How to Think About Innovation & Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Mon, Mar 31, 2014

Driving back from running one of our boot camps in Rochester last Friday, I decided to stop at the house in (the frozen tundra of) Vermont rather than make the drive even longer by continuing on to the NH beach.  Looking at the house, as I drove in late Friday afternoon, I noticed that there were...

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Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales optomization, sales boot camps

Am I a Professional Salesperson? ...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Mar 26, 2014

Monday morning I was reading what turned out to be a really stupid HBR article about "professionalism".  It actually started with the interesting question of "Do your colleagues think you’re professional?", which got me to thinking about the perceptions that people have regarding salespeople in general. Unfortunately, the article then went on to attempt to tie "professionalism" to the way one decorates their cubicle and then tie that result into gender and race.  Note to HBR:  you really need to do a better job at screening your writers.

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Tags: Sales Best Practices, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management training, sales optomization, sales management boot camp, sales producitivity, sales boot camps

Birthdays, Social Marketing...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Mar 18, 2014

Last week I celebrated my xx birthday.   No magic number.  No big celebration.  But, as a friend of mine from my daily high school email posse remarked... "Having birthdays is a whole lot better than not having them".  James Geshwiler and Maia Heymann began our 8:00 Monday morning  status call at Common Angels by singing "Happy Birthday".  Mike Schumann, VP of Sales at Salsify, asked through Linked In how it felt to be 49? I responded, of course, that "I wouldn't know...yet." 70 of my FaceBook friends chimed in with best wishes and another couple of hundred through Linked In. And, yes, I did get two actual paper birthday cards...from the cats.  And, oh yeah, I bought myself a car as a birthday gift.

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales management training, sales training, sales boot camp, sales management boot camps

It doesn't matter if you're right; it matters that you're understood

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Sat, Mar 01, 2014

Recognition for this title to Seth Godin in his blog last Saturday.  A Tufts grad, Seth has a knack for minimalism both in his blog content and in his persona.  As I was reading his blog, immediately I thought of how important a statement this was for the sales people at most companies.  And the reason for that are these disturbing facts below from a recent study at the Harvard Business School:

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Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales management boot camps

Training for the Gold...and more Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Feb 19, 2014

Now that we've settled into the actual competition of the Olympics and moved past the media distractions of uncompleted hotel rooms and relentless weather reports of melting snow, the pure athleticism in Sochi is just outstanding.  World records and gold medals are decided in hundredths of a second after skiers and skeleton sleds plummet downhill at 80 miles an hour while hockey teams play repeated rounds of sudden death overtime.  So far, this Olympics has been both exciting and heartwrenching (my snowboarding friend, Lindsey Jacobellis ,falling) to watch.  

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, selling skills, sales training, sales management boot camp

Planning for more wood...and more sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Wed, Jan 22, 2014

Guiding the brand new Subaru carefully out of NH and into Boston through yet another snow storm and blasting cold wind this morning. Steel gray skies and and tough sleddin' everywhere, but that's why they invented 4 wheel drive.  

Even though it seems like we're already two or three months into this winta' season, the calendar technically notes that it's just 30 days. All I know is that I'm burning way more wood than usual in the stove in Vermont, and right now it looks like all my careful planning isn't working out that well.  

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Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, Sales Management Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, Sales quota, sales boot camp, sales management boot camp

Out of my Control...and more Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Jan 14, 2014

Toward the end of a very hectic December, I was facilitating a series of 2014 sales plan reviews for the senior sales team of a new customer.  It was interesting for me to note that in a few of the presentations, even heavily experienced salesguys commented that although this was their plan for the year, there "are a number of factors that are out of my control".   Always the pain-in-the-neck, provoking guy that I am, I asked about those, and the responses were...

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Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales optomization, sales training, sales management boot camp, sales boot camps

Just Three Things for 2014...plus More Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Jan 07, 2014

Just Three 2014 Things...

If there were just three things that you could improve on and be super successful at during 2014, what would they be?

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Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales boot camp, sales jobs, sales management boot camp, strategic planning, sales checklists

Peace on Earth...and more sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Dec 24, 2013

I thought about sending out Christmas cards that provided profound statements about love, humanity, warmth, family and, of course, the ultimate wish for "Peace on Earth & Good Will to Men & Women".  

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Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Management Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management training, sales management boot camp

Ya Gotta Love Vermonters, their Planning...and Sales

Posted by Jack Derby, Head Coach on Tue, Dec 17, 2013

-3 today and more snow, on top of the 18" from Sunday, coming right now. Just the right type of weather for roofing the house, right?  

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Tags: sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales management boot camp, improving sales productivity, best sales practices;