A Trick to Help You Make More Calls

A few years ago, my son started playing on a volleyball team. 

In volleyball, it is ideal to set up plays with a bump, set, and spike. That way, you can control the ball and attack the other team. 

However, when my son’s team would get down on points, they would start to get desperate and begin to just whack the ball over the net to the other team. 

This led to some points, but the coach knew that, overall, this would not work as the team progressed through the season. 

Although they knew how to do a bump, set, and spike in a practice, they stopped doing it whenever they got stressed. 

The coach decided to create his own scoreboard, to track each team’s bumps, sets, and spikes. He said he didn’t care what the gym’s scoreboard said—his only focus was on executing the fundamentals. 

Here is the thing. Once my son’s team started focusing on setting up more bumps, sets, and spikes, they started to win more on the main scoreboard too. 

The coach understood that, to win at volleyball, his team needed to focus on the fundamentals. If you take the right actions, the score will take care of itself. 

He called it, “Playing the game within a game.” 

I loved this concept, and I realized it was something I had personally stumbled upon in my mortgage career.

Several years ago, some friends and I decided we needed to figure out a way to motivate ourselves to make phone calls. 

We all knew we should make calls, but were very clever at finding excuses for not making them.

This led us to create what I affectionately called, the “Game of Phones.” It was a way for us to get out of our heads and focus on the fundamentals. 

If you want to find out more, check out a podcast I did on the topic: 

→ How to Overcome Call Reluctance with Game of Phones 

Over the years, the game has evolved, and my friends and I now include DMs, and compete in teams. I have also launched it in my brokerage with great results—last week, our agents generated 67 leads!