Derby Management's "Competitive Edge" Blog

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

With 50 days (which is being generous, so do your own math) left in the quarter, there's not much time for changing out teams, re-planning key account plans or totally new game plans. This is 50 days of classic blocking and tackling as you move down the field toward the goal line.  Having said that, these last 50 days left in the season are also going to need to be played more like soccer than football.  There’s no bye time like the Patriots have this week. There’s no ability to swap out teams and bring in other players.  Clearly no time for time outs.  This is just constant forward motion activity, yard by yard if not inch by inch, and all of that activity absolutely needs to be at full speed.

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 training

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

Each of the three CEOs I met with on Monday used the same term, “crunch time” to describe the end of the quarter this Friday.   A software company, a financial services firm and a retail product manufacturer-the industry didn’t make any difference; it was the same phrase, “crunch time”.  Every month, every quarter, in almost every industry we work in, it always comes down to this last week.  It is what it is, and it’s what we deal with as managers every year, which, of course, doesn’t make it right or wrong, it just brings too many decisions down to too little time leaving no room for errors.  The bottom line of which, in any crunch situation, is that unfortunately something somewhere gets squeezed out and falls through the cracks.  I guess I could paint an analogy to the Red Sox here, but that crunch time story is just too depressing and painful.

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

Last year was my first winter living on the New Hampshire beach.  Commuting to Boston for work and to Vermont on the weekends to snowboard proved not to be such a big deal, and I had this stupid belief that living on the ocean would not produce as much snow.  My brain kept tossing around phrases like "Gulf Stream"  which I then very nicely translated into "less snow". In reality, the beach yielded just as much snow as the 120 inches we received in Vermont.  The key difference (I learned the hard way) was that Vermont possesses one very important component that's missing in the tight confines of a NH beach, and that's plenty of space to plow and dump the stuff.  I also quickly learned that even in The Live Free or Die State, there are zoning laws about when, where and at what volume one can actually move snow.  In Vermont, snow is snow, and the only law is just dump it anywhere...and quickly...because there's more coming tomorrow.

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

With anxiety and the fear of the unknown, I headed to Vermont last Friday night for the first time since the floods to see for myself what had happened to our house.  Since friends had already walked the property and checked things out, I knew that we were one of the lucky ones and had no damage.  With our road now fully reconstructed, it was now time to venture into the bustling metropolis of Bondville, population 647, at the base of Stratton Mountain. After confirming that the house was okay, I drove to the general store in stunned silence shocked by the surrounding damage that our tiny river had caused ripping out bridges and tossing 100 pound rocks by the hundreds into our field which, at the height of the storm, had been under five feet of water.   

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, management

With the passing of Labor Day, I found myself giving a sad “see ya next summer” to my friend, Jack McAvoy, the head lifeguard at our beach.  Older, serious, dedicated and always razor sharp, good weather and bad, Jack, on any weekend, is not only out there as the protector of the beach, but he’s often the diplomat and mediator between feuding siblings and sometimes forgetful adults.

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 training

“It’s been dirty, and it will be a little tough, but we’ll be fine.”

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