Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Working at the intersection of what I do at the firm, what I do as a venture investor, plus I do at Tufts both as a professor and at the Center, I see, listen to, comment on and mentor 1,000+ business plans each year. 

As an example, as I write this, I just finished a 7:00AM call with one of my MIT alum entrepreneurs sorting through various business model options. 

BTW, when I asked him to define entrepreneurship for me, his response was... "creating something new that didn't exist before and building an organization around that".

Tags: how to close sales, free marketing projects from universities, entrepreneurship, how to write a sales plan, sales management productivity, sales effectivness, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 sales planning, 2022businessplansuccess

On Friday the 13th, and a beautiful spring day here in my tiny (p.769) town of Winhall (the state's name) or Bondville (the fed's name), the wake-up question for this morning is do we create our own luck?

Tags: sales coaching, student intern marketing projects, how to write a sales plan, marketing planning, sales management productivity, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 sales planning, 2022businessplansuccess

The end of the day on Thursday found me starting to write this morning's blog on a classic VT spring day:

Tags: marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, how to close sales, Tufts marketing projects, free marketing projects from universities, how to write a marketing plan, marketing planning, 2022 sales planning, 2022businessplansuccess

With the beginning of March and just a few short weeks before the end of the Q, life in the world of us in the profession of Sales is totally focused on what we can bring across the finish line by the end of this month. 

Tags: Sales Optimization, sales effectiveness, sales tools, how to close sales, sales process, how to write a sales plan, sales management productivity, 2022 sales planning

Snowing heavily at 6:00 this morning out by the Vermont barn, as I'm sure it is wherever you are here in New England.  Looks like 13-15" on the hill today, but unfortunately for me a packed day of sales calls and zooms.  When it snows, I always worry about the mechanics of dealing with it even with three snowblowers at various houses and a superb plow service from the team at Homestead up the road a piece.  It's just my normal belt and suspenders approach to way overthinking too many details.    

Tags: entreprenurial, entrepreneurship, jack derby professor at Tufts, how to write a sales plan, sales effectivness, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 business planning, 2022 sales planning, 2022businessplansuccess

When Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, took on the job, he was told by Steve Ballmer, the retiring CEO to... "Be bold and be right. If you’re not bold, you’re not going to do much of anything. If you’re not right, you’re not going to be here.”

Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales planning, how to close sales, strategic planning, how to write a sales plan, writing business plans, 2022 business planning, 2022 sales planning

That phrase about planning comes from the infamous Mike Tyson decades ago, and it came immediately to mind over the last two weeks as I listened to the unfolding 5G fiasco after ten years of planning for a much-anticipated rollout. 

Tyson's plan was always to be to be the brawler, the bruiser, the biggest and ultimately the baddest guy in the ring which he demonstrated to the extreme by biting off the ear of Evander Holyfield in a title fight.  Not much of a plan, but maybe it was.

More importantly to the fiasco of the 5G plan...
 

Tags: sales and marketing best practices, how to write a business plan, marketing plans, how to write a marketing plan, how to write a sales plan, writing sales plans, 2022 business planning, 2022 sales planning

Back at it this AM

I've missed blogging for the past two Fridays, but since I have a pretty good understanding of my audience, I also clearly knew that I would be at the bottom of the list of interests compared to...

Tags: sales coaching, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, how to write a sales plan, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 sales planning