Aware Of Tactical Changes Lately

As the latest thirteen-month year-long football season ends with far-flung pre-season friendlies merging seamlessly into the Super Cup curtain raiser and the new helter-skelter full season proper, I suffer the perils of listening to late-night talk radio.

Former Eire football international Ray Houghton was being fawned upon in the studio as the question from the lines came through.

In the thirty years since 1989, what tactical changes have we seen in the game?

The old pro’s answer? “None”.

What utter tosh.

I could not believe it.

Instantly I started screaming at the unpadded walls surrounding me.

Perhaps that was his schtick. Goading the audience to call-in and put him straight. It did not seem so though.

Still, here was my on-the-spot roll;

wingers as full-backs, floating full-backs, no tackles from behind enforced different defending, no playing into keepers’ hands means different passes back, the christmas tree, only one up-top, midfield fives, ghost or false nine, two number eights, tiki-taka, playing out from the back, zonal marking from corners, the lincoln love-train on attacking corners, no men on the posts at set-plays, parking the bus, false centre-back when playing against bus-parkers, three at the back, playing on the ‘wrong’ wing, holding midfield pair

At the time the “high press” got mentioned. Houghton dismissed it as always there. Which is nonsense. Never around like it has evolved to nowadays.

I wondered how this relates to selling today.

Do you know what’s changed since you started selling?

Have you used those new fangled ways’ propulsion to your advantage?

I read plenty about the latest trends in selling. Big data, small data. Outsource, in-house. Micromarkets, macromarket. Social selling, non-social selling. Follow Marketing, lead marketing. Clickbait, often with very little substance.

So instead, could you turn this around for more depth?

How has buying altered since you began to sell?

You read a multitude of recent ‘reports’ suggesting that ‘today’ the purchase decision is 50, 60, 90 percent made by the time a vendor is contacted?

Have you asked your prospects in how many ways they feel buying has changed for them lately? You don’t need to go back three decades either. I certainly hope you don’t hear an answer of ‘none’. At least you ought find something useful you can build on.