INNERGISE!

Tailgating, half time extravaganzas, multi-million pound advertising deals and a nation gripped for three hours – the 2014 Super Bowl brought another broadcasting spectacular for the millions of television viewers worldwide last night, with a result that I think many weren’t expecting.

As ever with sport, there emerges a library of lessons that we can learn as business owners from a game that saw the Denver Broncos ultimately pegged down to minnows by an effervescent Seahawks team from Seattle, and whether an American Football fanatic or not, these lessons should be taken aboard.

Start as you mean to go on

The Seahawks came out onto the pitch with nothing but a winning attitude, breaking the Bronco’s defence in the first quarter of the game to post a commanding lead onto the scoreboard.  By the time we had reached half time, the game was already won and the Seattle players had to do little more than stay composed for the second half to guarantee their first ever Super Bowl victory.

Lesson #1: Each day, each week, each new financial year a business should kick off of as if it were the final minute of a game with the scored tied.  Many companies take hours, weeks to get the commercial wheels turning and by this time many opportunities are missed.

Customers tend to start their buying cycles at the start of a new period (whether a new month, a new quarter or a new financial year) and sales focused organisations should be peaking with activity at that moment not sluggishly getting going.

Bounce high when you fall

The pivotal component to the Seahawks success at the Super Bowl was their defensive team, who not only supressed each and every one of the Broncos attacking plays, but who’s ability to counterattack from any defensive position was truly outstanding.  In American Football, ‘turnovers’ (when a team on the defence manages to win the ball back off the opposing attacking team) are generally the turning point of any game and fittingly, Malcolm Smith (one of Seattle’s defensive team), was named the game's most valuable player of last night’s Super Bowl.

Lesson #2: Every business will have moments when things don’t go to plan, when competitors are gaining advantage on your customer base and when you feel like you’re being attacked from every angle.  Business leaders, salespeople, all staff need to have what we call the ‘bouncability’ factor and learn how to take themselves from a low to a high quickly and effectively.

Being on the defensive gives businesses a chance to regroup, re-strategise and re-align their game plan and this time should be deemed an opportunity.

The adage, “It is not how far you climb, but how far you bounce when you fall” rang true so often during the game last night, not only for the Seahawks launching attack after attack whilst in a defensive positions, but also seeing how many of the Bronco players’ heads dropped so early when they started to fall in the first half.

Blanket the key selling points of your competitors

A lot of the hype surrounding last night’s game was around one man in particular, Peyton Manning, the NFL's most valuable player for the season and Quarterback for the Denver Broncos.  He was expected to be the game changer at the Super Bowl, the one who would take Denver to victory.  In the end, he was never given the chance to do so as the Seahawks had him covered from just about every angle, suffocating his game and shrouding him in a blanket of blocks and tackles.

Lesson #3: You should have the utmost respect for your competitors as they must be doing something pretty good to be a competitor in the first place, but you must know what their key selling points are (USPs) and do everything you can to blanket them by ensuring your selling points are stronger.

Never knock you competition, as this demonstrates a weakness from your side, but ensure that everyone in your business who has a responsibility for selling, not only knows your business’ USPs, but truly values them and can talk about them with complete passion and belief.

Don’t lose your temperament in the big games

The Seahawks’ mentality last night was that the Super Bowl was just another game and treated as such, not letting the hype and ceremony get the better of them.  They played as they would any game in the league, remained focus on their game plan and composed in front of the bright lights that come with each annual Super Bowl night.

Lesson #4: Time and time again, businesses get sucked in by big name customers, big brands.  We position ourselves from a subservient position form the outset, deeming every big customer as someone we are desperate to do business with and as an entity that is far more important than we are.

Businesses, and in particular salespeople, must treat every customer the same whatever their size or brand. Never forget the reason customers are in discussions with you to do business, whether it is to buy one of your services or products, means that they need you to enable their business to achieve their strategic goals.

We are not talking about arrogance here (the Seahawks last night were respectfully confident in their approach, not arrogant), but as soon as we deem our business as less relevant than one of our customers, less important in the buying cycle than our customers’ wants, then we are immediately leaving the door open for customers to either drive you down in negotiations or at worst presume your lack of confidence in who you are renders your product or service as invaluable and therefore not worthy of consideration as a purchasing choice.

As with any great sporting event, we can find lessons of leadership, teamwork, great strategies etc., and certainly all these were in place for the Seattle team last night, but to me, the real key to last night came down to the unwavering passion and commitment from every Seahawks’ player on the field who were all clearly focused on getting their head down and winning a ball game.