Roger Staubach’s Winning Strategies

For years, Roger Staubach – the NFL’s all-time top-rated passer – was one of the premier quarterbacks in the United States, leading the Dallas Cowboys to two of their many Super Bowl victories. Before turning pro, he already was famous as an All-American at the United States Naval Academy and a Heisman Trophy winner (1963).

As a man who has known both the glory and struggle of professional athletics and who has seen the glimmer of that fortune’s rainbow, Roger Staubach now has brought his talents to the field of business. This new career has produced not only a change in lifestyle, but also has caused him to examine certain techniques which are applicable to both the sports and business arenas.

The book Winning Strategies in Selling (Prentice Hall) which he wrote with Jack Kinder, Jr., et al., is rapidly gaining wide recognition. In it, as Staubach views the future, he notes, “I’ve been in business for 12 years now, or connected with some aspect of the business world, and for me, there are key ingredients to any success story. With continued luck and foresight, plus a lot of hard work, I know it will work.”

Recently, Staubach answered for Personal Selling Power a variety of questions pertaining to the linkage of his two careers and his resultant progress.

PSP: How difficult was it to make the switch from professional football to more conventional business avenues?

Staubach: I had graduated from the Naval Academy with an engineering degree, but while I was there, I served as a supply officer for a while and gained good business sense. Plus, I got some management experience there, and when I left the service, I realized I was more business oriented than engineering oriented. I had always liked sales a great deal. Football was my number one priority, but during the off-seasons, I went with a large real estate company and I was in the insurance division. That was in 1970 when I went into the real estate business. I’ve stayed in it; I’ve enjoyed it. Then about four and one-half years ago, with a partner, I started my own company called Holloway-Staubach, in Dallas.

The whole thing had to be a gradual process. I thought that when I retired most people would forget about my football years, but I guess people related to me more than I thought. I would have preferred my football notoriety to die quicker, but it didn’t, so in a way, I’ve had to force it. Just the other day my secretary turned down 14 speaking engagements for me, and that doesn’t count all the requests we get by mail. Sometimes people don’t understand when I turn them down, but I have a responsibility to my own business and my family. What I’m really saying is that the career switch was a slow mesh, and now business, instead of football, is my main concern.

PSP: What helped make the merger so successful?

Staubach: I had learned from football how important concentration is and I felt the same way about business. Everyone is always selling something. In football, you’re selling yourself with physical talent, whereas in real estate, you don’t have to be physically talented to be successful. I had learned to combine the physical and the mental. I never had a manager or agent who represented Roger Staubach during my football years on an exclusive basis. Sure, I made mistakes, and I don’t advocate that road for everyone, but I wanted control of me. Even with the business I’m in now, I like to have a certain amount of control and stay involved. I can delegate authority, but I want to stay on top of things. I might have had someone in there hammering for more money, an agent representing me, but the dollar has never been the bottom line for me. Money is important and I’m not going to turn it down, but it never overwhelmed me. This is probably a personal thing and not how you relate to a company, but I’ve never had any complaints and I think I’ve done very well. But I think that when everything revolves around the buck, then you’re in trouble.

PSP: You had seen first hand the tactics used in selling athletic ability. Did those tactics influence your business sense?

Staubach: The number one thing is getting in front of people, getting your abilities in front of them. When I first started, my name helped me get in the door. But what I found once I got inside those doors is that the people only wanted to talk about football. They didn’t want to take me seriously as a salesman. I know a lot of guys who have floundered around after retiring from football because they didn’t prepare themselves and they didn’t have any foresight. When you’re in pro sports you sometimes tend to think the money will last forever, and then once you retire, it can be hard switching back to a different level, a different standard of living.

You have to keep pushing. I got involved doing product announcements, regional things and national spots, and the exposure has been tremendous. But I don’t want to be seen too much on television in Dallas. I’ve tried to slowly pull away from being in the entertainment business. I’ve not renewed a couple of endorsement contracts and it has nothing to do with the companies. It’s just that I’m in a different walk of life now and I need to concentrate my efforts. It makes sense that those companies want a spokesman, but I’ve got to be careful because there are a lot of things I believe in, the way I live, and I don’t want to compromise that. For example, I’ve turned down beer, underwear and sugar-product endorsements, like cereals. I don’t advocate it, so I don’t advertise it.

PSP: Recently you helped write a book concerning selling strategies and success. What prompted you to get involved, and what did you feel you had to offer?

Staubach: I had known the guys involved for about 11 years, and they’re dynamic people, motivated people, and they asked me to participate. I spent four days offering my insight into areas like time, talent, dedication, knowledge and perseverance. In other words, all the necessary key ingredients and things I believe in very deeply.

What I’m hoping is that people will take me seriously in the business world. I do know we’ve had leaders lending us a lot of money, we’ve had a good track record, and I’ve been involved in a lot of deals. This is my livelihood now. We’re always fighting the good fight. You don’t always know what the economy will bring so you always have worry, but actually, I think that might be kind of healthy because otherwise you can become overconfident.

PSP: Your confidence seems to be at a peak level. How did you nurture it, and what did you do to keep it from regressing?

Staubach: I look at myself as a normal human being. Athletics is a major part of our society. I had a talent for it and I respected it. But there are so many people in this world who aren’t recognized and I try to keep that in perspective so that I don’t beat my own drum too loud.

As a businessman, I’m still working on my confidence. My partner and I developed a large office complex in Dallas. It’s turned out well, and that’s helped. But now we’re expanding, and when that happens, you get into an overhead situation and I’m very cautious in that area. So, my confidence wanes in that area a little bit because you have to constantly perform. It’s just like in football – you’re only as good as your last deal. There’s always another one coming up and you’ve got to maintain a pretty high level based on your overhead. Managing a business is very challenging. Like with football and the Super Bowl, I could sit back and enjoy it for six months afterward. With business, you can’t do that because you always have that overhead.

PSP: How does the stress of success affect you?

Staubach: I had success in football and I also had downers. But what I learned is that when I’m pushed into a corner, I’m a pretty good competitor. There are a lot of things you can bring into a business from football. Knowledge is what bridges the gap. Once you gain some knowledge about the business, then you can bring in and talk about teamwork, dedication, sacrifice, hard work and spirit. And, as I indicated before, when you’re down and things aren’t going particularly well, then you just work harder.

PSP: Where does time management fit into the picture?

Staubach: Travel has been the biggest thing I’ve cut back on. I’ve got five children, I’ve got a wife, and I enjoy spending time with them. So what I’m doing is cutting back as far as Roger Staubach the celebrity is concerned. I’m still involved with broadcasting as a color commentator for CBS during the football season because I also enjoy that. I never thought about getting into the business end of football, though, and I have no desire to coach. What I did was plan ahead for my retirement from football. Everyone needs a plan and they need to prepare. You can get stereotyped as an athlete, and in the past I, have been stereotyped on occasion.

But I’m a three dimensional person, not one dimensional. What I’ve done with my life, the changes, the progress, doesn’t happen overnight. You just have to be willing to devote the necessary time and energy, and I’ve done that.

PSP: Thank you.

Roger Staubach’s Personal Selling Power

Salesmanship runs in the Staubach family; Roger’s father, Robert Staubach, was sales manager for a shoe manufacturer’s agent in their hometown, Cincinnati.

“I’m not the type who lives in the past and must feed on what used-to-be to maintain self-esteem,” explains Roger Staubach in his book Time Enough to Win (Warner Books).

From the many personal and professional qualities described in his candid autobiography, coauthored with Frank Laska, there are three that any salesperson can apply for increased sales success:

1. Master Craftsmanship

“Many people today are hostile toward regimentation in any form,” he writes, “yet the values of that are useful to me. Because of my service background and the years of active duty, I was able to adapt very comfortably to a system of rules.”

Every profession – including selling – has its own set of rules. It’s the professional who automatically integrates them into his personal habits.

Roger Staubach’s 100 percent professional attitude made him a master craftsman as a quarterback. He entered the business world with the same attitude and worked hard to learn its rules.

He succeeded with his partner Robert Holloway in planning, developing and selling five 40,000 square foot office buildings in Dallas. In an economy where real estate businesses are hit hardest, this is no small achievement.

2. Realistic self-appraisal

Staubach explains, “I think I’ve been able to participate in this arena (football) without being altered from the person I was in the beginning.” He claims: “I’ve seen athletes who never got past being football players, who never went into anything else. When they stopped being football players they became ex-football players. The function has taken over the person.”

Realistic self-appraisal leads to a balanced self-perception. It determines how well we understand the world around us and helps us decide what we want for ourselves. Staubach’s realistic self-appraisal leads to a clear commitment to God, love, work and play.

He recognizes the difficulties involved in this task: “It seems to me that we are prone to self-interest and self-congratulation. Too many people orient the world around themselves. They are the center and everything revolves around them…What none of us does often enough is wear the other man’s shoes, shoulder his burden for awhile.”

In selling, realistic self-appraisal contributes to a winning attitude. The salesperson who knows himself does not allow the function (of selling) to take over.

Realistic self-appraisal leads to a mental openness, which helps one to truly understand the buyer’s needs and motivations. But what’s more important, it leads to more focused and targeted presentations and to deals where both partners end up feeling like winners.

3. The ability to grow

“Don’t stay on a plateau. Once you’ve reached it, you must set new goals, meet new challenges and test your skills in new fields,” Staubach advises his audiences in his many talks. His own career testifies that he practices what he preaches.

The ability to grow calls for two tough decisions. One is to let go what’s dear to us, the other is to reach out for the unknown. Staubach won on both counts when he gave up his football career at the right time. This is a decision which many extraordinary athletes failed to make while they were still capable of peak performance. He stepped out to pursue his new plans without hesitation, determined to meet the new challenges head on.

As predicted, he learned and applied the new skills–without changing a trace from the grass-roots person he was before.

Staubach admits that the growing process brings some pain. But then he asks philosophically, “What’s more painful than growing?” After a moment of reflective silence, he answers, “It’s not to grow.”