Jason Forrest is a sales professional, author, professional speaker, and consultant to homebuilders.

Brokers and agents who play to win do the following: they take a proactive approach to coaching and/or selling; encourage (or adopt) a growth mindset; and consider their team’s attitudes and beliefs (as well as their own).

Defense is “an action of defending from or resisting an attack,” an “attempt to protect/defend against opposition” or a “barrier against attack.” When leaders of sales teams manage defensively, they are just trying to survive in the market. Likewise, agents who sell defensively see themselves as only as good as the circumstances around them.

Rather than simply putting her head down and hoping for the best, an offensive coach makes things happen. Offense is “the action of attacking,” or “the team or players who are attempting to score or advance the ball.”

I talk to clients all the time who try to tell me that they take this kind of proactive approach, but when I dig a little deeper, I find that they’re not addressing their own beliefs or those of their teams. In football, this approach would be like being in a goal-line stance, knowing that you’re about to get scored on and doing all you can just to hold your opponents to a field goal.

Managing offensively means considering the people (and their attitudes, beliefs and fears), and one of the best ways to do that is to encourage a growth mindset. Another offensive approach is to be sure that you are coaching and considering the process –rather than just the results – and considering where the sale stopped, what decision needs to happen to move the prospect forward and how you can improve the sales presentation.

There just aren’t enough market sales (sales that would happen with or without the persuasive efforts of sales coaches and sales professionals) for us to make our goals each month. Market sales can be counted by an admin; six-figure sales professionals and brokers should be making X-factor sales happen.

Reflection Questions:

Does your style lend itself more to a defensive posture or an offensive posture? How?

What ways do you consistently move the ball forward?

What ways do you find yourself in a defensive posture?

Action Items:

Start tracking your time – how much time are you spending considering each aspect of the process? Your goal should be to spend 5 percent on the circumstances, 5 percent on the results, 10 percent on the activities and the remaining 80 percent on process, presentation and people.

At the end of the week, compare your activities to the goal to determine where you need to focus in the upcoming weeks.

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The above is adapted for this audience from Jason Forrest’s upcoming book for sales coaches. 

Named one of Training Magazine’s Top Young Trainers of 2012, Jason Forrest is an expert at creating high-performance sales cultures through complete training programs. He incorporates experiential learning (rather than theory) to increase sales, implement cultural accountability and transform builders into sales organizations that build homes.

A sales professional at heart, Forrest is the author of “Creating Urgency in a Non-Urgent Housing Market” and “40-Day Sales Dare for New Home Sales.” As a consultant for many of the leading homebuilders in the United States, Canada and Australia, Forrest’s competitive distinction is his behavior-modification approach (which focuses on people, process, and presentation); his ability to create urgency; and his focus on culture change. Learn more.