The Sales Archaeologist

General Charles Cornwallis is best known for being the adversary of George Washington during the war for Independence.   Although he suffered a few defeats and ultimately the big defeat he is generally recognized by historians as being an excellent General that was handicapped by his higher ups and the bureaucracy within.  He was a man of action.

But In the  Second Battle of Trenton, Cornwallis attacked Washington's position late in the afternoon. Cornwallis prepared his troops to continue the assault of Washington's position the next day. During the night, however, Washington's forces slipped away in the night and moved around his flank, and attacked the British outpost.  While the credit for the success of Washington over Cornwallis in this battle is due to Washington's use of deception, including maintaining blazing campfires and keeping up sounds of camp activity all night, Cornwallis contributed by failing to send out patrols to monitor the Continental Army's activities.

What do we learn from that?

Sometimes as salespeople we have the opportunity "on the run" so to speak and it looks as though just one more meeting, call or piece of information is missing.  The campfires appear to be burning but then in the morning we find out that the opportunity slipped away in the night.  This is because, as salespeople, there is a tendency to get emotionally involved and not pay attention to what is really going on.  You need to have your patrols monitor the real situation.