or my TA because I didn’t have my school email set up on my phone (kind of my fault, but still true). If you argue that I could’ve just logged into my account, I forgot my password.

• That said, I did text your second-favorite student (after me, of course) to give a heads-up.
• Also, you and I had a conversation the day before where you asked me if I had a girlfriend, to which I said no. So, I may or may not have been looking for one on my way to class - which, as you can imagine, was a major obstacle.
• To top it all off, it was raining, so I had to be extra careful walking, which definitely slowed me down and made me late to class by a mere five minutes.

All of these are not only much better than 40-year-old "the dog ate my homework" excuse which was always hard to believe anyhow.  BTW, if you have updated "Dog Ate My Homework" excuses, either from your kids or your salespeople, please let me know, and we will publish those next Friday.

This highly complex and demanding course requires 3 hours in class every week and on average an additional 3-6 hours additional every week outside the classroom.  It is steeped in process funnels, playbooks, org charts, hiring requirements, flow charts and CRM use...and a bit of personal fun like above.  Running through the entire course is the simple rule taught by me, my TAs and all of my sales manager instructors who come in to lecture all of whom came out of this course: There are no excuses in Sales!

Although I don't teach the Science of Sales course in the fall semester, I do teach a very similar Marketing course in both semesters, and I am currently looking for marketing projects for the fall.  If you are interested in learning more, just email me at jack@derbymanagement.com, and I'll send you the instructions and a copy of this current semester's semester, and we can then set up a call to talk.  The projects and new syllabus will be sent to the new students on June 1st since there is work to be done during the summer. 

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!