Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

My new iPad was delivered last Monday.   On the marketing bell curve, I’m on the far left side of the “early adopters”, and although I’m no longer sleeping on the sidewalk waiting for the store to open, I always like the excitement of new toys.  Most of the time the new toy syndrome plays out perfectly in products such as Apple’s, and sometimes it backfires like when I bought that piece-of-junk Touareg the week it was introduced.  With computer products, back in the day, I would then block out the rest of the morning and afternoon to upload, download, plug in, plug out, reboot and reboot again after reading through inch thick manuals. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

Coffee this morning?  Of course, and each of us has our own thought process in making the choice of whether it’s going to be Green Mountain, Starbucks or Dunkin'.  Since we have lots of Keurigs strategically placed in our various kitchens, the Boston office and our home offices, my choice is less about the coffee, but the convenience and the variety.  But, then that’s me, and as the LP (Little Princess) often reminds me that since I have the taste buds of a warthog, I’m pretty sure that I can’t tell the subtle differences. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

Most people are wired to like consistency.  Consistency represents a recognizable pattern, and in the way we run our crazy lives, patterns provide relative predictability.  As a result, if I’m doing things in a somewhat consistent way, I know that I can naturally increase my percentage of predictability, which gives my brain a tiny shot of dopamine, which makes me “feel good”. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

Finally, the first big snow Thursday - 14 inches at Stratton and 6 on the NH beach.  As any addicted snowboarder like me knows, the adage at any ski area is that…“there are no friends on a powder day”…just get headed up the hill as quickly as possible.  Since I had already made the wise decision not to make the commute to Boston on Thursday, calls and texts came flooding in all day from people looking for me who were either headed to or already on the hill.  Unfortunately, I had to make a choice about my time and rather than make the 3 hour trip to Stratton, I stayed glued to the computer and the phone all day.  An okay day all the same, but of course, I would have rather been figuring out how to avoid the trees in the glades than calculating how to avoid the politics of a sales comp plan for one of our customers.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

I’m an enabling kind of guy…I think.  I enjoy making things happen in my day-to-day: connecting people, improving this and building that.  I like tearing things apart that aren’t working well or are badly fraying around the edges and then reconstructing them on a firmer foundation. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

Last week’s blog dealt with that big word, “TRUST” as seen from the other side of the windshield of the increasingly complex world of the sales warrior.  In a fast-paced, over-charged environment which bombards me with thousands of marketing messages a day, just where does that trust thing figure in?  

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

"You need to trust me on this..."

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

In the day-to-day pursuit of sales and working with my customers, I somehow manage to drive about 50,000 miles a year.  I actually enjoy it since it’s a great time to do telephone calls and just think about the business issues that I and the rest of the guys in the firm run into every week.  So there I was last Monday cruising north at 6:00 AM on the winding twisties of Route 100 headed to Quechee, Vermont for a meeting.  Not much happening on the road, classical music amped up on the 8 speaker Dolby, and me clicking paddle shifters back and forth through the gears with every nip and tuck in the road. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans

Nothing’s easy.  Sometimes, I will hear in a sales meeting..."but it's simple", or, "it's just basic". My attitude when I hear this type of thing is "Well, if it were so simple, then why are we talking about it?"  My frustration with "It's simple" goes right along with the comment from one's boss that often begins with..."It will only take a minute.", which absolutely never...takes a minute.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales optomization, sales training, sales plans