Time for a new swing?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. -Albert Einstein

One of the typical coaching activities I do with clients one-on-one is to simply ask them what activities they’ve done in the past 7 days. (For those of you I’ve done this to, you know exactly what I’m speaking of.) As the client begins to rattle off activities such as prospecting appointments, networking functions, sales meetings,  etc, I simply record the activities into an online document so that we can keep track of successes and challenges.

Now, at first glance, the activities look great! But then we have to dig a little deeper . . . “So, what new revenue generating appointments did we get this week? What new sales contracts did we get? How many new contacts did we add to our database? How many follow up calls did we make? What exactly did you say in those phone calls? How many referrals did we get?” You get the picture.

Can I be brutally honest? Many of us are the Charles Barkleys of our industry. What I mean by this is that when we were playing basketball and in the zone of a fantastic economy, all the shots were going in. Well, we’re playing a new game. Many of us are forty pounds heavier, out-of-shape, and in desperate need of a new swing.

• Step 1, swallow pride and admit change is a necessity.
• Step 2, get yourself a Haney (referring to a coach – Hank Haney is Tiger Woods’ swing coach).
• Step 3, hit a whole heck of a lot of balls (practice, practice, practice).

Of course, there’s always the alternative . . . remain on your current path and hope for different results.  I suppose every once in a while, you might get lucky.  Then again, watch the video.  Is it time for a new swing?