Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

Dave Brubeck...

When I was 16, my friend and I hitchiked to Newport one summer heading to the NewPort Jazz Festival attending the free workshops during the day and sneaking into the concerts at night to listen to the true legends of jazz crossing the spectrums from Basie, Coltrane, Gillespie, and Monk to Dave Brubeck, whom I had never heard before. Five summers ago, I had the opportunity to be part of an intimate 90 minute session, where Brubeck, looking deceptively frail, once again took absolute command of the keyboard as he started the set with that same mystical lilt heard right at the beginning  of "Take Five".  I vividly remember Brubeck both back in the early 60's in Newport and also in a small art center a couple of years ago in Vermont and was saddened to hear about the death of this true legend last week.

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales training, Zig Ziglar and sales

With now just 16 selling days (and that's stretching the reality of real sales time) until the end of the year, the pressure’s on, everyone is heads down, and totally focused on that one simple thing-QUOTA-before the end of the year.  Statistics tell me that in a B2B world, only 67% of salespeople make their quota every year, which I always find curious…and shocking…since in my companies, on average, that number is up in the mid 80’s.  With only 67% as the average, that means that there must be a lot of salespeople really struggling down in the 30 and 40 percentiles.  No wonder the turnover rate is so high among salespeople taken as a total. 

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, improved sales management, sales management training, Sales quota, sales jobs, jobs, finding sales jobs, how to close sales

With a long weekend of maxed-out football from Thanksgiving Day high school to the Pats, I realize that I'm constantly comparing professional sports teams to professional sales organizations on the basis of....

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales jobs

How many times a week do you hear that request for "just five minutes" of your time?  Maybe it's from your boss or a co-worker, or maybe it's a non-business friend or your spouse as in... "Can you help me for just five minutes?" (spouse translation: "Can you go to the drug store/shopping/cleaning out the closet for me?")

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales training, sales listening, sales jobs

Brought in the last of the wood from up on the ridge last weekend.  Now, if Tom the Wood Guy shows up next week, four cords should do the trick for what is being forecasted as a heavy winta’.  Last Saturday, I asked the Boys on the Bench (all of whom were dressed out in various shades of camo given huntin’ season) down at the general store, and they’re all predicting a long season of tough storms.  Actually, I’m not really sure that I got a very accurate forecast since everyone, including the Chief of Police of our town (population 647), was embroiled in a hot and heavy debate regarding whether it was a good thing or not that the combination Mobil station/gun store down in Bennington was now selling modified AK47s.   Vermonters… you gotta love ‘em. 

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, sales management training, sales training, sales listening

On my way to NYC on the Acela this morning.  Door to door, three hours, and I’m then plunked into the heart of Manhattan after working in an uninterrupted environment, having a not-so-bad breakfast and doing some quiet soul searching.  A perfect trip.

Tags: sales management effectiveness, sales enablement, sales tools, sales management training, Sales quota, sales training, sales listening

With snowboarding just around the corner…in 35 days (but who’s counting?), I happened to take a trip to 1 Derby Lane in Waterbury, Vermont to see the boys at the best snowboard company in America, Rome Snowboards.  I’ve been riding Rome gear for 10+ years now, and it’s far superior to those other guys who also make a couple of boards in Vermont.  Having said that, I also need to mention that I do have a very strong bias toward Rome since I'm on their board of directors, and greatly enjoy working with co-founders, Josh and Paul.  Great company, great product and great management!  Come ride with me this winter at Stratton, and I'll show you.

Tags: sales coaching, sales, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, sales training, sales plans, how to close sales

Most days, I commute back and forth from the NH beach on the left to our sales office in Boston.  For most of the year, the commute is not an issue since I leave early and can usually squeeze in a quick walk on the sand at dusk.  For the rest of the year, I come and go in the dark, but since that particular seasonal shift also marks the snowboarding season, I know I'm headed to the mountains at the end of the week anyway, which takes the edge off the commute. 

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales enablment, sales jobs

With the big Vermont “Cut Down Day” behind me last weekend and a refrigerator list of only 14 items to complete before the end of the month and the first of the November snows, the daunting tasks of getting ready for another Vermont winta’ seem to be relatively contained.   But then, this is Vermont, and just like my perfectly-planned schedules at the beginning of every month always look, well… “perfect”, shortly into the fall season or into every business quarter, there’s always reshuffles and “squeeze-me-ins”, and the only thing that I can really control is how many hours I can work.

Tags: sales productivity, sales coaching, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales plan process, sales coach, sales management coach, sales effectiveness, sales enablement, sales planning, sales tools, selling, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, sales plans, sales jobs

Every good sales organization is charged with tension...especially right now.  Here we are only a couple of days away from closing Q3.  Friday night will define the tale of the tape against which we measure both our company's objectives and our own personal quotas.  Then, just to punch the tension up a notch, next Monday morning, at the crack of dawn, with a turn of the page and a click of the mouse, we're immediately thrust into the super-critical 63 selling days of Q4. 

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