I spent six years coaching high school basketball at North Kitsap High School. One of my basketball mentors was Coach Mike Krzyzewski from Duke. In his book 5-Point Play, Coach K discussed the concept of “Next Play.” In summary, it’s the mindset that when you make a poor play, you don’t dwell on it and let it paralyze you for the rest of the game. Instead, you concentrate on the “next play” in front of you. By doing this, the negative past never lingers, and the next plays in your game will be more likely to be positive.

The same concept applies in your business. No matter what travails the last 2 years has brought to your organization, you have a series of “next plays” in front of you. Being paralyzed by the negative past will only make the future more of the same, especially if the experience was poor. You must begin positioning yourself now in anticipation of an economic recovery so you will be in a position to make the game-winning play.

Here’s my 3-point play for positioning yourself in the catbird seat:

1) Develop Intellectual Property: Intellectual capital is what’s in your head. It’s your “smarts.” Intellectual property (IP) is the tangible manifestation of that capital — books, speeches, audio training, e-books, articles, publishing, manuals, workshops, etc. You need to flood the market with your IP. It doesn’t matter what business you are in. If you can provide value to improve the condition of others (and if you can’t, why are you here), inundate your audience with your intellectual firepower, and be considered as “the” expert, and you will become the “go to person” in your industry.

2) Shamelessly Promote: As my business mentor Alan Weiss has always espoused, “If you don’t toot your own horn, there is no music.” This isn’t about arrogance and snake oil selling. You must sincerely believe that your product or service offers tremendous value to others. If it does, it’s your responsibility to make sure they know about you. What is “shameless promotion?” You create marketing gravity to build your brand through:

• Consistent press releases
• Focused, efficient networking
• Public speaking
• Leveraging social networks
• Publishing articles, books, blogs and other intellectual property
• Powerful written and video testimonials from happy clients
• Shouting from the mountain top

You get my point. You must communicate to people why they are truly better off knowing and working with you.

3) Be a Solution: Your customers crave solutions to their problems. Dig deep to find the real value.

• You don’t clean houses; you provide a peaceful retreat from the daily grind.
• You don’t sell insurance policies; you provide financial protection and peace of mind.
• You don’t sell mortgages; you provide dreams.

Too may business people talk about what they do — their methodology. Train yourself to sharpen your language skills to better deliver your message to those who seek solutions, not services.

Don’t believe the naysayers. The “next play” is closer than you think. By taking positive, concrete steps to position yourself for the future upswing, you may just hit a few jump shots along the way!