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 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

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

This past weekend was spent at my high school reunion.  With an open house reception at the town library Friday night extending to a Town Day parade, receptions and a town hall party on Saturday and finally to a “See-Ya-in-5-Years” brunch on Sunday morning, the town of Arlington welcomed back its returning artists and dancers, pilots and soldiers, nurses and docs, professors and teachers, business leaders and tow truck drivers with open arms.  

With high school yearbook pictures hung around our necks, each of us bravely entered the uncertainty of greeting friends and lovers who we may not have seen since graduation decades ago or at least since the last reunion.  And what did each of us learn and take away from those three days of sharing stories and pictures, laughs and tears and absorbing an overall superb experience?   I think that it is that real friendships never go away.  No question, you can go home again, take a trip back into nostalgia and history and then jump ahead to the fullness of exploring that newly kindled relationship one more time.  Why?  Because it’s part of the DNA that exists in our head and is baked into who we are and not what we are.

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, closing sales, Sales quota, sales training, sales jobs

It’s been a superb summer!  Simply…superb…no better word.

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

To a fault (yea, I know, I have many), I'm a big believer in the rhythm of business and the rhythm of the seasons.  Maybe as a confirmed 6th generation Vermonter, paying attention to the seasonal ebb and flow becomes a necessity living in an environment which only has two seasons:  "snow" and "bad sleddin' ".  In reality, Vermonters actually live with at least 7 different seasons which include "Mud", "Hayin'", and "Summa' Tourist" intermixed among the Big 4. 

At my house on the NH coast, the year is divided much more simply into the seasons of "Beach", which is anything above 55 degrees and "No Beach", which includes hats, heavy jackets and the necessity to keep walking fast.  Yesterday Jack, my favorite lifeguard who just happens to be a software marketing guru in his alter ego real life, pointed out that there were only 7 more days before the season ended, to which I responded... "What the heck are you talking about???"  But, sadly, he's right.  Jack's starting a great job next week with a big corporate powerhouse in Boston, the kids are back to school, my teaching at MIT and Tufts starts the first week in  September, and I'll soon be back to my daily 4:00 AM morning commute to the Boston office.

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