Why Your Sales Team is Like a College Football Team in July

NOTES FROM NORTHWOOD

It’s July, and college football teams across the SEC are deep in summer workouts. No games. No crowds. No glory. Just the grinding work that determines who wins championships in the fall.

I was thinking about this while reviewing a client’s sales pipeline last week. Their team looked busy. Lots of meetings. Full calendars. Active CRM updates. But when I dug into what they were actually accomplishing, I realized they were like a football team that shows up to practice but never works on fundamentals.

They were going through the motions without building the foundation that creates wins.

Summer Workouts vs. Game Day Heroes

In college football, there are two types of players: those who embrace the summer grind and those who just want to play on Saturdays.

The players who embrace July workouts understand something crucial: championships are won in the weight room, not just on game day. They’re doing the unglamorous work when nobody’s watching because they know it creates the strength and conditioning that matters when the lights come on.

The players who just want game day excitement struggle when things get tough. They haven’t built the foundation to perform under pressure.

I see the exact same split in sales teams.

Some salespeople love the process of prospecting, qualifying, and building relationships. They understand that consistent daily activities create the pipeline that delivers results later.

Others just want to close deals. They get excited about presentations and negotiations but avoid the foundational work that creates opportunities in the first place.

Guess which ones succeed long-term?

The Summer Workout Equivalent in Sales

In football, summer workouts focus on strength, speed, and conditioning. These aren’t the exciting parts of the game, but they determine who’s still performing in the fourth quarter.

In sales, the equivalent is prospecting, discovery, and qualification. Not exciting, but they determine who has deals to close when it matters.

I’m working with a company right now where we discovered something revealing during our assessment. We asked how many new prospects each salesperson had contacted in the last 30 days.

Half the team couldn’t give us a number. They’d been so busy “working their pipeline” that they hadn’t created any new opportunities.

It’s like a football team that spends all their time reviewing game film but never lifts weights. They might understand strategy, but they lack the fundamental strength to execute when it matters.

The Role Play Problem

Here’s something that happened recently that perfectly illustrates this. One of my clients told me his sales rep came to him and said, “Can you role play some scenarios with me? I want to get better.”

This almost never happens in sales organizations. Most salespeople avoid role playing like football players avoiding wind sprints. They think it’s beneath them or unnecessary.

But think about what football teams do in July. They run the same plays over and over. They practice scenarios they’ll face in games. They work on fundamentals until they become automatic.

The best players don’t complain about repetition. They embrace it because they know that when game pressure hits, they’ll execute instinctively.

Sales should work the same way. The best salespeople practice difficult conversations. They role play objections. They rehearse their discovery questions until asking them feels natural.

Most salespeople think they can just wing it when they get in front of prospects. That’s like thinking you can skip summer workouts and still perform in SEC competition.

The Conditioning Test

In college football, summer conditioning reveals who’s really committed. Some players show up in great shape, ready to push themselves. Others struggle through basic drills.

The conditioning test isn’t just about physical fitness. It’s about mental toughness and commitment to the process.

I do something similar with sales teams. I ask them to walk me through their last few deals and answer specific questions:

• What was the prospect’s compelling reason to change?
• Who made the final decision?
• What was their process for evaluating options?
•  What could have prevented them from moving forward?

Most salespeople can’t answer these questions clearly. They’ve been having conversations but not gathering intelligence. They’ve been active but not effective.

It’s like a football player who’s been “working out” all summer but can’t run a six-minute mile when tested.

The Foundation for Championship Performance

Teams that win SEC championships don’t just have talented players. They have players who’ve put in the foundational work that allows talent to perform under pressure.

I saw this with a benefits salesperson I worked with. When we started, she was knowledgeable and well-liked, but her close rate was terrible.

The problem wasn’t her product knowledge or personality. It was that she’d never developed the fundamental skills of selling. She could present solutions all day, but she couldn’t qualify prospects or handle objections.

We had to go back to basics. Role playing difficult conversations. Practicing discovery questions. Building the fundamental skills that create confidence under pressure.

The result? She doesn’t even present anymore. She just has business conversations with executives, and she’s grown her sales by 20% year over year.

But it required doing the unglamorous work that most salespeople avoid.

What July Teaches Us About Sales Success

College football teams use July to build the foundation for fall success. Smart sales organizations should do the same thing year-round.

Here’s what the summer workout approach looks like in sales:

Daily Prospecting: Just like daily conditioning, this builds the stamina and pipeline needed for consistent performance.

Role Playing: Like running plays in practice, this builds the muscle memory needed to execute under pressure.

Skill Development: Like strength training, this builds the fundamental capabilities that support everything else.

Process Discipline: Like following the workout plan, this ensures everyone’s doing the work that creates results.

Most sales teams want to skip the fundamentals and go straight to closing deals. They’re like football teams that want to scrimmage without doing conditioning.

It might be fun in the short term, but it doesn’t build championship-level performance.

The Manager’s Role

College football coaches don’t just hope their players will work out over the summer. They create structured programs, track progress, and hold players accountable.

Sales managers should do the same thing.

Instead of just asking “How’s your pipeline?” they should be asking “How many new prospects did you contact this week?”

Instead of hoping their people will get better at discovery, they should be role playing difficult scenarios with them.

Instead of accepting “they seem interested” as qualification, they should be requiring specific information before deals advance.

The teams that win championships in the fall are the ones doing the hard work in July when nobody’s watching.

The sales teams that hit their numbers consistently are the ones doing the fundamental work every day, even when it’s not exciting.

Your July Moment

Right now, your sales team is either building the foundation for future success or coasting on past performance.

They’re either embracing the daily disciplines that create consistent results, or they’re hoping their existing pipeline will carry them through.

The choice you make about this determines whether you’ll be competing for championships or wondering why you’re not hitting your numbers.

Summer workouts aren’t glamorous. But they create the strength and conditioning that wins games when it matters.

Sales fundamentals aren’t exciting. But they create the skills and pipeline that close deals when it counts.

The question is: what kind of team are you building?