The Sales Triangle…

How about a little basketball-business “crossover dribble” today?  I love basketball.  I’ve also tried to apply many basketball concepts to the business world throughout my career.  They are especially applicable in the sales profession. 

I was a Chicago Bulls fan during Michael Jordan’s NBA Championship years.  More than Jordan though, I’m a Phil Jackson fan.  Phil Jackson wasn’t Jordan’s first head coach in the NBA.  Michael didn’t win a championship before (or after) his time under Phil.  Know what?  That applies to Kobe Bryant, too  Even Shaquille O'Neal won just one of his four NBA championships under a coach other than Phil Jackson. 

Lest you believe Jackson’s success was confined to Chicago and LA, Phil won an NBA championship as a player on the New York Knicks, plus he coached a Continental Basketball Association championship along with earning Coach of the Year honors.  Phil Jackson knew how to win. 

According to Wikipedia, “Jackson is known for his use of Tex Winter's triangle offense as well as a holistic approach to coaching that was influenced by Eastern philosophy, garnering him the nickname "Zen Master".  True, I’m no Zen Master. My positivity is reinforced by our favorite, Unknown Sage: 

The pessimist may be right in the long run, but the optimist has a better time during the trip. 

The “Triangle Offense”?  THAT is something I continue to coach today, albeit as the “Sales Triangle”.  At a high level, the Sales Triangle has these corners; the When; the What; and the Who: 

 

Our sales managers (and for that matter all God’s children) love to focus on the When. “When will your deal close?” is a question we hear countless times throughout our sales career. Now I’m not saying the When is not a key component of the sales triangle. It’s just the When question is not a very effective approach to forecasting.  I’ll delve into forecasting tools, tactics and techniques another time. 

Next sits the What.  In my experience others on the operations side of my company often worry if we sales types have committed (or over-committed) some capability that stretches our product or service to its limits.  They don’t seem to appreciate that all of the “vanilla” deals are already sold.  The only ones left are those that have “hair”. 

Oh, our companies want our deals; and at full price thank you.  But too many times our colleagues don’t want the complexity or the demanding nature of the client.  They overlook: 

You can't just lust for a client's money - you have to take the client too. 

                   Gary A. Pokorn 

Yet IMHO, it’s the Who corner of the sales triangle that is the most overlooked; mis-managed; and too often taken for granted.  Something as simple, yet as important as knowing the “Who” can make the difference between winning the deal vs. playing that game we all hate called the “Loooong Loooose”.  David Yesford, Senior Vice President, Wilson Learning Worldwide put it this way: 

Sales representatives need to build and explore a network of multiple connections within their customer organizations in order to gain a full understanding of how the organization’s strategy plays out vertically and

horizontally across the organization. Salespeople who can bring a thoroughly informed perspective of the customer organization find that senior executives welcome their insights. 

Phil Jackson’s teams leveraged the triangle offense and consistently won championships.  Perhaps mastering the sales triangle, especially the org chart corner, can do the same for us. 

GAP 

When life gets tough we could get a helmet… or… we could leverage the peace and share the power of a positive perspective.