This past Sunday the NFC and AFC championship games were played. Oddly enough they were both decided on a winning and missed field goal at the end of the game. In the NFC Championship game Lawrence Tynes kicked a winning 31-yard field goal in overtime to help the Giants beat the 49ers and advance to a second Super Bowl in five seasons.

In the AFC Championship game New England escaped defeat when Billy Cundiff hooked a 32-yard field-goal attempt wide left with 11 seconds remaining that would have forced an overtime.

One team wins because of a successful kick, the other loses because of an unsuccessful kick. Lawrence Tynes is a hero, Billy Cundiff is a goat. Really? I hardly think so.

As many of you know I refereed college basketball for 17 years. There were games I refereed when either I or another referee were accused of losing the game with a tough call toward the end. As a referee you hate to have an impact on the game that way. The reality is a referee has never won or lost a game any more than those two kickers won and lost on Sunday.

How many mistakes do you think were made during the course of the game that could have prevented it from getting down to one kick? How many fumbles? How many blown plays? How many missed assignments? How many bad reads by the quarterback? How many botched covers by the defensive backs? How many wrong routes run by the receivers? How many poor defensive schemes set up by the coaches that put players in the wrong place at the wrong time? How many bad calls by the offensive coordinator? How poor was the overall game plan? How many times did the discipline break down?

Can you relate to any of this in your business? It’s not any one mistake during the course of a month that causes you to have a bad month. It’s a multitude of them over a period of time.

If you miss a trade in, or put too much money in a car does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you buy the wrong car at the auction, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t log a customer does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you have a breakdown in your culture or core values does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t demo a car does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you let one unit go over 60 days does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you have an unhappy customer, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t do a trade walk today, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

If you don’t execute your sales processes, does it matter? No, it only matters if you keep doing it.

Obviously I can go on and on, but the take-away for you on this should be that if you have a bad month or you’re not selling the number of cars you would like to be selling it’s not because you make a mistake here or there, it’s because you continue to make the same mistakes over and over.

Consistency is very important. If you’re consistently not getting results it’s because you’re consistently doing so many things wrong.

So, it wasn’t the kicker who won or lost the game on Sunday. It was a multitude of good and bad decisions by the players and coaches that created the final results. 

You will win or lose depending on the consistency of you and your team’s good and bad decisions. That’s all I’m gonna say, Tommy Gibbs