Sven's Underachievement

Feeling unusually half-empty after this weekend’s World Cup disgrace.  After all that, what a waster Sven’s been for England.  If we did on sales campaigns what he did (or more importantly did not) do, we’d have been long since sacked.

Best individuals don’t make the best team

In our case, you cannot play Lampard and Gerrard in the same XI.  The answer was glaringly obvious from the group stages.  Drop Lampard.  In my business a similar concept arose with trying too often to pitch our two most sexy offerings.  Yet all this can sometimes do is confuse the buyer.  Focus on one world-class offering first.  Then progress later.  The fulcrum is Gerrard.

Who scores?

Everyone said it at the time, and everyone bar Sven was right.  You cannot win a World Cup with 1 striker.  The 17-yr old never-played-in-the-Premierleague Walcott going was nonsense anyway, but considering neither of the preferred first were fit, and Crouch was a clear Plan B, it was pure folly.  You need people to put the ball in the onion bag.

Make changes early, and decisively

How many sales campaigns go perfectly from start to finish?  None.  And it’s the same with World Cup tournaments.  Frequent mistakes in not utilising Joe Cole enough, keeping Beckham on the park too long instead of Lennon, not reverting to a classic 4-4-2 with Hargreaves at the back of a diamond in midfield.  The errors are countless.  Changes should have been made at half-time, weren’t, and when they did occur, it was patently usually a wrong decision.  Lessons for us all there. 

The biggest waste of a salesperson’s time, is coming second.  Sven’s wasted all of our times.  Good riddance.