Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Pretty much, the 3 days I need to be in Boston every week, I'm in the car at the NH beach at 4:00 AM for the 59-minute drive at an average 61 mph (with a powerful radar detector) to Boston. With the wicked Boston traffic, if I were to leave at 5:30, it would take 2 hours mostly at 15 mph on 93. 

I start my day in the gym at 5:30 on the treadmill reading the WSJ, and yesterday, I read this Interesting article about the shortage of AI expertise and that workers in Silicon Valley are pushing themselves to extremes.  Since counting time and figuring out the math of Sales is one of my passions, I looked back at the data that we've collected over the last 10 years on the number of hours that the top performing salespeople work.   

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025SalesPlanning, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

At Derby Management, the fall is always a very busy time working with management teams on overall strategy while taking a deep dive into the sales and marketing processes, the tools and the people upgrades that will need to be made in order to accomplish 2026 forecasts.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Teaching at Tufts University, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

We're now 5 weeks into our semester and have officially shifted from high-end strategy into developing executable tactics and campaigns. The semester ends in early December with presentations of detailed plans to the CEOs of our host companies who determine 40% of the final grade. Definitely, everyone the course is hustling to an end point just the same as if they had a 4th quarter quota to reach...since they actually do. 

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Hiring Perfectly, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

No, it's not The Season, this is the other one...the end of the Summa of '25.  One can already hear it in the language being used by parents with their kids, most of whom are already back in school.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, HubSpot Tips, Making Tough Choices, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning

During a "normal" non-Summa' work week, I spend 20-25 hours in traffic commuting from the NH Beach to  the Boston office or to Tufts. It is what it is in America's worst city for traffic and accidents.  In the world of "Things That You Don't Need to Know", Boston drivers are 244% more likely to get into a collision than the national average. This year for me has been especially "interesting" with 24,000 miles added on already through July  plus a major repair caused by my losing argument with a concrete post in the Tufts parking lot.  

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning

It's early Monday on a perfect summa' morning as I head off for a two-week Vermont mountain-top retreat to first explore, then consider and finally plan out the next year or so looking toward the end of 2026.  The weather this summa' for me has been spectacular with a perfect balance of rain, sun and lots of heat, which I love.  

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

Actually, the origins of Friday, the 13th are complex, a mix of both realities and myths:

The date itself is an extension of the fear of the number 13, known as paraskevidekatriaphobia, which was heavily popularized by fiction writers back to the 19th and 20th centuries and extending, of course, by our own love of the 1980 horror flick, Friday the 13th...and its many haunting extensions. 

 

 

The date is shrouded with many myths...or at least unknowns.  There's the actual number 13 traced back to several sources such as Judas who supposedly was the 13th guest at the Last Supper before betraying Jesus. In medieval times, the actual day of Friday was thought to be an unlucky day to begin any important work.   

The reality is evidenced in events such as that on Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the mass arrest of the Knights Templar. Hundreds of these powerful medieval knights were imprisoned and many were later executed.

With that as background, and since, in fact, it is Friday, the 13th, let me shift to the many myths surrounding the profession of Sales since most of these end up costing salespeople unnecessary time, but more importantly are on the wrong side of the equation for building trust and value creation with the prospect.  

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

Gotta hand it to the Celtics for their hard work, their athleticism, their perseverance and just true grit, but with Friday night's final score, we're on the sidelines watching the rest of the playoffs.  Playing the game to win is the very nature of every sport, and it's also the core essence of every activity that we engage in as professional salespeople. 

 

You want to win, you gotta' play to win which means that if you're behind right now halfway through the quarter, you may want to think about changing up your baseline drills for success. 

Here's a few simple, but directly impactful ideas to try out this beautiful Monday morning: 

 

 

• Every month: Update your written team playbook by getting everyone on the team directly involved.
  A playbook is not your annual sales plan that you architected last December. This is a living, breathing document that's frequently revisited and updated with the team at the beginning of every month. We've been insisting on these now for a few years, and the direct impact has been amazing.  
  
• Every week:
  -Hold one-hour early AM training drills on one or two specific tactics.
  -Personally connect for 15 minutes with 1 successful person who inspires you.
  -Read 1 technical article written in 2024-2025 on what it takes to be successful in Sales.
  
  
• Every day:
  -Think like a customer first, not a salesperson selling anything.
  -Focus on what you can do to drive direct business value for your customers.
  -Begin each day by verbalizing out loud why you're the best salesperson.
  -Start with activities that energize you-maybe it's exercise or listening to a podcast on the drive.
  -Dig into tracking the math in detail: every play, every conversion and every score. 

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

It's been an extraordinary semester at Tufts!!!

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Teaching at Tufts University, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning

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