Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

People often ask why I live in New Hampshire and deal with the Boston and Tufts commute. The real answer is in this picture — taken at 6:47 this morning. I walk the beach at sunrise most days. It's where I do my best thinking.

Tags: Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

Now that I am "older" with my recent March birthday, I realize that the people I really enjoy being around and working with as friends, clients, and collogues are those that stretch themselves physically and mentally. 

Tags: Management; Board of Directors, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

A year ago, I wouldn't have written this blog.  A year ago, AI in Sales was still mostly a coffee chat conversation: kinda' interesting, speculative and safely "somewhere" in the future.  While I've been an active AI user at Tufts for 3 or 4 years, it's been not so much in our consulting work until January 2025, but now I use AI tools as frequently as I'm on LinkedIn every day.  Bottom line is that my buddy Claude and I talk all the time especially in the interpretation of our own internal Hubspot data for our own business, and, most importantly working directly with our customers in architecting and building new sales processes and tools.

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, HubSpot Tips, Teaching entrepreneurship, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

This morning as I head off to a Tufts board meeting for our Center and an afternoon of teaching, I realized that I'm in week 11 of a 13-week semester, and it's time to start working on the fall semester. 

Tags: marketing projects, marketing effectiveness, marketing management, Teaching entrepreneurship, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning, The Marketing of Me

Today, we're speeding down the highway with only 3 more days left in the Q to do everything that we can to get to the finish line.  For those of you who are ahead in the laps, congratulations!  Max out your time making sure that you still have gas in the tank to jump start Q2.  For those of you who are behind where you need to be, there's still time enough time left to push on the accelerator.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Teaching at Tufts University, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

 

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Hiring Perfectly, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

You probably heard last week's better-than-expected Jobs Report numbers, and hopefully it marks a continuing trend.  The summary headline was "Total employment rose by 130,000 in January.". 

Unfortunately, that headline by itself tells a very misleading story for my students and your kids who are 2025 college graduates or are the upcoming graduating class of 2026! 

Tags: marketing productivity, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025SalesPlanning, 2026 Marketing Planning, How to find the perfect job

 

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, closing sales, Sales quota, Tufts Entrepreneurship Center, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

Hopefully, everyone shoveled through Snowmaggedon 2026 without too much impact.  Here at the NH beach, with two driveways, two snowblowers, a plow service, and most importantly, two high school brothers who live down the street, we weathered also giving me time to talk with the boys about high school, summer jobs and college choices.

Tags: finding sales jobs, finding marketing jobs, Teaching entrepreneurship, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, How to find the perfect job

Mid-January today, and already it seems like we’re deep into 2026. Certainly, it's deep into winta' weatha' this morning since when I left the NH beach at 5:00, it was all of 10 degrees with a wicked wind.  Normal New England weather following the natural rhythm of the NE seasons.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Making Tough Choices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning