What will it take to remain in the winners' circle?

There was a story doing the rounds of how the then Brisbane Broncos coach Wayne Bennett dealt with the change his players needed to make in order to again win football games. The Broncos had been travelling well for some years – finishing in the top four the previous season, however, there was something amiss during their current season as they strung together several consecutive losses to teams they were expected to beat convincingly.

In a post-match press conference off the back of another unexpected loss, coach Bennett was pinned down by the media scrum and asked what was wrong with the side and can he fix it. Bennett responded in his typical short, sharp style, “You blokes are always looking for some magical cure. There’s nothing wrong with the team. We’ve just forgotten the basics of how to win football games. If we’ve forgotten the fundamentals – how to tackle, how to catch and pass and that structure wins games, it won’t matter how many trick plays we have… we are going to get beaten. It’s time to get back to basics. That’s what got us there in the first place. Next question!”

The story goes that as a result of their most recent loss, Bennett reverted back to what one might consider junior basics. The stuff you learn at the very beginning of your footy journey. Every week for the rest of the season training elements included catch and pass drills, the old tackle pads were pulled back out and tackle drills were continually repeated. The trick plays were thrown out and basic field positions and structures were hammered home. As a result, the team quickly shifted gear and improved significantly, regaining ground over their opposition and playing themselves back into the winners' circle.

There are similarities between Bennetts tactics and what many of our principals are, if not already, going to be required to do if they wish to remain in winning form.

Whilst we won’t be required to hit the tackling pads anytime soon, we would be well served to reapply basic stock management practices and structures to our own gameplay.

That is:

• Driving weekly traffic numbers

• Ensuring weekly written offers/contracts

• Monitoring days on market and price corrections

• Ensuring weekly written vendor reports and checking the content of those reports

• Ensuring weekly face to face vendor meetings are actually taking place

• Having a Stock in Motion’ plan

• Monitoring and controlling commission per cent negotiations whether that be at the point of listing or at the point of sale.

Many of our members have only ever played in a winning team and whilst strong sales activity is still being enjoyed by most, your implementation of structure, both in stock management and method of sale, coupled with a sound understanding of the key performance indicators in your business will be paramount to you racking up more wins than losses.

David Rake - Business Development Executive, QLD