Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

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

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. 

Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, best sales practices;, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2025 Business Planning, 2025MarketingPlanning, 2025SalesPlanning

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.

Tags: Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, Derby Entrepreneurship Center, 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

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

A very Happy New Year!  2025 promises to be a year of solid business growth, but as usual, a number of unexpected speed bumps as we speed along the highway. In addition to making personal new year resolutions while formalizing our business sales and marketing plans, it's also a time when many managers at all levels begin to think about possible job or career changes.  It's just the normal rhythm of the year and planning out the year ahead.   As a result, those individuals do the normal thing and reach out confidentially to their friends and business colleagues, dust off their resume and send an email vaguely worded as "if you see something, please keep me in mind."   The absolute worst waste of time in trying to market yourself!  

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

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