How to 'Change the World' in 2016 !

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Jan 15, 2016

Here we are in mid January, and you and I have the opportunity to change the world this year.  

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Tags: business planning, business coaching, writing a business plan

I have The Very Best Students for Sales & Marketing Hires

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Nov 06, 2015

Every time I actually think about the fact that I'm a Professor of the Practice at Tufts, where I teach Marketing and Sales, I need to stop, take a breath and realize that I have the best of all possible jobs.  

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Tags: sales, sales management coach, sales plans, business planning

5 More Rules for the Best 2016 Sales Planning Meetings

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Oct 28, 2015

Thanks very much for the comments and ideas from last week's blog post on "The (first) Five Rules".  As promised, here are the remaining five.  It may well be that you have your own, so let me and our readers know about your ideas by commenting below...

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Tags: sales coaching, sales coach, sales tools, sales plans, business planning, business plans, sales planning meetings

5 Rules to Run the Best 2016 Business Planning Sessions

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Oct 16, 2015

'Tis the Season...

Well, not really THE season, but it is...

The Business Planning Season for working on, discussing, talking through, arguing about and spreadsheeting over and over again various strategic business plans, tactical department plans and the ever-important sales and marketing activity plans.  

Ultimately, every sales account plan, every marketing strategy and activity plan, every hiring plan, financial plan and product development plan will roll up to be your company's 2016 business plan.  Perfect in its creation and, somewhat by definition of what it is-a plan after all-flawed in its forecasted end points.  My own rule of thumb is that if the plan was met perfectly an entire 12-14 months later from its creation, then the management team probably didn't stretch themselves far enough.

Another good concept to carry into this business and sales planning season are the quotes from Eisenhower and Patton who both noted that the planning process itself is much more important than the actual plan that results

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Tags: business planning

How to Write a Winning Business Plan

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Oct 07, 2015

Superb weekend last weekend and clearly fall is in the air!  

The Corvette took me out for a drive to Vermont the weekend before, and the back roads were already packed with buses from Indiana and Ohio filled with Leaf-Peepers.  This is the season when The Boys on the Bench down at the Winhall General Store in the town where I live (population 647) are thinking long and hard about how to squeeze in their deer hunting trips before the first sightings of the New York City and Jersey skiers appear with their long lists of well-paying jobs that need to be done the hill opens at Thanksgiving.  

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Tags: sales planning, business planning, strategic planning

Eat the Frog...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Jun 03, 2015

strategic_planning-2Trust that you finished the month on Plan and are now racing toward the all-important end of the quarter.  I always enjoy this second quarter since it's that perfect time of year to...

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Tags: closing sales, business planning, business coaching, business plans, best sales practices;

Punched in the face...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Dec 05, 2014

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.”                   -Mike Tyson

If your last image of Iron Mike chewing off the ear of Evander Holyfield was a bit too graphic, then maybe some of the following highly positive quotes might be more representative of the reasons for careful planning...just so that you don't get punched in the face.

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Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices, sales planning, sales plans, business tools, business planning, business coaching, business plans

Strategic planning, business planning...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Fri, Jul 18, 2014

Sometimes we make this strategic planning stuff much too difficult, too mysterious and too complex to be useful in the real, rough and tumble world of scaling a profitable growth business. 

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Tags: sales and marketing best practices, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales management training, business planning, strategic planning, improving sales productivity

I'm finally holding all the right cards...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, Dec 05, 2013


Coming off the Thanksgiving break after one too many slices of pumpkin pie, I'm feeling pretty good about sales specifically and business overall right now.  A couple of solid weeks of selling left in the year.  Everyone at the firm is maxed out with work.  January's outlook appears to be reasonably ok.  Teaching at Tufts and MIT are in exam modes. The stock market is humming, and the economy in general seems to be more positive...even though the fundamentals (little things like debt, GDP growth and jobs) aren't that much better.

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Tags: sales management effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management boot camp, business tools, business planning, business plans, sales boot camps, best sales practices;

Get our free "Writing the Winning Business Plan"-the 2013 edition

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Jul 30, 2013


  If it's summer, then it's time to do the annual rewrite of our
  free ebook-Writing the Winning Business Plan 

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Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales, sales management boot camp, business planning, business plans, how to write a business plan, writing a business plan