When we’re bang in the middle of our sales meetings, in the midst of our coaching sessions or performing in front of an audience, we sometimes forget one of the golden rules. Let me explain.
I help to run and coach our village Under 12’s Junior Rugby Team called the Bredon Buzzards. Look us up on the web www.bredonbuzzards.com
At the beginning of this season, we got off to a great start winning our first two matches convincingly but then the rot set in and we lost five matches on the bounce.
Now you can imagine by Christmas, how the boys were feeling – pretty depressed and as for the coaching team, we were distraught…devastated. We began to question our ability and drive, our motivation dropped, we kept debating our coaching strategies, questioning ourselves, blaming ourselves…we panicked.
Does this ring a bell in sales or management when times get tough – maybe a lean spell, a period of bad news and unforced errors?
How do we rise above it? One way is my SMS System or Sales Motivation System
The secret to an SMS is to break down what you do and rather than wait until a major success like a big sale, you reward yourself for achieving the small increments that lead to the goal. And when you reward yourself regularly for the small achievements, you boost your motivation and self esteem.
Let me explain what we did at Bredon Buzzards. We sat down and examined our coaching system and training drills. We broke down what it was, during a game that led to tries and points being scored and eventual victories. We talked about winning scrums, line-outs, rucks, mauls, passing without dropping the ball, tackling well. We then devised new Skill Drills to practise these core elements and rewarded the boys when they did these things well especially during matches.
All the little rewards started to have an affect on our motivation and the kids’ drive. Even if we lost a match, which we did early in the New Year, we still remunerated ourselves for winning scrums, tackles, line outs etc…and soon enough we had our first, very narrow, victory and haven’t looked back since.
So break down your sales process or your coaching process into smaller chunks and reward yourself with points or Mars bars, it doesn’t matter. That fact that you achieved the small segments will, eventually lead to a big success, a sale or a rugby victory.
The strange twist though, is what the boys really thought. Apparently they weren’t too bothered about losing every match. By the time they had arrived home, been dipped into a bath and fed a roast dinner, washed down with copious amounts of ginger beer…they had totally forgotten the game preferring to remember the fun they had with their mates.
It was us parents and coaches, that took it all to heart and worried about things. Dwelled and resented the referee’s decisions. Perhaps we shouldn’t grow up so quickly, take things so seriously and learn to think more like a 12 year old. Life’s too short anyway.
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