Details, Details, Details

We go through our sales day not really thinking about the details--the little things--about the customer's issues and personality, about his business, about little things in his office that display his personality, etc.  Let's take a lesson from Bill Belichick, New England Patriots coach.  This is from an article by Kevin Duffy, published on MassLive.com December 16, 2016  (emphasis is mine):
"Its essence: Entry-level coaching assistants are responsible for weekly breakdowns of the upcoming opponent, handed in to Belichick more than a week in advance of the game so he can use them as reference points as he conceives a strategy. Offensive assistants focus on the opponent's defense. Defensive assistants focus on the offense. Both focus on details so insignificant that you'd think Belichick was playing a prank on these kids. 

Phil Savage, who worked as a coaching assistant in Cleveland under Belichick, remembers logging the direction in which the quarterback turned his head prior to each snap.
Between the identification of scheme and detail, each play could take as long 20 minutes to diagram in full. Each game had 50-70 plays on each side of the ball. Each coaching assistant had three breakdowns per week....
In this job, McDaniels said, 'you learned the most valuable lesson that you keep to this day: everything is important.'"

We love to watch football--without realizing the preparations that these teams make for each game.  If we prepared for sales calls the way coaches prepare for games, we'd get every order.  Keep a pad, make notes on what you see in your customer's office or facility--details are important.  They are the key to understanding your customer's needs and understanding his needs can get you the order! We recently got an order for a product because our color scheme fit in with the customer's requirements.  You just never know, and if you're not attentive to the details, you could lose the order--even with a better price.