Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

This is the final week! Or, more appropriately...this is Finals Week.

Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices, sales, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, best sales practices;

April 21st marks the 118th running of the Boston Marathon.  Considering the tragedy that occurred last year, this particular marathon will be steeped in pride and emotion as a record number of runners participate to show their support for the event and the runners, along with their respect for those who died and were injured in last year's horror.

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

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...

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

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.

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

In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, there was an interesting marketing article on Wheaties.   Most of us grew up with the marketing tag line of "The Breakfast of Champions" ringing in our head along with pictures of Michael Jordan, Dorothy Hamil, Michael Phelps and similar top level athletes featured in full color on the outside of the box.  Wheaties actually taste pretty good! The problem is that although they are an iconic 91 year old brand, they no longer sell very well. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Best Practices, sales, sales enablement, sales effictiveness, sales boot camp

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.  

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

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.  

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

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?

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

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".  

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

-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?  

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