Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

This has been a wonderfully busy week of events and busy sales schedules!

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, HubSpot Tips, Sales Hiring Perfectly, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, DavidMeermanScott, 2025SalesPlanning

Arrived here in Vermont late last night to discover everything was just wicked cold...and totally frozen...even though I had been watching the plow guys and shovelers on my Ring for the last two weeks.  Right now, I'm in my downstairs office but not able to see out the window which is covered with 4 feet of snow.  One has gotta' love living in Vermont, but then my family has been here in this valley for 7 generations, so every once in a while, I trick myself into thinking that I'm used to constant snow and temps below 0...but not really.   My great grandfather, Horace, lived up the road a piece in Poultney and (according to my grandfather) talked about 9 months of winta', 1 of summa', 1 of mosquitos and 1 of damn poor sleddin'".

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, finding sales jobs, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning

Happy Valentine's Day!

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales Hiring Perfectly, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning

I've been involved with HubSpot and therefore with Dan Tyre since the beginning;

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning, Dan Tyre

Just completed Week 9 of the 13-week semester this past Wednesday

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, how to write a business plan, HubSpot Tips, business planning meetings, how to write a sales plan, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning

I have the excitement of living on the NH beach, working in Boston, teaching at Tufts and spending time in Vermont.  If it weren't for the NH-Boston commute, the daily rhythm would be perfect, but it is what it is, and even the length of the commute has a seasonal rhythm of its own with the fall being the worst.  At least the drive is a good time for podcasts.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Making Tough Choices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning

It's been a great summer!  For me, it's been wicked busy with just enough time off here and there to refresh. Off this morning with the unhappy cats already packed into the car to head to Vermont for a week before back to Boston for cataract surgery on the other eye the last week of August. I thought I would end the summer blogs with answers to a question that I get asked all of the time and for whatever reason was asked by a bunch of people after last Saturday's blog:  "What books do you recommend for keeping up with Sales & Marketing?"   

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Inboound, Teaching entrepreneurship, 2024 sales and marketing best practices, 2024 Sales Planning, 2024 Business Planning, 2024 Marketing Planning

For me this has been an "interesting" week of cataract surgery.  Completed on Wednesday, checked on by my surgeon on Thursday and now learning to relearn my typing abilities today. The other eye in two weeks because I needed to get all of this done now before the  craziness of September accelerates, and I didn't want this ever-increasing problem to slow me down either at the firm or at The Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, HubSpot Tips, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2024 sales and marketing best practices, 2024 Sales Planning, 2024 Business Planning, 2024 Marketing Planning

With the Yankees showing up tonight at Fenway at 7:10 to take on the Sox, let me shift away from my last Friday's blog comparing being half way through the baseball season to being half way through the Sales year and focus on the Patriots on this superb summa' morning.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, The Competitive Edge, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2023 Business Planning, 2023 Sales Planning, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 2024 Marketing Planning

I trust that everyone had a fun and relaxing 4th and was able for a day or two to leave behind the pressures of the office, quotas, politics and geo-turmoil and focus on celebrating this most important holiday with family and friends.  For me, I retreated to my tiny Vermont town of Winhall (pop. 769) where my major decisions came down to painting the second floor deck of the studio and whether it was worth the two mile drive to the general store for milk, or could it wait for another day?

The answers were that the painting could not wait, but the trip to the Winhall General Store was put off for multiple days.  It must be something in the Vermont air because the entire state of Vermont...along with Bernie Sanders... operates at its own pace and nothing a flatlander does or says is going to make any difference in terms of political or financial impact.  Even with 7 generations of Vermonters surrounding me, I always remember "my place" since I was born on the south side of Chicago and grew up in Boston's suburbs even through 5 generations before me were "true' Vermonters".  

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, HubSpot Tips, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2024 sales and marketing best practices, 2024 Sales Planning, 2024 Business Planning, 2024 Marketing Planning