Beware the Trap Game

We have come to the last weeks of the NFL season . . .already . . .sigh.  It’s a short season to me, and now it’s time for the teams to really show what they are made of.  Playoffs are in the air, and subjects such as “momentum” and “trap games” are in the discussion.  A team can have momentum, which means they have been playing well in recent games—it describes their recent success and is part of the team’s current description.  So, teams like the Patriots are coming on right now, and the Ravens and Texans—not so much.  But momentum doesn’t necessarily mean the teams will continue to play well.  Many studies on momentum and its predictive value have reached the conclusion that momentum is not predictive of future success.

Here’s where trap games come into play. A trap game is a game that pits a heavily-favored team against an inferior opponent with outside circumstances that may affect the expected outcome. The trap game is mentioned around the NFL when good teams wind up losing in bad games.  Tough travel situations, poor historical performance in certain locales, and heightened emotion for one team are some of the usual suspects when it comes to predicting these games.  Some say, in a trap game, one team is looking past their current opponent toward the one they will be playing the next week.  In these cases, the team may not be as prepared or focused as they should be, and they are not as predictable as usual.  NFL teams try to avoid this—they say “we don’t think ahead–we take it one game at a time.”

This leads to my business analogy.  When we are having success (speeches are going well, marketing calls are going well) we feel a sense of momentum—nothing can stop us now.  We may tend to ASSUME the next call will go well, and we take our foot off the gas (forgive the excessive mixing of metaphors, please).  You may follow up with a person who gave you their business card after saying your service is “perfect” for their team; they even said, “Call me.”  So you shortcut your research on their company; you send your marketing materials, and follow up with a phone call you think will be a “slam-dunk.”  In the past, I was very surprised when they barely remembered my speech, let alone that they gave me their card.  I thought momentum would carry me through.  NFL players prepare for each game as if it is all new, every time, which it is.  In these times, I coach company teams and entrepreneurs to really LISTEN. As my very wise friend, a financial consultant, told me, “We can no longer anticipate nor assume that our clients’ needs will be the same as they were the day before—things are changing quickly.  We need to LISTEN newly, ask open-ended questions, and take the time.  We may have triggered a need, but now we need to find out their issues A to Z.  Our role is to create equilibrium in their life.”   Wow.  Some smart cookie, eh?  Call me for an opportunity to improve this vital skill. And this, during the dreadful Monday Night Football game where the Patriots slammed the Texans, who have a better record.

And when you take the advice of my friend, Victoria Wilk, you won’t overtrust momentum, and you will serve your clients one at a time—avoiding short cutting of service–your trap.