"Discussing" Marketing is exciting, challenging and lets our brains run free...at least that is until we need to make the choices of what we need to do in order to move ahead. And today, given the hundreds of both strategic and tactical choices available to us in both Sales and in Marketing, the task often seems to be overwhelmingly difficult. Actually, that's not the case compared to making choices about...for instance...milk.
Tags: marketing effectiveness, marketing management, Tufts marketing projects, how to write a marketing plan, Making Tough Choices, marketing planning, sales management productivity
Rising through the ranks from Manufacturing to Engineering to Operations and then through a battlefield promotion to division president, I never stopped along that path to learn anything about Sales or Marketing. I've always been a process, tech, time-management and metrics guy, and back-in-the-day, the world of Sales seemed to revolve around travel, food, and golf, none of which I do very well. Marketing to me back then was even more confusing since it was simply expensive black magic.
Tags: marketing productivity, marketing management, how to write a sales plan, marketing planning, Selling Successfully in a Covid World, planningsalestodayinacovidworld
...Derby Management, Professor at Tufts and Chairman of Common Angels. A perfect imbalance of lots of complex work, high emotional and intellectual involvement and demanding assignments and projects. And, most of all, I really enjoy both the stimulation and the satisfaction from teaching marketing at Tufts. It's complex, rapidly changing, and most importantly, real world work with great students who are eager to prove themselves. All of which blends perfectly both into our Derby Management clients and even into the exciting, crazy and imperfect world of early stage investing.
It’s final exam time in my juniors and seniors Marketing course, where for the entire semester, my students are grouped into six teams which solve complex assignments given to them a month before the semester begins by the senior management of small and middle market businesses.
All of the 13 weeks then get boiled down to a 50 minute presentation at which the team members present their findings, recommendations and implementation tactics to the senior management of their companies. After which, each of the team members need to send me their takeaways from their specific project. Three company presentations last Wednesday, and three coming up this week. Now the tough job of grading, which is always the most difficult part of my job as a professor...ugh!
I thought that Matt Guiness’ comments to me this morning on his takeaways were particularly sound for all of us setting out this week to turn our attention away from the tragedy and celebration of last week and back to focus on our various work assignments and projects:
Tags: sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales management effectiveness, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, marketing effectiveness, marketing management, sales boot camps, Tufts marketing projects
Real dangerous for me to bring up a subject as far reaching as “personality” since that immediately brings to question my own personality (as in “none”), and I’m sure that we do not want to go there. No, this has to do more with the personalities that we and the members of our sales team portray in our online presence.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, finding sales jobs, marketing management
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales optimication, marketing management
The last class of the semester was this past Wednesday. Actually, it was one of the two exam presentation days-this past Wednesday plus the prior week-when the management of the project companies returns to Tufts for their final presentations. 30 students organized into 6 teams, companies with complex, semester-long marketing projects and a ton of work over 13 weeks of lectures, field work, road trips and four HBS case studies. We do a lot of “real world” in my class, and, this year’s students in both semesters were outstanding.
Since much of the course focuses on not only the strategies and execution tactics of the rapidly changing world of marketing, but also on tying that content back into how the students need to be marketing themselves, one of my personal deliverables is to make sure that the graduating seniors end up with the best jobs. Good news is that I’m pretty well connected and can open a few doors so that my graduates can now be found in sales and marketing jobs at great companies like HubSpot, Brainshark, Brown Brothers, Fidelity, Monitor, Siemens, Digitas, Jones Lang LaSalle and numerous other businesses among our customers and friends in the community.
Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, finding sales jobs, marketing management, finding marketing jobs
I was deep in my Vermont woodlot this past weekend picking up sticks. Low 30’s, crisp and eerily quiet. Not the smartest thing that I ever did considering Saturday was the start of deer hunting season, but details are details, and time is quickly running out. All it takes now is one deep snowstorm, and the kindling will continue to stay where it has rested all summer. Most of the wood tent has been filled by Tom the Wood Guy, but I still need to haul in a couple of cords I stacked in the woods last spring, and the weather looks like it will hold until Thanksgiving. Hopefully finish this coming weekend.
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, leadership, marketing management
With The Perfect July 4th 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
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
