Every spring, everything tumbles and crashes into one another in our business.  It's merely the rhythm of our consulting business when the excitement and optimism of the annual January sales meetings meets the reality of Q1 sales forecasts measured against actual results  Sometimes up, sometimes down, but never exactly as was planned, which then results in increased business for us at the firm.  It's just the rhythm of our business which always seems to align itself with the seasonal calendar rhythms of the year. 

Add to this cyclical rhythm the reality that the implementation of any new sales or marketing plan will always take a minimum of 90 days before any results are seen, which is why we always focus on Q2 as being the most important quarter of the year.  By the month of May, we know what's working and what's not, and there's still plenty of time to make adjustments that will pay off in Q4.  

The same rhythm occurs for me at Tufts 

The spring semester has its own natural rhythm built around final exams and graduations.  For me at the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts this is always a joyous time, but it's also bittersweet as my seniors and grad students-shown here in our graduation ceremony last week-head out to begin the next cycle of their own journeys.     

The other reality in the rhythm of teaching both Sales and Marketing is that I know that 40% of what I taught during the last two semesters is now out of date which will result in my reading, researching and changing syllabus content for courses next fall.  One of the luxuries of living on the NH beach is being able to spend time on the sand reading the large pile of books and research materials that have been accumulating in my office over the past 10 months. 

In terms of specifics, the changes that will be added for the fall semester will be much more content in:

• AI, of course.
  
  We already spend time not just discussing its use but actually implementing various tools ranging from writing blogs to doing advanced secondary research.  The marketing and creative genius of David Meerman Scott has always been core to this course since his iconic book The New Rules of Marketing & PR  is a required must-read before the course begins. When David came to class this past semester he mesmerized both the students and me with his infectious excitement and how he utilizes AI in his work, his blogs and preparing for his speeches. 

• Influencer Tactics & Its Math.

  For 4 or 5 years now, the importance of Influencer Marketing has been a critical tactic in my Marketing course. What I realized during these past two semesters, from Ramiro Sarabia, one of my top alum lecturers, is that we need to do a lot more in terms of the mechanics, the types, the costs, the tactics and the ROI of using Influencers.   

• More & More HubSpot Technology.

  Ever since I created the Marketing and the Science of Sales courses, we have used HubSpot.   Inbound Certification is required from the students before they enter the second class of the course, and HubSpot provides us with free licenses for the semester.  No certification, no course.  Not surprisingly, 135 of my alums from these courses currently work at HubSpot.
  
  On the other hand, although I think that I do a "pretty good" job in teaching the use of HubSpot, I need to ramp it up since there's so much more that can be done for our client projects. The way I teach is that I and my 9 lecturers for each course (all alums from my courses plus DM Scott and Dan Tyre) provide content within the context of 12 real marketing and sales projects assigned to 6 students for each team.  The project results range from good to extraordinary which is why I now need to take the reality of implementing HubSpot to a higher usability and fluency level.     

For me the beginning of May is all being totally in sync with the rhythms of the seasons, the flow of university cycles, and the corporate reality of monthly results.

Have a great day selling today!

May IS THE PERFECT TIME TO EXECUTE ON your OWN 2024 SALES PLAN! 

CLICK HERE:  "WRITING YOUR WINNING SALES PLAN IN 2024"

You can click here for this brand new  "Writing the Winning Sales Plan in 2024", for a few ideas on structure, sales models, process, a number of productivity tools and how to hire. 

www.derbymanagement.com  
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.