Tufts Entrepreneurship at its best!

There are certainly more than a few universities both locally and across the country that feature entrepreneurship programs.  In fact, every university and most standalone colleges have an entrepreneurship program from the giants of Babson, where entrepreneurship is their DNA, to the halls of MIT, where I also teach, to excellent programs at BU, BC, UNH and across all the campuses of UMass.  Very simply, a university cannot be taken seriously without entrepreneurship studies in their program at some level since. in fact, entrepreneurship is not about tech startups.  Real entrepreneurship is about innovation and very few universities are as well-equipped as is Tufts, which is recognized as one of the top research universities in the U.S.  

Read More

Tags: Tufts marketing projects, interns for marketing projects, jack derby professor at Tufts, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022 business planning, entrepreneurshipfortherestofus, Teaching at Tufts University, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts

Just what is "Value Marketing & Selling"?

"We've spent a lot of money on consultants that have not come close to the value received from your Tufts students working with us this semester!"   

What's above is a direct quote this week from the VP of Marketing of a well-established healthcare analytics company with deeply experienced management and this was his comment to me and his project team upon completing their 13-week semester.  

Read More

Tags: sales coaching, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, marketing effectiveness, how to close sales, Tufts marketing projects, interns for marketing projects, how to write a marketing plan, how to write a sales plan, sales readiness, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, 2022businessplansuccess

If it's April 16th, must be snowin' in VT

To a boring fault, I am all about planning...

Read More

Tags: sales plans, business coaching, strategic planning, Tufts marketing projects, Tufts internships, student intern marketing projects, interns for marketing projects, how to write a marketing plan, how to write a sales plan, marketing planning

I attended Tufts graduation last Sunday in the new normal...

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Thu, May 21, 2020

I attended the Tufts graduation this past weekend

Read More

Tags: marketing projects, free marketing projects from universities, interns for marketing projects, how to write a marketing plan, marketing planning, Tufts Entrepreneurship Center, 2020 business plans

Old School, New School? Any School Right Now!

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Dec 11, 2018

Being a disciple of the high priests of David Meerman Scott, the guys at Hubspot and the gurus of Jamie Turner, Mike Troiano, Dan Tyre and Mike Volpe over the past decade, I'm an Inbound Marketing kind of guy!.  

Read More

Tags: testimonial, Tufts internships, interns for marketing projects, inbound, sales management productivity, creating trust in sales, Tufts Entrepreneurship, sales motivation, Tufts Entrepreneurship Center

Today, it's About 22 More Days of Giving Thanks & Selling

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and while most normal people are already thinking about the 3 F's of Family, Friends, and Football, guys like me are calculating just how many selling days there are left in the year.  The Answer: 

at Best, there are 22 selling days left in the year !

- First, you should thankful that there are 22 !
- Second, 22 is a maximum number !
-The obvious days of this Wednesday & the immediate days after any of the holidays are not included.
- Even if you and your Champion are around post-Christmas, the probability of everyone involved in the process is zero !

-And, btw, there are a huge amount of other end-of-year distractions much more important than you between now and then.  
- So, now is the time to plan out every possible day that you can own of those 22 days. 

One of our most highly respected, most resourceful and most energetic sales leaders, Colleen Honan, CRO at Brainshark, refers to this detailed selling process as "Your Plan to Make Plan", which gets right down to what I call "Selling on Streets not States":

  • In a quarter, in a month, and certainly in these 22 days, planning is not about strategy !
  • It's about planning out next week's daily activities and the following week's tight travel and calls !
  • It's planning travel at a street-by-street, city-by-city level travel to maximize your efficiency !
  • It's about re-doing your Discovery Checklist and asking questions about prospect's holiday plans.
  • Nothing is worse than having a commit and then learning that the Purchasing Manager is skiing.
  • It's about taking today/tomorrow and making tons of calls and emails to get December meetings,
  • At the very least, you should be reaching out to wish your prospects  "Happy Thanksgiving!" 

Had the occasion to have breakfast with my close friend, Dan Tyre, last Tuesday at Hubspot headquarters in Cambridge.  Picture I took sports Dan's Movember Stash.

Clearly, THE MOST ENERGETIC SALES LEADER I know anywhere, any company, at any time ! 

In addition to being a superb sales pro, a Hubspot evangelist and director, a highly experienced and acclaimed speaker, he has just published his most recent book on The Inbound Organization-How to Build Your Organization Using Inbound Principles, not just "another" inbound marketing book, but a fundamental guide for both selling and marketing in today's totally changed customer world !

Download now, skim over this weekend, see what nuggets you could use for these 22 days, then read it completely over the next couple of weeks !

 

So, that's it here on a Monday morning!  Time to get moving, but before you do...

Tufts- "Content in Context" Marketing projects

It's that time of year again, when I go out to our greater blog, LI, FB and Twitter communities and begin the process of soliciting complex, semester-long Marketing projects for next semester.

When I began teaching at MIT 20 years ago, and then at Tufts 13 years ago, I quickly realized that the only way I was going to provide any meaningful content...and keep my students awake...was to wrap that content within the context of real companies who needed new or updated marketing plans. 

Our clients for these courses range from tiny startups often looking for their first marketing plans to large public corporations who are launching new products or are looking for a different perspective from young adults.

  • We're looking for six Marketing projects for the spring semester which starts mid January
  • Your marketing project might be for an entire company or for a specific product
  • Out clients' businesses range in size from startup companies to public corporations
  • Each project will be assigned to a student team of four to six students
  • At least two of each team will have solid prior marketing sales experience
  • The project definitions and the syllabus are sent to the students on December 26th 
  • There is research work that they will need to do in January before coming to class
  • The deadline for applications to be submitted to me is December 7th 

If you are interested in participating, please just email me at jack.derby@tufts.com or text me (617-504-4222), and I will send you the instructions of how to participate. 

Have a great day selling something today!    

 

 Please stay connected!

Jack Derby, Director, TEC-Tufts Entrepreneurship Center
Cummings Family Chair Professor of Entrepreneurship
Spark-Incubate-Accelerate@Tufts
Come to our Events

Cell:  617-504-4222 jack.derby@tufts.edu  

Advisor, Derby Management, experts in-
-Sales & Marketing Productivity
-Business and Strategic Planning
WHAT WE DO AT DERBY MANAGEMENT
   


Read More

Tags: interns for marketing projects, sales process, inbound, sales management plans, sales effectivness, Tufts Entrepreneurship

Activities, Activities, Activities...and more Sales

 

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!

Read More

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

Fall, 2013 Tufts University Marketing Projects

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Mon, Apr 15, 2013

 

Read More

Tags: Tufts marketing projects, Tufts university, Tufts ELS, free marketing projects from universities, student intern marketing projects, interns for marketing projects, marketing interns