In both my Marketing course and in my Science of Sales course, the process is to involve six real-life companies in each course who have a need to develop either a detailed sales or marketing plan.  Six juniors and seniors, with balanced experience, are assigned to each project prior to the semester beginning with specific assignments to be read and Hubspot certification to be completed prior to the first class.  Then for the period of the next 13 weeks, there is content supplied by me, by my TAs and especially from my alums who have over the years now moved into sales or marketing management positions and come back to class to instruct.  The teams work with their management on a weekly basis with guidance from me and our instructors producing a final detailed plan around the objectives of their manager who ends up providing 40% of their overall grade. 

• It's deeply detailed, 
• It's complex as we teach a new language, technology and math
• It's a heavy time commitment with 2x-3x more time spent outside the classroom than in
• Most importantly it's real life where the experience of Sales changes constantly
• And then, there's the side benefit that the students are often offered jobs

The syllabus and the six projects go to the students on July 5th and choices will be made within the following 48 hours, and I have been working through the syllabus with my TAs for the fall, I thought about one of the more impactful presentations made at the very beginning of this past spring's semester, which was done by Brian Bresee, Director of Sales for Hubspot's NA Partner Program and an alum from this course.  To give applause and superb thanks to my other 10 alum instructors, everyone did a superb job !!! of instructing digging deep into processes, roles, technology, and compensation planning!  What Brian provided in that second class was to give a framework of basic simplicity to what is one of the new rules of the Science of Sales: Prioritization, Personalization and Persistence!  Three critical words to think about today as we now are on the final countdown for the end of the Q on Friday. 

Ever since the Harvard Business Review woke up 10 years ago to the fact that there's basic science in the world of Sales and that buying decisions are not made as the result of sports tickets and Dunkin' delivered by JoeyBagaDonuts, there's been a wave of sales terms of Sales Optimization, Sales Enablement, Customer Journey Mapping, Social Selling, Omnichannel Sales, and now, of course Sales AI.  All of these new phrases simply come down to the basics that as a sales manager, I simply want to provide my team with improved productivity and efficiency while providing our customers with improved value.  Higher productivity on one hand and higher value on the other!   

Just a couple of short comments this morning as we stare down the end of the Q in two days!

Good selling today!

 2023 SALES PLANNING 

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.