What Phil Jackson Taught Me About Team Selling

Phil Jackson, Head Coach, Chicago Bulls, Newsday

Between the ages of six and thirteen, and from the carpeted floor of my suburban home, I watched the Chicago Bulls win six NBA championships. My first sales job would start the following year, but the Bulls were the most prominent example of a successful team (athletic or not) from my childhood.

My dad would sit behind me, a talented armchair commentator who made Ray Clay sound like his own personal African Grey Parrot. My dad would highlight Phil Jackson’s triangle offense, praising the pass before the shot. He routinely promoted starting point guard John Paxton’s pulling of the strings, or Scottie Pippen’s propensity for finding space.

Jackson is a commanding figure. He is 6’8”, a power forward in his playing days with the New York Knicks, favored a motorcycle over a car, and was the only man in the 90’s to successfully pull off a Jerry Garcia tie.

Phil Jackson had come to Chicago in 1987, I was two years old, and he was coming off a three year stint coaching in Puerto Rico. Jackson arrived at the Bulls training facility in Deerfield, Illinois to find a squad containing the aforementioned John Paxton and Scottie Pippen, as well as Horace Grant, and of course, Michael Jordan.

Jackson was the assistant coach for two years, laying the groundwork for arguably the most successful team to ever play the game of basketball. He took over as head coach in 1989 and delivered the 25 year old franchise its first championship in 1991.

While I would love to say that I was the Bobby Fisher (prodigal chess player who won his first US Championship at 14) of basketball strategy, it wasn’t until reading Phil Jackson’s 1995 memoir, Sacred Hoops, that I fully understood the depth of his coaching system and team-centric philosophy. It turned out that the overlap in basketball and sales strategy goes deeper than I had expected.

Jackson coaching in the CBA in Puerto Rico, nba.com

Let’s take Michael Jordan as the top producer on our sales team. In the 80’s Michael Jordan was the most prolific player in the league who wasn’t winning any championships. Maybe you can relate? I know I have reached certain levels of success but felt hamstrung by my ability, experience, the system, or people around me.

Enter Phil Jackson and the triangle offense. Like any good strategical phenomenon, the triangle offense has roots starting long before the person who made it famous. In the 1970’s, Jackson had been coached by Red Holzman, where he earned league-wide respect for his role as a sixth-man, a real player’s player.

Holzman had three rules: don’t let anger cloud the mind, awareness is everything, and the power of we is stronger than the power of me. This would lay the foundation for Jackson’s personal brand of selfless basketball. He described his vision,

“I wanted to build a team that would blend individual talent with a heightened group consciousness.”

Tex Winter, Assistant Coach, Chicago Bulls, Sports Illustrated

Tex Winter was a successful college basketball coach, who’s triangle offense catapulted Kansas State from midwestern obscurity to national notoriety. Winter had been an assistant coach with the Bulls for two years before Jackson joined the staff. But it would take another two years before his “continuous-motion offense” would be adopted by the franchise.

Jackson describes the triangle offense,

“The basic idea is to orchestrate the flow of movement in order to lure the defense off balance and create a myriad of openings on the floor.”

This meant creating continuous passing opportunities until the highest quality shot was created by an increasingly spread-thin defense.

To accomplish this, every player needed to be comfortable spending an average of 80% of the game without the ball. Try telling this to Michael Jordan, and his Nike sponsorship.

It is a testament to Jackson’s man management that he was able to show Jordan the benefit of the triangle offense. So much so that Jackson remembers Jordan for much more than his jump shot,

Jordan and Jackson, Getty Images

“What Michael brought to the team was not only his extraordinary talent, but a deep understanding of the system of basketball we played. He was versatile enough to play all five positions on the floor and could show by example how the system worked at its most sophisticated level. This was extremely valuable for the newcomers to the team.”

The triangle offense was Jordan’s opportunity to excel past where his natural ability was able to take him. As a sales producer, my ability to rely on a team can be the difference between one-off and consistent success. This includes building and maintaining relationships with members of the marketing, sales support, and account management teams. As an entrepreneur, this means getting to know my service vendors. If I am able to support others in their success, my success will follow.

For better or worse, in every organization I’ve worked for the sales team is treated like Michael Jordan. The best salespeople I’ve known emulate Jordan’s willingness to understand and support the roles of their team members. This willingness not only generates rapport, but builds relationships that can be leveraged in sales.

Starting Positions for the Triangle Offense, sportskeeda.com

Playing the Bulls in the 90’s meant not knowing who the most dangerous person on the court was, until it was too late. The triangle offense is not unlike team selling, where anyone on the team has the ability to score the winning shot or close the deal. The point is not scored, and the deal is not closed, by the most talented person on the team. The game is won by whoever has the best chance to win it.

This means empowering account managers, marketers, analysts, or partner salespeople, to come in and close a deal. As the salesperson, it is my job to read the defense of the client, and provide them with the experience that has the highest chance of winning the account. By doing this consistently, the team is ready to take their shot whenever the opportunity arises.

Phil Jackson was successful in doing what every leader hopes to do. The potential of his teams were greater than the sum of their parts. This does not happen by placating the ego of a star. This happens by drawing individuals towards a purpose and a vision that is greater than their own interests.