Do you ever feel like your business isn’t flashy or tricky enough? You know, you’ve been doing the same thing for a lot of years, successfully. However, you start to take it for granted and think you need to gussy it up a bit. Don’t be so quick to throw out the stuff that works.

I recently lost a prospective client for that very reason. He and I had some great conversations. He thought I could help his team. I put together a beautiful recommendation. What could possibly be the problem? I asked him to have lunch with me to explain to me why he chose someone else.

Here’s what he told me. All of the things that I believed to be true, were true. However, I was more interested in impressing him than speaking to the information that he had shared with me. He told me his people had never been through training. He told me he wasn’t sure how receptive they would be. He told me that they needed the basics. He told me they needed a quick impact. I gave those concerns about 2 sentences in my 4-page recommendation. The rest of it was spent on all of the really cool stuff we help people with, but that his people couldn’t take advantage of for months.

He shared a great analogy with me. At the time we were having lunch, the Colts (and the NFL in general) had just started training camps. His story was that even though these guys are pros and have been playing football for years, what do they do at training camp?  They do the basics—blocking and tackling. The basics are the foundation for everything that we all do. You have to keep sharp on the basics.

I’m not saying that getting stagnant in how you approach your business is the right answer. What I am saying is that everything you change, improve, or try needs to be built on a strong foundation.

I didn’t block and tackle (listen). Instead I was worried about my touchdown dance.