Confidence is the byproduct of the routine

Twelve minutes into a sales call this week, I insulted the prospect’s entire business model.

Not on purpose… It just… fell out.

The entire call, I couldn’t find my words. I bounced back and forth between sounding ignorant and arrogant. I made assumptions about the company that were wildly wrong. And the whole time, I knew exactly how bad it was going.

I just couldn’t stop it.

I kept talking, backtracking, and digging the hole deeper.

And yes, this was the same day I had left a comment in the group about how “confident” I had gotten on sales calls. 😅

Immediately after the call, as cringe as I knew it would be, I watched the recording. I wanted to figure out where everything went wrong.

But the answer wasn’t on the recording. Things didn’t go wrong during the call, they went wrong before the call.

If you watch basketball, you probably know your favorite player’s free throw routine by heart.

Two dribbles, deep breath, spin the ball in their hands, bend the knees, shoot.

It’s identical every time. Similar from player to player, but still unique to each person who steps to the line.

The routine doesn’t make every shot go in, of course. But it puts them in the same rhythm, position, and headspace every time.

The routine isn’t superstition. It’s part of the shot.

And I didn’t do any of that.

When the inquiry came in a few days earlier, I glanced at the site, saw “local small-town attorney,” and assumed I knew the whole story.

I didn’t take notes. I didn’t think through the list of questions they had kindly sent me ahead of time. I didn’t prepare any thoughtful answers.

And when it was time for the call, I went straight from being deep in a code problem to opening Zoom without even taking a breath.

In other words, I wandered up somewhere near the free throw line, chucked a no-look shot in the general direction of the hoop, and then acted surprised when I missed the basket entirely and drilled an old lady in the stands.

Had I taken even 10 minutes to look at the site properly, jot down a few notes, think through their questions, and put on a few of my favorite songs to loosen up, I think the whole thing would have gone differently.

Maybe I still wouldn’t have landed the project. But I probably wouldn’t have embarrassed myself.

I was so sure I had gotten good at sales calls that I convinced myself I didn’t need to prepare.

But confidence isn’t a substitute for the routine. Confidence is the byproduct of the routine.

And the more important something is, the more dangerous it is to wing it just because you’ve done it a hundred times before.