Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Very early this Monday morning, I was driving out of Vermont, headed back to the NH beach.  

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices

3 Simple Tips for More Effective Sales Connections.

As a sales guy, I have no problem with making connections.  For my business associates.  For my MIT and Tufts students.  For our customers of the firm.  It's part of the process of living and working in a tight ecosystem like Boston...or in any other city for that matter.

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices, sales, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales training

And so, the rhythm of the fall has begun....

Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales boot camp

Back to school, back to work, and back to all of the craziness and excitement between now and the end of the year closing deals and beginning the 2015 planning process.

Offsites with the team for a day or two at the Marriott, mini sessions in the big conference room out near the lobby, and then countless push & pull "discussions" with the accounting guys who always seem to be single minded-more results with less expense.  Maybe it's just part of earning the CFO badge, but, as keepers of the budget, CFOs orchestrate the annual dance trying to balance greater revenue growth while keeping expenses in check.

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

At the firm, we have the privilige of working one-on-one with hundreds of heads of sales and CEOs every year.  It's exciting and complex work that often comes down to discussing, assessing and implementing  a series of best practices that are heavily based in metrics and data.  From all of these interactions, there appear to be two or three priority concerns that these execs have in common regarding the management of their companies, and I've listed them below in priority order:  

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

The day after the last hours of the last day of the last month of the all important second quarter.

Tags: sales coaching, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, sales coach

To the uninitiated, the managers who never actually sold anything, the presidents who did not climb up the rungs from entry-level sales positions to become the #1 salesperson, and to the operations managers who regard salespeople as a necessary evil, the presumption is that money drives success in salespeople.  

Tags: sales coaching, Sales Optimization, Sales Management Best Practices, sales effectiveness, sales producitivity, sales culture, sales boot camps

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

• -220 work days in the year
• -"the best" sales people work 57 hours/week
• -15%/week is the average time totally wasted
• -only 57%/week spent on actual "selling"
• -most deals take 6 calls & meetings to close
• -most salespeople give up after 3 calls
• -most salespeople create 65%+ of their own leads

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

Perhaps you're a weekend athlete and chase the little white ball around on Saturdays. Maybe, you're on the other end of the spectrum like my friend, John Sohikian, back on the bike clocking 30 miles runs just two weeks after major surgery. James Geshwiler, one of the two Managing Directors of Common Angels, is out rowing on the Charles most mornings in every possible weather condition, including a little ice now and then.  Me?  I'm somewhere north of the center, in the gym promptly every weekday morning at 5, thinking through the day and typically counting the minutes until breakfast.
 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, Sales Management Best Practices, sales and marketing best practices, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales culture