Football season is in full swing, so we thought we’d align this post by taking some advice about getting back to basics from the National Football League.
We all know that football teams practice a lot – according to the NFL, six days per week. Activities include reviewing game tapes, playbooks, and on-field six-plus hour sessions depending upon the day!
Key Question:
However, while a team might focus on different elements of the game during different sessions, there is something that they talk about and practice during every session. Any thoughts as to what that might be?
Well, believe it or not, it is blocking and tackling, which the NFL identifies as “the most basic skills of the game. These skills are necessary ingredients for winning. Teams that can’t block or tackle are doomed. These skills are practiced every day… they prevent teams from making costly mistakes.”
In sales, the blocking and tackling includes the fundamental work that may not always be glamorous or urgent, but is highly important.
This work includes proactive outreach and follow-up, customer or client retention calls, prospecting, networking, presentations, social media, and so on.
Key Answer:
The prudent course of action is to put these fundamental activities into “practice” with a strategic frequency that aligns with achieving our goals.
In other words, we might ask ourselves, how many sales calls must I make in order to secure a sufficient number of meetings and presentations to build a sufficiently-robust pipeline of opportunities, to achieve my ultimate sales goals?
In other words, fundamentals matter and we should pay attention to them and practice them regularly.
Consider the following points about the importance of fundamentals from medium.com, an article published by Roger Williams University, and a few other sources:
- Everything in a given discipline relies upon the fundamentals. They are the foundation from which all amazing feats are derived.
- Basic skills are ultimately the bread and butter for most disciplines. They are the building blocks upon which more advanced knowledge and skills are built.
- The fundamentals don’t change. We rely upon these most basic skills in order to perform consistently, safely, and at successful (competitive!) levels.
- Perfecting the fundamentals often leads people to develop discipline.
- While athletes may roll their eyes at being lectured about the fundamentals for the umpteenth time, they learn the value over time.
- When we turn our back on the basics, the results are rarely good. At best, we have a small failure. At worst, key opportunities can be forever lost.