Sales Coaching Lessons from Michael Jordan’s Coach
Realizing that not all of our readers are basketball fans, I opted not to title this piece “Sales Coaching Lessons from NBA great Phil Jackson” for fear that those of you who don’t know that Phil Jackson coached both the NBA championship Chicago Bulls with star Michael Jordan and the NBA championship Los Angeles Lakers with star Kobe Bryant might not be motivated to read the article.
So I went with the more familiar name. Everybody’s heard of Michael Jordan.
Having said that - for those of you who don’t know who Michael Jordan is, but still for some reason chose to click on the article, he’s the bald guy in the Hanes commercials.
So . . . here’s the deal. Phil Jackson – one of the greatest professional basketball coaches of all time – coached his last game this past week. He lost – which is not important to the article, but seemed like a fact that needed to be reported.
Here’s what I think sales managers/coaches can learn from Phil Jackson:
- You don’t have to be an amazing player to be an amazing coach
For much of Jackson’s career as a player, he was not a part of the starting lineup. He was a great sub . . . but not a superstar. There are many great sales managers who were good – but not great – reps. And there are many great reps who when promoted to sales manager prove to be adequate at best. The skill set to be a great player is not the same as the skill set to be a great coach. Great sales organizations have a plan to equip their managers with the skill set they need to be effective as coaches.
- You want to be good – have a plan. You want to be great – have a great plan.
Phil Jackson’s success as a coach will always be connected to another name . . . not a player, but another coach – Tex Winter. Winter wrote the book (literally) on the offensive plan that Phil Jackson would use to win the championships in both Chicago and Los Angeles. Winter served as assistant coach on all of those teams with Jackson. Great sales managers have a plan to develop their reps. They don’t leave reps to fend for themselves (i.e. , don’t just stand courtside and yell “HUSTLE” or post game stats on the locker room wall with a note that says “DO BETTER”). Rather, they take responsibility to equip reps with the skills and strategic tools they need to be effective. And they have a plan and a process to do that.
3. It helps to have great players.
OK, let’s be honest. Phil Jackson coached some of the best players to ever play the game – like that guy in the Hanes commercials. It helps to have superstars. So . . . hire superstars. Of course that raises a question . . . do the sales managers in your sales organization have the skill set they need to identify great potential in rep candidates? Do they know what to look for and how to look for it?
4. You can’t just rely on the superstars.
One of the secrets of Jackson’s success was that his plan involved the entire team. He absolutely did have great superstars . . . but his approach relied on the effective participation of every player. He developed the entire team. Too often sales managers focus their attention on two groups of reps, the superstars (who are easy and fun to coach) and the problem players (who should perhaps be playing another sport). Great sales managers realize that sometimes their highest potential for success lies in raising the level of contribution of the group in the middle.
Perhaps you have a suggestion of another way in which Phil Jackon’s approach to coaching basketball can provide some helpful insight for those in sales coaching roles. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Feel free to add to the list in the comment section below. (Dallas Maverick fans might want to hold your comments until you’ve had time to cool down.)
