Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

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

http://www.stratton.comFirst, and most importantly, a very sincere wish for a wonderful, healthy and prosperous 2012.  

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

We’ve all heard the phrase “It’s just like riding a bike; it always comes right back to you”, and, in fact, that was pretty much it last Saturday as I strapped on my new Rome snowboard (an unabashed plug since I am one of the directors of this great company), and headed down the slopes at Stratton (another unabashed plug for a great group of men and women who run the place).   No matter the fact that I’ve been skiing or riding ever since I was 4, and it didn’t make any difference that I’ve gone down that particular trail, my favorite on the hill, literally thousands of time, there’s always a mixture of exhilaration, fear and trepidation, and just old fashioned excitement on the first day out in the season.  The first run was more than chunky both on the slope and in my head, but by the end of the second run, I had quickly eased back into a somewhat natural rhythm of turns, breathing more slowly and working through the differences in the new board.  

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, HubSpot Tips

With just about 15 selling days left in the year, closing deals now all comes down to the sales warriors who have the most energy, who are the best organized, who have the best value propositions and, most importantly, are the best closers.  The pressure’s on, and everyone’s feeling it.

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

I was deep in my Vermont woodlot this past weekend picking up sticks. Low 30’s, crisp and eerily quiet. Not the smartest thing that I ever did considering Saturday was the start of deer hunting season, but details are details, and time is quickly running out.  All it takes now is one deep snowstorm, and the kindling will continue to stay where it has rested all summer.  Most of the wood tent has been filled by Tom the Wood Guy, but I still need to haul in a couple of cords I stacked in the woods last spring, and the weather looks like it will hold until Thanksgiving.  Hopefully finish this coming weekend. 

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, marketing effectiveness, marketing productivity, Sales quota, sales training, leadership, marketing management

“Every morning in Africa a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle - when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.”

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training

Monday was our second day without power, heat, running water and that most vital of all utilities, access to salesforce.com to check on my sales activities...  Huddled around the fireplace with the consistent hiss of Coleman lanterns casting a yellow glow over the room, we toughed it out with only limited whining…mostly on my part.  Every couple of years, since we live in Vermont and New Hampshire, we revisit what it’s like to endure these multi-day experiences without power, instant communication, and the basics of heat and plumbing.  And the bottom line is that it’s a bit inconvenient for sure, but nothing like what my great-grandfather, Horace, growing up in Poultney, Vermont, must have experienced his entire life.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training

It’s the Tween Season in Vermont.  It’s neither foliage nor a lot of snow...yet, so it must be “‘tween huntin’ and winta’”  With little this year in the way of foliage due to the wet summer and Irene, most of Vermont is now painted in various shades of just plain old dull brown.  It’s that time of year that the highly celebrated natural beauty of Vermont becomes muted as every small community prepares itself for the coming of winter. It’s also that time of year when the hundreds of small contractors, which are the real backbone of Vermont’s economy, start feeling just a bit pressured when they receive those calls from their winter homeowner- customers asking how the new deck or the new kitchen cabinets look, when in fact, they still have the lumber in the back of their pickups.  

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, marketing effectiveness, Sales quota, sales training, business coaching

Last weekend at this time found me in Vermont deep in shoveling the debris and dirt left from the floods and repairing the ATV trails in my woodlot.  Filling one five gallon bucket at a time, hauling them to the tractor, driving into the woods and filling the holes in the trails, inches at a time, reminded me again of how lucky I am to have my day job which, although complex and pressure-driven, as my friend Bernie Gordon, CEO of Analogic, used to repeatedly tell me “doesn’t involve any heavy lifting.”

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, selling skills, sales optomization, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales optimication

I escaped from the end of the quarter Sales Crunch Time late last Friday, and went to Vermont this past weekend for the The Annual Fall Cleanup. It’s always a chore but also a relief to get through another summer season and start preparing for the winta'.   It’s just a bit of disbelief that the summer came and went, and I only made it back to my home state of Vermont once, and that trip was with customers for an offsite.  Those six generations who came before me were doing the proverbial rollover wondering what the heck happened to their Vermont son.  But my addictions to the NH beach and now Stratton’s beckoning snowboard trails help me put everything into perspective.  I just follow the seasons and the rhythm of our customer’s annual business calendars, and everything seems to fall neatly into place-very hectic and squeezed-but in place, all the same.

Tags: sales productivity, Sales Optimization, sales management, sales management effectiveness, sales effectiveness, sales tools, selling, improved sales management, sales management training, selling skills, Sales quota, sales training, business planning