The official summa' kicks off this Saturday, -which by the way, looks like a perfect weatha' day- and we welcome in this season of beaches, barbecues and barefootin'.
Most importantly, it's time to kick back a bit, take a breath, and simplify from what we've been through over the past 100 days. We need to take a break, or at least a partial break, from the pressures of the reality of the virus and from the stress of the unrest.
Given what's been going on around us and the financial realities of where we are, I expect that the word "vacation" may have a very different meaning during the Summa' of 2020. Having said that, we still need to take a break and shut things off for a day or five or a couple of weekends since it's going to be a long road ahead to get to "recovery" whatever the word means. We also need some time to get out of the day-to-day survival mode where we've been hunkered down for the last 100 days and think a bit more strategically about where we're going to be at the end of the next 100 days.
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Tags:
Sales Management Best Practices,
sales boot camps,
sales management boot camps,
Making Tough Choices,
how to write a sales plan,
2020 sales plans
In a time of fear and concern regarding the personal and business impact of the COVID-19 virus, where do I turn?
My recommendation is listen only to the experts!
If I listen to most radio channels or watch David Muir on the evening news, in all respect, I don't know whether I should immediately drive to my Vermont bunker up on the ridge and hunker down with my six months of rations, or merely drive to Home Depot and pick up more antiseptic wipes.
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Tags:
sales planning meetings,
sales success,
value propositions,
Sales Hiring & Onboarding,
how to write a sales plan,
creating trust in sales,
2020 sales plans,
writing sales plans,
sales readiness
The Scores are on the Board!
2019 in review
The scores have been on the scoreboard now for a few days since the official year ended on the 30th, and the final game tapes have been reviewed. There'll be a couple of minor adjustments made during this week, but the big numbers are already posted on the board!
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Tags:
writing a business plan,
sales planning meetings,
sales success,
how to write a sales plan,
Tufts Entrepreneurship,
writing sales plans
All about the team, a strong sales culture...and having fun
I was sitting in a board meeting at Brainshark yesterday and listening to Colleen Honan, the highly experienced and talented Chief Sales Officer, talk about activity planning. Colleen has all of the background, the years, and the depth of experience to truly be qualified as the head of sales of a leading tech company. She's disciplined in her approach, fluent in new processes and technology and unrelenting in her approach to sales coaching, sales planning, sales training while having fun at the same time.
So when I walked in to the headquarters in Waltham at 7:30 yesterday, I was not surprised to see the salespeople already at work planning out their activities for the day and getting in early morning calls. I was however, a bit taken back by the fact that one of the leading teams of 20 or so, was dressed in tuxes and gowns. And then I learned that Colleen had been talking to them about the Gatsby generation, which inspired this very hard working team of classic millennials to dress the part for the day. So very cool...and engaging...and being part cementing the team!
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Tags:
Tufts marketing projects,
interns for marketing projects,
sales leadership,
Sales Hiring Perfectly,
jack derby professor at Tufts,
how to write a sales plan,
sales management productivity,
sales effectivness,
sales plans for 2018
I have lots of room for improvements, so it's hard to limit my 2018 resolutions to just one, but in my work as a salesguy...
What would that be?
- Would it be to make more calls? Close more deals?
- Travel more? Or actually, travel less?
- Hire managers and salespeople more quickly and with few mistakes?
- Plan my time better for the week or for the month or quarter?
It looks like 2018 will be a year of significant change for me, so while all of the bullets above are actually pretty good ideas, and while I can always do better, my one resolution is both simpler and more complex. Simple, because it actually is, but, more complex because I always want to express my opinion, when in fact, I should just shut up, not speak and listen much more completely.
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Tags:
sales leadership,
sales productiv,
how to write a sales plan,
sales effectivness,
creating trust in sales
I've been manufacturing, engineering and selling most of my life....tech products, medical devices, sports apparel, and now consulting services. It's a wonderful and exciting profession, but make no mistake, Sales is tough work:
- Measurements occur every month and every quarter that totally define your success and income
- Frequent rejections happen all the time due to the necessary waterfall math of any sales funnel
- Positive energy is required all the time, even when you're knocked down once in a while
- There's a requirement to consistently learn new skills, technologies and processes
The Question of the Day: Can Sales be "taught", or is it "just natural"?
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Tags:
sales productivity,
Sales Best Practices,
sales plan process,
Sales Hiring Perfectly,
how to write a sales plan,
sales plans for 2018
Only if you're a Myrmecologist...
11,000 species is a bit of worthless trivia...unless, of course, you're a myrmecologist, a scientist specializing in ants...
...which, of course is a sub-specialist of being an entemologist, who is a scientist who studies the very broad category of all insects.
So, who cares?
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Tags:
Sales Best Practices,
Sales Management Best Practices,
marketing effectiveness,
how to write a sales plan,
sales personas,
sales effectivness
Teaching Marketing at Tufts...
- A consistent search for real life Marketing & Sales Plan projects for my students
- 5-6 person teams work for 13 weeks on complex marketing and sales plan assignments
- All of our academic content is woven into these assignments from real companies
- I teach the tools; company management provides the real life experiences
The results are very positive and dynamically exciting from everyone involved
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Tags:
sales effectiveness,
sales enablement,
sales planning,
marketing effectiveness,
marketing plans,
how to write a marketing plan,
sales management plans,
how to write a sales plan,
marketing planning,
sales management productivity
