Mid-January today, and already it seems like we’re deep into 2026. Certainly, it's deep into winta' weatha' this morning since when I left the NH beach at 5:00, it was all of 10 degrees with a wicked wind. Normal New England weather following the natural rhythm of the NE seasons.
Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Making Tough Choices, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2026 Sales Planning, 2026 Business Planning, 2026 Marketing Planning
I was out running on the NH Beach this morning and picked up too much sand and a small pebble in my way-too-loose Saucony's. I tolerated it for the run out, but then reaching the end of the seawall, just sat down, took off the shoes, shook out everything, laced up and motored back.
I'm a pretty bad runner and basically, it's an excuse to get out on the beach at 6:00 AM when the weatha's as superb as it's been.
Tags: Sales quota, Making Tough Choices, Sales Hiring & Onboarding, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2024 sales and marketing best practices, 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
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
Unless I'm deep in the lower half of my sales funnel with deals I've been working on since late September and October, right now, I'm totally focused on upselling existing customers with additional solutions.
For me, it's a simple equation built around having only 17 available days and being a trusted partner or strategic advisor to our existing customers.
A fun example of upselling occurred with me on TDay morning when I showed up exactly at 10:30 at the country club as instructed to pick up the mostly cooked bird and the 6 sides of vegetables, potatoes, and everything else down to the butter and the cranberry sauce. Greeting me was the club manager, the chef and two other smiling employees who were there to load everything into my car, which I thought was "very nice" of them to do. Then the manager asked me: "We also have a very nice wine selection to go with your wonderful dinner", as he pointed to a table of various wines grouped by price at $20, $30, $40 and $50 a bottle.
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2023 Business Planning
Yes, first and most importantly, a sincere expression of thanks for the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday! A great time for families and a day or two of decompression before we jump back into the final 20ish days of the year where every point we can put on the board counts. Enjoy the break, have fun, take a walk in the woods and get ready for the final quota crunch. The very good news is that as salespeople, we have a lot to be thankful for.
Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales quota, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2023 Business Planning, 2023 Sales Planning, 2023 Marketing Plans
Ok, a good way to think on a rainy Tuesday morning as I head out to a day of meetings in Boston in a wicked busy week.
Finished my intro business planning class at MIT yesterday and while I'm thinking about my second class at Tufts tomorrow which is all about market research, today's focus is 100% on sales, and where I need to be by the end of December...only about 100 workdays away.
Tags: Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2023 Sales Planning, 2023 Marketing Plans
Welcome to the Summa!
Just a superb holiday period last week, as I took unfair advantage of the fact that I live on the NH beach by lugging my book-filled beach bag out the door every afternoon and laying claim to my time-tested perfect location of sand and surf.
- Perfect for catching up on my long list of required reading assignments
- Necessary for the final edits to the fall syllabus which went out on the 5th
- Relaxing from being at the tip of the spear for the last quarter.
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales Management Best Practices, Sales quota, Sales Leadership in the Revolution, Tufts Entrepreneurship, Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts, Teaching at Tufts University, 2023 Business Planning
Jack, "The Planning Guy", who relentlessly talks about planning, making a religion about planning everything, every process, every marketing and sales activity now headlining today's blog about not planning results? Maybe just a bit too much sun on the NH beach over the long weekend! What gives?
But when it comes down to the men and women who are at the tip of the spear specifically as salespeople, who are on the phone, on the street, and in their offices touching and reaching out to real customers and prospects, although "strategies" and KPIs may be important guidelines, they are somewhat meaningless without a 30-60-day action plan.
Too often, we surround our salespeople with too much. Good intentions, all aimed at the common objective of making our number, but too often we leave out the requirement of action planning at the detail level.
We attempt to teach them about strategy, and too often end up just creating confusion. We surround them with sales theories, new systems and out-of-date sales books.
We love to have weekly team meetings, which are important, of course, but then waste 50% of that time telling them stuff that could have been better handled in a pre-meeting video prepping everyone for a more productive meeting to discuss go-forward 30-day action plans and sharing best practices.
In our own work, we ask for week-by-week 30-day plans for 60 days built on a uniform, easy-to-complete template which then becomes part of our tool set kept in our Hubspot CRM so that there is only one source of truth. This also makes everything accessible by everyone since what we are really looking for is the sharing of best practices and best tools among all of the sales team whether that's 5 or 50 people.
One of our very best and most successful heads of sales that we've worked with, Colleen Honan simply calls it "Planning the Plan". We term it "30-60's" where we want to see the following bullets in a template that should take 30 minutes a week to complete and discuss with the manager.
Check out our updated sales productivity site page. Just page down to get our new edition of Writing the Winning Sales Plan for 2023. Or you can just email me, and I will send you a free copy. Connect with me at any time for some quick ideas and feedback. There's never a cost for a call or two, plus I love listening and talking about Sales & Marketing.
www.derbymanagement.com
Derby Entrepreneurship Center@Tufts.
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales quota, HubSpot Tips, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2023 Business Planning, 2023 Sales Planning, 2023 Marketing Plans
Tags: Sales Optimization, Sales Best Practices, Sales quota, HubSpot Tips, Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts, 2023 Business Planning, 2023 Sales Planning, 2023 Marketing Plans
