Last Monday and Tuesday, I had the "opportunity" to visit the Emergency Room at Mass General Hospital.
After a long day in a complex sales meeting — just ten days following a stent insertion — I erred on the right side of caution, aided significantly to by a scathing directive from my nurse practitioner wife that ended with "You need to go to MGH!. Now!." I walked in at 5:00 PM and walked out seventeen hours later with the best possible answer: no findings.
The entire experience was extraordinary!
From the moment I entered, someone was immediately asking the right questions. Every step of the process was clearly communicated before it happened. X-rays, scans, and multiple blood tests followed in sequence, with results available to me directly online in real time. Everyone — nurses, techs, residents, attendings — was genuinely caring, even in a major urban ER open to anyone at any hour. And the shared objective was crystal clear: complete the process thoroughly and get me home safely.
That alignment of objectives is what struck me most.
All seventeen hours, I kept thinking: this is exactly what our best sales organizations do.
The parallels were hard to ignore:
- Triage = qualification. The right questions asked immediately, with no time wasted on the wrong problem.
- Step-by-step communication = a defined sales process. Every stage explained before it happened, so I always knew where we were and what came next.
- Real-time data shared with the patient = CRM visibility for the whole team. I could see my own test results online as they were posted. No information hoarding.
- Shared objective to close = a mutual success plan. Their goal and mine were identical. That alignment made every conversation efficient and trusting all focused in closing to the mutual satisfaction of me and the docs.
The MGH environment was, of course, far more complex than any sales floor...a cacophony of languages, multiple simultaneous emergencies, a police action around 2 AM, beds lining the hallways. And yet everything and everyone was immediately labeled, identified, and operated within a culture of sincere accountability and calm professionalism.
As many of you know from these weekly posts, my team and I are deep into the science of sales and marketing. The word science is intentional. Consistent success in sales — making quota, earning high Net Promoter Scores, building long-term customer relationships — is not about "the art of selling". It never was!
It's about the discipline to follow a well-defined process. The commitment to use the right tools consistently. And the willingness to measure performance against agreed-upon standards — what MGH would simply call standards of care.
Later Tuesday, I filled out their customer satisfaction survey: five stars across the board!!!
If one of the largest and most complex hospitals in the country can deliver that level of consistent, data-driven, patient-first care under extraordinary pressure — the question worth thinking about and planning for as we enter the second half of this year is "What would our sales results look like if we held our teams to the same standard?"
Have a superb week selling!
At any time, if you have questions, just reach out to me at jack@derbymanagement.com or 617-504-4222
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Jack is a Managing Partner of Derby Management, a strategy consulting firm, and founder of the Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts University, where he has taught for 20 years. Every semester is significantly updated, with heavy emphasis in 2026 on AI in Marketing & Sales. At Derby Management, Jack and his team architect and build business strategies focused on sales and marketing processes, tools, and technology platforms.
| www.derbymanagement.com | Derby Entrepreneurship Center at Tufts
