Saban Makes Decision and the Tide "Rolls"

Alabama Miracle Worker: Tua Tagovailoa

Sometimes we have to make decisions on the spot to save the situation.  The University of Alabama was in such a spot in the 2018 college football playoffs. The running game wasn't working and the only option for Saban was to play a freshman who was an untried passing phenomenon.  In this post, I'm not looking at the performance of the freshman quarterback, I'm looking at the decision making of the coach, Nick Saban.

There comes a time in the sales process when you may realize that you're going in the wrong direction--that you may lose the order if you don't change something.  And that change may involve changing your program completely.  In the case of Alabama, it meant changing from a running game to a passing game; it meant taking out a quarterback (Jalen Hurt) who brought the team to the finals with a 25-2 record, with a freshman (Tua Tagovailoa).

So, here's the situation: you're really close to getting the order, but you know in your gut that something's going wrong and that if you don't change something you may lose it.  The customer may be saying that you have the order and everything may point to your getting the order, but you know something is wrong.  Or you may be in a situation where you definitely see that the situation is not good.

When that happens, it's time to change the quarterback--it's time to change from a running game to a passing game.  It's time to re-think the whole game plan.  

I tell everyone I work with: "if you see something, say something".  You never know where the insight is going to come from and everyone needs to be empowered to speak up. 

I've been in situations where I knew that I rubbed the customer wrong and I needed to back out of the sales situation and let someone else be the lead.  Winning the game--getting the order--has to be the driving force, not your ego.  

If you think you may lose the order, don't be afraid to change the game plan or even change the quarterback.