Sally Field

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It's early January 2004. The Green Bay Packers are just 72 seconds away from their fourth NFC Championship game. They have a three-point lead over the Philadelphia Eagles, who face an impossible fourth down and 26 yards on their own 28-yard line. All Green Bay has to do is hold Philadelphia to less than 26 yards. One play. That's all.

Just one play. In sports bars and living rooms across the country jaws drop when Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb completes a 28-yard pass to Freddie Mitchell, and the Eagles get the first down. They kick a game-tying field goal and force the Packers to dig in for overtime.

Philadelphia receives the ball. After struggling for little gain the Eagles punt it away. Green Bay's task is simple. Keep the ball on the ground and advance into field goal range. Favre takes the snap, drops back, and inexplicably heaves a long pass... into double coverage. Into the hands of Eagle Brian Dawkins. Into history. Philadelphia marches into field goal range and kicks an easy three to win. Game over. Lights out. Thank you for playing.

The Packers lost because they didn't close. They played well, but in the end it came down to the fact that they didn't close and the Eagles did.

More than just preparation

Talent, tools and preparation are vital to the success of NFL players and sales professionals. But in order to change buying habits, we must also incorporate closing into the natural life of our sales presentations.

In simplest terms, a close is an agreement to take the next step together. What you close for varies based on your overall objectives and your history with a customer.

Have you ever seen a football team attempt a one hundred-yard touchdown pass? Not likely. Both players and coaches understand that a touchdown is the last of a series of plays, each designed to bring the team closer to the goal line, which increases their chances of a successful touchdown attempt, which brings them closer to their ultimate goal of winning the game. Every play is important.

It's the same principle in sales. If you try to close a sales call without first executing a customer-focused presentation, you're probably not going to be very successful. However, as the Packers found out on that crisp January day, you can execute a lot of good plays well, but if you fail to close, you don't get the win.

The clock is ticking...

Green Bay legend Vince Lombardi once said, "The Green Bay Packers never lost a game. They just ran out of time." In all likelihood, the Packers assumed that their three-point lead was safe with just over a minute left on the clock and Philadelphia deep in their own territory. The win (close) was assumed. As Packer Al Harris said later, "Fourth-and-26 yards, that's like fourth-and-forever." That assumption cost Green Bay the game. It may cost you a sale.

An effective close is carefully crafted to answer these questions: What am I going to do? What are you going to do? What is the expected outcome? When you close by gaining a commitment, you make the touchdown. Because at the end of the day, someone has closed the customer. Shouldn't it be you?

Getting the win

By most measures 2003 was a successful season for Brett Favre. He passed Dan Marino and climbed into second place on the NFL's all-time list for postseason touchdown passes. He surpassed Marino in all-time postseason passing yards, moving into third place in the record books. Favre extended his NFL record for consecutive postseason games with a touchdown pass to 15, and pushed his NFL record for most consecutive starts at quarterback to 208.

Clearly, the three-time MVP is a player with the talent, tools and preparation to win. But his team's failure to close is what made the difference. Favre will be remembered as a champion, but he will never have another chance to win that game.

When evaluating whether you've done enough to meet your objective, ask yourself, "Did I close?" That could be the difference between winning and losing.

Copyright ©2005 by Sally Bacchetta. All rights reserved.

Sally Bacchetta - Freelance Writer/Sales Trainer

Sally Bacchetta is an award-winning sales trainer and freelance writer. She has published articles on a variety of topics, including selling skills, motivation, and pharmaceutical sales.

You can contact her at sb14580@yahoo.com and read her latest sales articles on her website.

Yancy's Dog

Have you ever gone to bed with a problem weighing on your mind and awakened with the answer? Popular wisdom suggests that your subconscious was working while you slept and dug up the solution. I believe the subconscious is where old memories go to hibernate.

"Traveling By Train" is a short fantasy story I wrote back in the early 90s that found a home in multiple publications. I even turned it into a screenplay. It was about a widower and his young son who return to the old family homestead for Christmas one year. The gimmick in my story was a model Lionel train that ran backwards and could take the father back in time to his childhood. In writing the story, that kind of happened to me.

As the father and son walk into the house, they're greeted by the man's elderly mother and by a friendly yellow Labrador retriever. Petting the dog, the father exclaims in surprise, "Dixie. It can't be." Or words to that effect. The Lab looks just like the man's dog from his childhood, but the animal had been dead for years. Mom agrees that the dog looks just like his beloved childhood pet, but she assures him the dog is a recent addition to the household.

Of all my pets, I never had a dog or any other animal named Dixie. Around the time I wrote the story, my ex- wife had a cat by that name, and I always assumed that's where I got the name of the yellow Lab. (Naming a dog after a cat. I know: sacrilege.) The story was cobbled up out of my nostalgia-tinged imagination, but it turns out the dog scene was likely inspired by another piece of childhood fiction.

One of my favorite shows as a kid was "Yancy Derringer," one of the many westerns of 1958. But because it was set in New Orleans, I suppose we should call it a "southern." It starred Jock Mahoney in the title role and an actor known as X Brands, who played his mute Pawnee partner, Pahoo. A one- season wonder, the show's gimmick was the four- barreled derringer the hero kept concealed in his hat.

(Fun Fact Break: A former top stuntman, Mahoney had also played the title role in the syndicated series "The Range Rider" from '51 to '53, and he even played Tarzan in two movies in the early 60s. He was also known for being Sally Fields' stepfather. Now back to our story.)

In the single Yancy Derringer episode included in the DVD collection, Derringer goes home to the family plantation outside of New Orleans for Christmas. His late father had buried a mysterious treasure somewhere on the grounds and the location was secured in a secret place. Of course, some bad guys are after it.

Yancy enters the house and is reminiscing with the old black butler when he hears the baying of a hound outside. He says that it sounds like Dixie, but he hadn't seen the dog in seven years. He assumed he was dead.

Sure enough, Dixie is alive and well, and the Bluetick Coonhound comes bounding through the front door to greet our happy hero. An important plot point is that the location of the treasure is engraved on the metal of Dixie's collar.

My ears sharpened to points when I heard the dog's name. Holy Tara, Batman! A long-lost dog named Dixie. Thought to have been dead. A happy reunion at the family home. At Christmas. In my story, the childhood Dixie makes an appearance, too, thanks to the time-traveling train. That had to be where my scene came from! The fact that Derringer's Dixie was a male Coonhound and not a female Lab is irrelevant. He was a dog!

That scene had been buried in my skull for more than 35 years when I wrote the story in the early 90s. While watching the episode just last week, I could recall nothing of it from my childhood. In fact, I can remember no incident or scene from any other episode of the show either. (Maybe it wasn't such a favorite after all.) Not having seen the show for fifty years, forgetting much of it is not surprising. But that must be where the dog scene came from. It's simply too close.

To my readers who are fledgling scribblers, such things happen to writers occasionally. Not to worry, it's not theft or plagiarism or anything other than a trick of memory. What happened to me is not that different from using something in a story that actually happened in real life, even though you might not be sure where the bit came from. The scene came to me as a result of things I either like or miss. Animals. Family. Christmas. It was the perfect answer to what I needed in the story, and my subconscious provided it.

Now if I had done such a thing consciously, it would have been borderline plagiarism, especially if I had been crass enough to not even change the dog's name. No, this scene came unbidden from the recesses of my past to fill a creative need in the present. Within my fictive arsenal, this was the ideal blend of inspiration and memory, and my subconscious pulled the trigger.

About the Author

Jay Speyerer has been a writer, a speaker, and an educator for more than 30 years, successfully helping people achieve their communication goals in memoir writing, e-mail, cross-cultural communication, and presentation skills. Want to get a better handle on those buried memories so you can tell your story? Find out how at his web site: => http://www.jayspeyerer.com

Does anybody know the song from the movie Sybil with Sally Field?

it's a song played throughout the movie
a very creepy piano song with a little girl humming and singing along
i don't remember if there are words or not or if it even has a name to the song
but does anybody know how i can find the song or the movie online
i tried typing in the "songs from Sybil" and what not but nothing came up, and neither on you tube or on watch movies.net for the movie
any help?

At the IMDB site for "Sybil", I found a thread about the song that said it's merely known as "Sybil's Theme" by Alan and Marilyn Bergman.

'Sally Forth' Against The Guys In Congressional Cup
The field has been decided for this month's ISAF Grade 1 Congressional Cup with top US female skipper Sally Barkow facing off against nine of the world's best male match racers including 2009 winner Johnie Berntsson.

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