Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

It’s been a superb summer!  Simply…superb…no better word.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

To a fault (yea, I know, I have many), I'm a big believer in the rhythm of business and the rhythm of the seasons.  Maybe as a confirmed 6th generation Vermonter, paying attention to the seasonal ebb and flow becomes a necessity living in an environment which only has two seasons:  "snow" and "bad sleddin' ".  In reality, Vermonters actually live with at least 7 different seasons which include "Mud", "Hayin'", and "Summa' Tourist" intermixed among the Big 4. 

At my house on the NH coast, the year is divided much more simply into the seasons of "Beach", which is anything above 55 degrees and "No Beach", which includes hats, heavy jackets and the necessity to keep walking fast.  Yesterday Jack, my favorite lifeguard who just happens to be a software marketing guru in his alter ego real life, pointed out that there were only 7 more days before the season ended, to which I responded... "What the heck are you talking about???"  But, sadly, he's right.  Jack's starting a great job next week with a big corporate powerhouse in Boston, the kids are back to school, my teaching at MIT and Tufts starts the first week in  September, and I'll soon be back to my daily 4:00 AM morning commute to the Boston office.

Tags: sales productivity, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, selling skills, closing sales, sales training, sales plans

No question that the Stones are the greatest rock band in music history...and least in my world.  They’ve released 24 studio albums, done nine concert albums and have album sales estimated at more than 200 million worldwide.  But most importantly, they’re still at it, still writing, still rocking and still living large.  As the Stones celebrate their 50^th year as a band, and Mick and Keith both turn 70, there are talks of another world tour.  And, if there is, I’m in the front row, as usual.  Never missed a U.S. tour, and I don’t plan to for what might be the last one, but then I said that about both the Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge tours.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, leadership, finding sales jobs

I've been a student of the comics forever and well remember waiting dutifully for my father to come every night and hand me the Boston Traveler, which I then immediately thumbed to the funnies.  Today, I'm still addicted to the comics although it's my iPad now that delivers my daily fix, since my daily download of BostonGlobe.com sadly does not include the comics.  Dilbert continues to be one of my favorites for the simple reason that the parallels to daily business life are so close to reality that they either make me laugh or cringe.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, management, business tools, business planning, business coaching, strategic planning

You gotta love my newly adopted state of New Hampshire.  Where else can one cross the state border, and the first exit from any direction has a state liquor store which also sells 50 plus different types of lottery tickets.  The second exit has a store that sells fireworks right next to a line of tattoo shops, and between the two exits are 8 lanes of toll booths, two of which require you to speed through at 65 miles an hour while your EZ Pass clicks away.  Add to all of this that NH is the only state without a mandatory seat belt law, and even though it has the highest percentage of motorcycle owners to total population in the US, we do not require helmets.   And of course, our state motto, “Live Free or Die”, is the subject of many a tattooed body.  I always say, “We don’t call NH-The Granite State-for nothing”.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

Just sitting here on the beach, doing some field research of course, and thinking through the relationships of time and sales.  All of us who are in the profession of sales, no matter what our level or experience, are measured by some metric related to time.  Quota/month, Y/Y sales, ramp speed and countless other metrics measure our abilities to perform within  specific periods of time.  Time is the name of the game; it’s the measure of top of the pack and bottom of the heap; it’s how we get paid and it’s the one metric that measures us against our peers as to who goes to “Club” and who goes to “On Plan”.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, finding sales jobs

A superb 4^th of July week.  Great weather here in New England…not so in other states without power…and certainly the word “heat” was repeatedly in everyone’s vocabulary.  The other word that I often heard last week and especially on the 4^th was “leadership”, or more correctly, the “lack of leadership”. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, finding sales jobs

Ran into church a bit late last Sunday to find everyone robustly singing “America the Beautiful”.  With those words and that spirit still ringing in my head when I returned home, I promptly finished decorating the house which now has flags and bunting covering both decks and enough other iParty stuff everywhere to make red, white and blue the official colors of the summer.   I’m not exactly sure why this patriotic spirit cascades in me every summer, except that I do know that it feels good.  It’s not because any one thing happened-we didn’t just joystick another Al Qaeda leader or anything like that.  It’s just because it’s simply the 4^th, business is pretty good, and I figure if we can stick it out through the long hot summer of politicians beating one another up, the economy should stabilize just a bit more after the elections. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, sales training, sales plans, finding sales jobs

I had just graduated from BC and had a ticket to go to  the University of Chicago for graduate work where I would have studied some dusty, esoteric slice of Elizabethan writing, ending up as an English professor in a small college somewhere.  I still remember the look of shock and dismay x number of years ago now on a hot July afternoon when I announced to my father that I was not going to Chicago (which I did years later) and that I was leaving for Peace Corps training that September.  135 of us began language studies and survival training that fall in Syracuse (no better place, of course, to train in prep for equatorial Africa) and about 80 of us finally made our way to Tanzania's Dar es Salaam the following January.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, jobs, finding sales jobs

I had the privilege of being the keynote speaker at Middlesex Bank’s CEO Forum last week.  A great bank, superb guests and for me, a fun opportunity to talk about something that I've fervently believed in ever since I started the company 22 years ago- how to build your competitive edge.  Aptly named, our long running newsletter, The Competitive Edge, and this blog speak to what I carry around as a religion in how I think about business in general and especially the world of sales.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, business coaching, leadership, economic stimulus, The Competitive Edge, strategic planning