Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

It’s the Tween Season in Vermont.  It’s neither foliage nor a lot of snow...yet, so it must be “‘tween huntin’ and winta’”  With little this year in the way of foliage due to the wet summer and Irene, most of Vermont is now painted in various shades of just plain old dull brown.  It’s that time of year that the highly celebrated natural beauty of Vermont becomes muted as every small community prepares itself for the coming of winter. It’s also that time of year when the hundreds of small contractors, which are the real backbone of Vermont’s economy, start feeling just a bit pressured when they receive those calls from their winter homeowner- customers asking how the new deck or the new kitchen cabinets look, when in fact, they still have the lumber in the back of their pickups.  

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

Just walked in from my early morning walk on the beach.  Good weather and bad, summer and winter, whenever, I have the luxury of not going into the office first thing, I walk the mile long, perfectly crescent-curved beach just outside our door.  With the constant sound and smell of the ocean all night, there’s a consistent tug in my head every morning to explore what the ocean delivered. Sometimes tons of seaweed, sometime lost seal pups like this guy earlier this month, and most often just the richness of the ocean.

While Jan, my wife, sea glass jewelry designer and watercolor artist, searches for the perfect pieces of sea glass, I set out on the much more plebian task of picking up trash washed in on the night tide.  I guess that I could euphemistically call it “flotsam & jetsam”, but I never can remember which is which, and, in reality, it’s just plain trash. When Dustin Hoffman, in The Graduate was told that all he needed to remember was the word “plastic” to ensure his success, I think that same word as I walk along, three foot gripper tongs in hand, picking up 20 pounds of daily plastic  either as abandoned beach toys or washed up debris from the lobster boats.  Anyways, it’s good for the ocean and my head.  Plus, it provides me the opportunity to get out early in the morning with an unstructured, quiet hour to think through various business issues.  

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

There are Laws…

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, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, Sales quota, sales training, management

With The Perfect July 4^th weekend tucked away, and while I was lost in the myriad of activities from watching 3 back-to-back nights of fireworks on the beach, to singing an enthusiastic “God Bless America” at Sunday mass to watching a group of red, white and blue painted teenagers loft a huge flag and lead hundreds of people on the very crowded beach to sing “Happy Birthday”, I got around to thinking about the signers of the Declaration of Independence. 

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

Barely at sunrise this morning, I took a walk on the beach before setting off for the office.  I needed to clear my head from yesterday’s tough deal and a big cancellation which arrived in an unexpected email last night at 11. More of a reschedule than a cancellation, but the impact is the same-nothing happening this month.  

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

When I graduated from BC and was facing the gloom and rigors of graduate school, I came up with what I thought was a much better idea, and to the great consternation of my father, joined the Peace Corps, landing six months later in Moshi, Tanzania at the base of Kilimanjaro.  Fluent in Swahili, I taught English and had what became a life changing experience.  During the next couple of years,  I taught, built libraries, inoculated hundreds of people, and as a group, we changed the lives of countless people.  Would heartily recommend the Peace Corps to anyone!

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training

9 out of 10 sales calls are going to end up in outright rejection or at least an entry pass into the valley of despair with such heartwarming comments like, “We need to discuss this internally…for a while”, or even after you’ve used all of your considerable closing skills to get a commitment, the response continues to be, “We’re still kicking this around, I'll call you in the next couple of weeks”. 

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, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training

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

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

Boston is just a terrific city.  Small, easy to walk around, and one of the greatest sports towns in America.  The Patriots are either the Super Bowl Champs...or not; the Celtics are always the leaders and the Sox, well, that's another story given this year's opening season. 

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, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, sales training, management, leadership, marketing management