Sir Clive Woodward guided England to Rugby World Cup victory in Australia in 2003. Woodward outlined his formula for creating "champion individuals" and a successful culture, first of all, he says, great teams are made up of great individuals. Woodward realised that you need to coach your team individually as well as part of a team and get them to focus on being the best in their own role. Woodward uses the acronym TCUP: Thinking Correctly Under Pressure. It's the job of the leader to constantly put their teams under pressure. People aren't born to perform under pressure, they need to get used to it, because only the winners perform their best under pressure.

As an “old” sportsman, I agree 100% with Sir Clive Woodward that constant repetition and practise builds up your skills, so when you are in that pressure situation your subconscious takes over and you don’t have to consciously think. You are relaxed and ready to go! Sales, just like sports is a performance game where you get into that flow state, if you’ve done that preparation. I’ve never been over prepared for a sales meeting, and I urge you to never just turn up and try to “wing it”. Practice makes perfect and contact me via e-mail for an evaluation of your sales teams competitive advantage.