“On The Night”

Cricket is my favourite sport so not surprisingly I’ve been watching a bit of it lately.

Such is the way my brain works these days, on more than one occasion I’ve been drawing parallels between sport and business. None of this is new – people do it all the time. The man who drove Ian Ferguson and Paul MacDonald to gold at the LA Olympics in 1984 is now a successful business coach, and the company I franchise to employs him to coach us. It’s great.

But, back to the cricket. The bloody final gets played on Sunday night and we lose. Bad. There’s no denying it – we got creamed by a far superior Australian team on the night.

There… those 3 words… “On The Night.” They irk me a bit. How is it that the best Black Caps team we have ever seen, the most organised unit NZ Cricket has ever produced, blazes its way through all matches leading up to the final with strategy, humility, showmanship, and out-and-out skill, and then falls over so badly when it really counts “On The Night?”

I’m not knocking the boys at all… they far exceeded expectations and I’m damned proud of them. I hope they learn from Sunday night’s experience and come back an even better side for it.

But here’s the business parallel – you could have the best product, most organised team, best systems… you could have ALL the bells and whistles your company can afford…and STILL not clinch that deal, or make that sale, or secure that order “On The Night.” Irking words once again.

Like sport, you win some and you lose some. So what makes you win more “On The Night?” More than last year for example? More than your opposition? More than a colleague in the office? What will give you that edge when it really counts?

Is it systems and organisation? Is it regularly reviewing your business practices and making adjustments? Is it training and personal/professional development?

Is it personality? Pretend for a second there are 2 competing products – one is the Australian cricket team and the other is NZ – one of the products is better and more consistent, but how many times do we go for the one that mainly delivers most of the time, and we just generally like the person providing us with it better and we trust them? The first one probably makes more noise anyway…

How many times have you been in front of a client KNOWING you have the best, most whizz-bang thing in the world, one that will change them completely for the better and revolutionise their lives, and then they either decline and stay status quo, or go with an inferior product? I’ll bet it’s happened more times than you care to remember.

Just like the Black Caps – or any sports team for that matter – you can’t win them all, and there is a lot to learn from losses sometimes. If the answer is obvious as to why you lost, you learn from it and move on. I extend this hope to you and the cricket boys – hopefully it will make you a better operator because of it, and helps you succeed more “On The Night.”