Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

With 50 days (which is being generous, so do your own math) left in the quarter, there's not much time for changing out teams, re-planning key account plans or totally new game plans. This is 50 days of classic blocking and tackling as you move down the field toward the goal line.  Having said that, these last 50 days left in the season are also going to need to be played more like soccer than football.  There’s no bye time like the Patriots have this week. There’s no ability to swap out teams and bring in other players.  Clearly no time for time outs.  This is just constant forward motion activity, yard by yard if not inch by inch, and all of that activity absolutely needs to be at full speed.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, sales training

Last weekend at this time found me in Vermont deep in shoveling the debris and dirt left from the floods and repairing the ATV trails in my woodlot.  Filling one five gallon bucket at a time, hauling them to the tractor, driving into the woods and filling the holes in the trails, inches at a time, reminded me again of how lucky I am to have my day job which, although complex and pressure-driven, as my friend Bernie Gordon, CEO of Analogic, used to repeatedly tell me “doesn’t involve any heavy lifting.”

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales optimication

I escaped from the end of the quarter Sales Crunch Time late last Friday, and went to Vermont this past weekend for the The Annual Fall Cleanup. It’s always a chore but also a relief to get through another summer season and start preparing for the winta'.   It’s just a bit of disbelief that the summer came and went, and I only made it back to my home state of Vermont once, and that trip was with customers for an offsite.  Those six generations who came before me were doing the proverbial rollover wondering what the heck happened to their Vermont son.  But my addictions to the NH beach and now Stratton’s beckoning snowboard trails help me put everything into perspective.  I just follow the seasons and the rhythm of our customer’s annual business calendars, and everything seems to fall neatly into place-very hectic and squeezed-but in place, all the same.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, business planning

Last year was my first winter living on the New Hampshire beach.  Commuting to Boston for work and to Vermont on the weekends to snowboard proved not to be such a big deal, and I had this stupid belief that living on the ocean would not produce as much snow.  My brain kept tossing around phrases like "Gulf Stream"  which I then very nicely translated into "less snow". In reality, the beach yielded just as much snow as the 120 inches we received in Vermont.  The key difference (I learned the hard way) was that Vermont possesses one very important component that's missing in the tight confines of a NH beach, and that's plenty of space to plow and dump the stuff.  I also quickly learned that even in The Live Free or Die State, there are zoning laws about when, where and at what volume one can actually move snow.  In Vermont, snow is snow, and the only law is just dump it anywhere...and quickly...because there's more coming tomorrow.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, small business management, October, strategic planning

With anxiety and the fear of the unknown, I headed to Vermont last Friday night for the first time since the floods to see for myself what had happened to our house.  Since friends had already walked the property and checked things out, I knew that we were one of the lucky ones and had no damage.  With our road now fully reconstructed, it was now time to venture into the bustling metropolis of Bondville, population 647, at the base of Stratton Mountain. After confirming that the house was okay, I drove to the general store in stunned silence shocked by the surrounding damage that our tiny river had caused ripping out bridges and tossing 100 pound rocks by the hundreds into our field which, at the height of the storm, had been under five feet of water.   

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, management

With the passing of Labor Day, I found myself giving a sad “see ya next summer” to my friend, Jack McAvoy, the head lifeguard at our beach.  Older, serious, dedicated and always razor sharp, good weather and bad, Jack, on any weekend, is not only out there as the protector of the beach, but he’s often the diplomat and mediator between feuding siblings and sometimes forgetful adults.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, sales training

“It’s been dirty, and it will be a little tough, but we’ll be fine.”

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training

In just 24 hours, I was instantly transported from Sunday’s watch and worry on our NH beach to yesterday’s calm of deep green oceans and blue sky, but the same was not so in our Vermont hometown.  With bridges and roads washed out, our little town of Bondville took the full brunt of 12 inches of rain blasting its way into already overflowing rivers.  The unfortunate result has been a real life, film-at-6, disaster with many towns under water, roads split in two and countless bridges destroyed-all of which in a couple of weeks will be forgotten except by the hardy Vermonters people who live here.  Kevin Cullen has a piece in The Globe today which puts everything into perspective.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, sales training

I’ve recently been receiving these short articles like the one below from ChiefExecutive.net.  Well written, to the point and solid factual data from the men and women who actually run businesses.  When I finished a hard day of field research on the beach yesterday, I found this not-surprising article in my Inbox, which fit nicely into my summer re-reading of Blue Ocean Strategy.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training

A very tough day yesterday.  As if we didn’t have enough problems trying to sell stuff in The Dog Days of Summer, as I was driving to four different sales meetings yesterday, I kept listening to the news on Bloomberg.  I found that I literally had to take 10 minutes by myself before I walked into every account, using all of my Psyche Up Skills, to keep my head focused in the right place as the day wore on, and the market kept plummeting. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training