Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Following Friday's Job Report and this morning's WSJ article on job creation, the bottom line seems to be "slowing, not stalled".  Given that... and the ups and downs of tariffs...the word we hear everywhere in our fall planning sessions for 2026 is "uncertainty"!

What is certain is that there's a surplus of incredible younger talent looking for jobs from recent GenZ grads to heavily experienced Millennials especially in sales and marketing.  What this means for those of you who are looking to hire, now is the time push ahead...but do it slowly. 

We clearly understand the uncertainty issue, but considering the 12-18+ months it takes to fully ramp up any salesperson, my strong recommendation is to start the process now...but be slow and absolutely thorough in your process:

• Tighten up the job description, and most importantly, create a very detailed internal checklist.
• Detail the exact skills and experience you need and then test for those skills in presentations.
• Define the personal characteristics that match your, and use PI or similar tools for assessments.
• Be exacting in discussing your 2026 KPIs during your interviews.  

There's a phrase we use in our hiring process for salespeople: "Be Slow to Hire & Quick to Fire".  

What we've seen too many times is that there's a sales opening because a salesperson or a manager unexpectedly quit creating a rush to hire and fill that opening. Job descriptions are quickly updated, KPI objectives are generalized, postings are made on LinkedIn and other platforms, and a flurry of "let us know if you know anyone" calls are made to personal connections. Nothing is wrong with these tactics, but they're just not thorough enough.  The cost of a bad sales hire is not just the two years of lost revenue; it's the hit on reputation both internally and externally.

Where it goes wrong...

• Detailed time is not taken and 100% agreed to by the hiring team regarding the four bullets above.
• There are artificial pressures that lead to "good-enough" hiring.   
• There is not enough emphasis placed on interpreting and assessing the personal characteristics.  We often use the analogies of dating and getting married since that's exactly what's happening in the senior management positions of sales.   

If you want to talk through a couple of ideas or get access to my students or recent alums, just connect with me at any time.  A good use of my time commuting in and out of Boston. 

Have a great day selling today!

It's time to begin your business & Sales planning for what lies ahead in 2026.

Think about taking a day out this September and October to tune up your business and sales plans.  Here's our free how-to ebooks for a few ideas: 
"Writing the Winning Sales Plan"
"Writing the Winning Business Plan"
"Writing the Winning Marketing Plan"
"The Marketing of Me"

We outline ideas on structure, models, process funnels, productivity tools and how to recruit, hire and onboard the best people.  A few hands-on guides for real managers written by real managers with their fingers in the dirt.  

Connect with me any time at jack@derbymanagement.com and let's discuss your own 2026 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.  

The very good news is that we are now only 50% into the summa' approaching "The Dog Days of August".  You know the flip side of this good news/bad news equation regarding the remaining 50%, so I will save you that depressing note.

Although later today, I'm driving away from the NH beach where I live even with today's forecast of a perfect beach weekend, my "Summa' love of reading books will simply be transferred to the outside deck in Vermont.   

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. 

Nothing is more definitive than the scorecard at the end of the season for any professional sport. Right now, with the wicked one-point loss for the Celtics to the Knicks on Wednesday night, they're in a tough come-from-behind situation for Saturday afternoon's game at MSG. The absolute metrics of the losses are bad enough, but the giving up of 20-point leads in both games says that there's something terribly wrong with the team.   Metrics tell it all...all the time!

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

Could not ask for a more Spring-like day in New England than this: a rainy, clingy, cold and windy Saturday morning.   Spring in New England!

Here at the NH beach, it's just wicked grey rain at 8:00 AM. 

In VT, it's either snowy rain or rainy snow according to my Ring camera, but whatever it is, it's not doing much to get rid of the heavy snow still out by barn. 

Is it just "the older me", or did others of you grow up with the following little poem that is right now rattling through my head this cold and rainy classic Vermont Spring morning?
 
Spring is sprung, the grass is riz.
I wonder where the birdies is.
They say the birdies on the wing, but that’s absurd.
I always thought the wing was on the bird.

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

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'".