The Impact Of Preparation

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Alabama football. Under Nick Saban Alabama football has been dominate (not withstanding their most recent loss to Clemson in the National Championship Game) and as a fan, I see several things that have led to this. One such thing is Saban’s ability to over-prepare for situations. He isn’t one to be taken off guard due to him preparing for every situation and circumstance possible.  

If you have worked with me for any time you know that I love and believe in preparation. It is something I speak to again and again with my team. Especially my sales team! Over the years I have seen football teams (others besides Saban’s) and salespeople alike lose because of a lack of preparation.  

In football, if you’re under prepared it shows up on game day as you get exposed through the scoreboard. You can’t hide at the end of a football game. You were either prepared or unprepared.  

In sales, it can be more subtle in revealing where were unprepared. Over the years I have noticed a tendency for people to under-prepare and even to regularly show up completely unprepared. This has led to many not achieving their goals, leaving dreams behind due to winging it in areas of their life.  If you are new to this idea of “winging it” at something let me define it. “Winging it” is improvising with little preparation. For salespeople meetings and presentations are where their influence matters most.

Game time execution is to football what meetings and presentations are to salespeople. This is the most common place that I see salespeople “winging it”.  

Before I get on my high horse let me lead with this, in scripture it says “let anyone of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone”, John 8:7. So here is my disclaimer. We have all done this. Yes even me! So no stones were thrown with this article but I am hopeful I can inspire someone who is cruising through life to step into spending more time preparing as preparation matters. Several decades ago I learned how critical preparation is to succeeding thus it is easy to call myself out when attempting something unprepared. But that story is for another article.  

If there is someone most likely to fall into the “under preparation trap” it is one who has natural gifting. These people are able to lean on their gifting as though a crutch. They can spend little to no time preparing and get by without people noticing. While they can overachieve even when “winging it” in meetings and presentations the truth is they are not fully achieving their potential. Through preparation, there is more available even to the naturally gifted!

As someone who enjoys a good football game, I am intrigued to study their habits.  In a survey of college football head coaches, they found top coaches put in close to 100 hours per week during the football season. To put this into perspective, the total number of hours in a week is 168 which means this leaves 68 hours for eating, sleeping, relationships, etc.  These guys understand that if they are going to succeed they must maximize their time preparing.  

Before you discount the fact that football coaches can kick up their feet in the offseason remember that they also have the recruiting season, spring football and then early fall practices. There truly isn’t an offseason for today’s college football coach.  

With that said there is a thing or two, we can learn from great football coaches in the area of preparation.  

Here are 3 questions salespeople can ask themselves to determine if they are spending enough time preparing for opportunities:

Do you ever feel anxious heading into a meeting because you don’t know your presentation or material well enough to speak to it without using supporting documents?

Do you stay up incredibly late the night prior to a big meeting putting together your presentation and settle for something less than your best due to running out of time?

Do you show up to meetings without having solidified your agenda and lean on your prior meeting experiences to get you through it?

The truth is that many can handle their meetings unprepared and perform adequately to keep our position. In fact, if you are one of the “gifted” ones, you might even excel in your position while admitting to 1, 2 and 3. Regardless of which camp you fall in when winging it during presentations and meetings means you are inevitably losing opportunities to achieve your full potential.  

There is a reason why in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he determined that it took 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve greatness. The 10,000-hour rule for attainment of mastery is simply acts to filter out of those who spend their life “winging it.”

If you have unfulfilled dreams in your life measure it against your commitment to preparation.  When we refuse to lean on improvisation and truly hone our skills to become the best we can expect that success will follow.  

What will you stop winging?