Here is the deal. You are a top performer—no doubt about it. There is one problem, and you want to fix it. Your business fluctuates too much, and you are not sure why. You often spend too much time at the office putting out fires, and you are not having as much fun as you used to. Now what?

Here is the question; What about the basics?  Have you reviewed your fundamentals? What are you doing to sustain and improve your game? I can see you looking at me; What’s that all about, Steele? What is I say; Go back to what got you here. What the heck are you talking about, Steele. You are starting to sound like my high school football or basketball coach. If you think about it, why not? 

What made us all successful? We all learned the sales basics of finding out who to call, how to ask for the appointments, practicing the call, handing the objections, making the presentations, closing, and following up.  Are we all still as sharp at our game as we were when we built our book, or have we got too casual with our skills?  When was the last time you practiced a sales call? Or a presentation? or do we go by past experience? 

There is a famous story about the late Kobe Bryant and his dedication to practice and the basics. After working drills in his 3 hours daily post-season workout that 5th graders are taught, he was asked why the best player in the world would spend so much time doing drills that we teach to kids. Kobe replied. ” That is why I am the best player in the game. I never get bored with the basics”.

If we work the basics, we are assured that we will improve our business, and these basics made us successful, and the basics will keep us thriving. As we get better and better at our jobs and reach higher levels of success, we start discovering new ways of doing business that is smoother, savvier, more polished. 

The problem becomes that as we get savvier and savvier, we get further away from the basics, and the next you know it, bang, we hit a slump, and we don’t know what to do.  Or we hit an onslaught of business that we love the company rolling in. Still, we cannot handle the details of why our customers loved us and referred us and bang, disappointment, embarrassment, excuses, and apologies.