I am a huge playoff hockey fan. It’s the only sport where I truly don’t care who is playing. For 60 minutes, players skate up and down the ice at top speed and a frantic pace, switching seamlessly from offense to defense and then back to offense. Plus, I find it hilarious that two teams beat the snot out of each other, pushing, punching, and slashing with their sticks and then line up and shake hands like gentlemen when it’s all over.
By the time you read this, the Stanley Cup finals will be over. One standout memory for me has been the play of a former Boston Bruins player, Brad Marchand. He’s one of those players opponents and fans hate until he becomes one of theirs as was recently discovered by the Florida Panthers.
Watch the highlights and you will see one constant: Marchand has a knack of anticipating the play ahead and striking before anyone can react. Early in the series, he twice jumped the defense and was fed the puck, resulting in breakaway goals. He just felt that a teammate was going to break up a play and be in a position to create a scoring opportunity. In Game 5, he brilliantly skated right through a face off, grabbing the puck, splitting the defense, and scoring in a move that had his mic’ed up teammate Matthew Tkachuck yelling, “OMG! OMG! OMG!” from the bench.
What are you doing to anticipate the play? That is, where are your clients going next and what can you do to get there ahead of them and score?
You could study them and their market. You could even ask, “Where are you headed?”
The point is, by thinking and planning ahead, you demonstrate the value you are bringing to your customer, you are creating new opportunities for profitable and repeatable applications, and you are impressing the customer to the point where they are yelling, “OMG! OMG! OMG!”
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Bill Farquharson has anticipated your sales needs with The Sales Vault. Go to SalesVault.pro or call Bill at 781-934-7036 for more information.
