As we’ve discussed, there’s many components that going into a winning team, both on and off the field. Once you’ve built out your Strategy, decided on how to make the best use of your Operations, and gotten as creative as possible with your Innovation, its time to bring it all together and take it on to the field. As we sit here, days away from the Super Bowl, our thoughts turn to the big topic at hand - game execution.
We call it Go-to-Market but I like the term game execution, as it best reflects the situation: get it done - bring home the game! You would not believe how much energy goes into that last game of the season. The coach, the team, the individual players, you don’t have to tell them how important the day is - it may be the most important in their lives. This energy, this ultimate understanding is what is required to make it in business as well.
Don’t Just Play, Win!
We see it over and over: great ideas don’t make it as the owners never get a deal closed, or in more cases it doesn’t scale as only a handful of individuals are able to sell while the broader sales team under performs. More often than not the sales and marketing team get blamed for this. But face it: it is your failure. You didn’t get your team ready for the big game!
Focus - This is Your Night!
The beauty about the last game of the year is … that it is the last one. You don’t have to worry about tomorrow, you just need to focus on this last night. Imagine you could to the same in business, focus on one cut clear goal! Not possible? It absolutely is! When you run a great campaign, everything that you do from a sales and marketing point of view is tailored around a specific story, about your product and how it can help solve a business problem for your potential clients. From outbound emails to social media, call-scripts for tele-sales and tools to help your front line sales people close the business, everything is pushing in the same direction.
Bring It Home
To bring home the game - the deal - you need to empower your team to execute. Do you have all the great ideas in your head documented so a sales representative on the road is able to pitch it to a client? As simple as it looks, a solid content strategy goes a long way. If just your offensive coordinator and your quarterback know the game plan, you’ll never score. You need to get the whole team to understand it. So make an effort to provide your team with the basics they need to tell the story and you will be surprised how far a good set of core elements can go.
Touch Down
Who will win Sunday? The better team, the better quarterback? No, the one that scores the most - period. I know it sounds lame but believe me, there is no polite way to explain how sales works: you get the deal signed! But getting your team to get the deal done and delivering on them...that all starts with strategy.
Read the whole story: Championships start with Strategy.
