Great Coaches Require Great Players-Is this true in Basketball and B2B Sales?

The Premise

Revenue generation has always been a TEAM sport. Agreed? We've been told that. We know that. We say that. But, do we, as individuals, leaders and organizations, live it? Do we back it up with our actions? Do we demand it? Do we coach it?

The parallels of coaching basketball to coaching in business, especially in the high expectation, performance-based world of Enterprise B2B sales are eerily similar. Both are judged primarily by wins and losses and thus, the premise for the article.

I have been a Warriors fan since moving to San Francisco in 1994. The last 5+ years with Steve Kerr as the Warriors head coach coupled with great players including Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green has led to unparalleled success. This combination has resulted in three NBA championships over five years and an experience that few basketball fans and players will ever have the pleasure to experience.

Great players may not start out great as measured by performance benchmarks including points, rebounds, assists per game or Player Efficiency. But it is easy to see the skills, positive mindset and work ethic required to maximize their god given talents over time is there. This is true in basketball and in business. However, those talents and traits need to be complemented with great coaching. I believe the Golden State Warriors provide a unique and highly appropriate backdrop to the topic of why great coaches require great players in basketball and in B2B Sales.

The Parallels using the Golden State Warriors

Great companies and great teams within a company require not only great players, but a great leader (coach) who understands that their success begins and ends with their players success. Success requires not just great players, but a team of complementary players coupled with a system that maximizes the strength of every player. This combination results in team performance that surpasses what anyone believed possible. Let's first look at the Golden State Warriors as an example.

Most basketball fans look back at the Warriors as a team of superstars that were destined to win multiple championships. People forget that Steph Curry was draft pick #7 and was not a can't miss selection coming out of college as an undersized, not athletic enough product of a non-basketball blue blood university, Davidson. People forget that Klay Thompson, draft pick #11 was viewed primarily as a shooter who was not defensively minded and lacked a strong drive to the basket game. People forget the impact of the Andre Iguodala trade that brought a defensive minded, mature presence to the Warriors in 2013. Even Draymond Green, the emotional leader of the Warriors was the 35th pick in the second round, who was hardly viewed as a future star player for a NBA dynasty.

People forget this group of "great players" did not become great as individuals or even as a team until Steve Kerr, a former player and NBA Champion was recruited from his job as a basketball analyst at TNT to coach the Warriors starting with the 2014-2015 season.

The Warriors Story

Steve Kerr brought in a new team oriented, offensive concept that built upon the solid foundation of hard nose defense that former coach, Marc Jackson installed. Kerr, as part of the interview process had developed an intricately designed playbook with reportedly 50+ out of bounds plays which result in a few easy baskets every game, plus a pass first motion offense resulting in almost 30 assists per game. That's like a sales organization closing 40% or more of their qualified opportunities! During their championship run, these concepts became hallmarks of the Steve Kerr system and player oriented coaching style.

Each "great" player became better under the coaching of Steve Kerr. Steph Curry became the greatest 3-point shooting player ever because of the offensive schemes that Steve Kerr deployed. Klay Thompson became a two way player (offense and defense) that could score a record setting 37 points in a quarter, establish the record of 14 made three point shots in a game, all while often being asked to guard the best player on the opposing team. Andre Iguodala, thanks to the coaching of Steve Kerr, came off the bench as the 6th man anchoring the second rotation which led to the Warriors winning their first NBA championship since 1975. In fact, Iguodala was voted the NBA Finals MVP as the 6th man coming off the bench and the stalwart of the small ball line-up that became known as the "Death Line-Up".

The team slogan of "Strength in Numbers" was formulated during this first championship run because Steve Kerr and General Manager Bob Myers put together a team of not only great players, but role players who would come off the bench to spark a comeback or just hold the score while the starters rested. What they all shared was a great coach who consistently inspired the "team first" mentality, which not only required great players, but also role players who understood and respected their roles.

This team first approach, coupled with their reputation of having great, unselfish players plus a great coach fueled the desire for other great players, highlighted by Kevin Durant, to join the Warriors. They went on to post the best regular season record ever in 2016 with 73 Wins and 9 Losses (similar to everyone on the sales team hitting 120%+ of quota) and win two more NBA Finals Championships in 2017 and 2018.

Fast forward to the 2019 season, devasting injuries, coupled with the impact of free agency and the NBA salary cap, the Warriors entered the season depleted of many of their great players, and established role players from their championship run. Steve Kerr was still the coach, but without the services of Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Steph Curry, coupled with the loss of critical role players including Iguodala, the Warriors went from a great team to the worst team in the NBA.

Current Reality versus Future Performance

The impact on Steve Kerr, after so many great players were no longer playing, is the Warriors went from the acknowledged most feared team in the NBA, to the team with the worst record (15 wins and 50 losses) of the now suspended 2019-2020 season.

But let's look deeper at the impact great coaches have on teams without great players.

If one takes a deeper look, the results Steve Kerr has produced in 2019-2020 might be his greatest coaching performance yet. Several young, unproven rookies like Jordan Poole and Eric Paschall have grown more in six months under Steve Kerr's leadership than most predicted possible. Journeyman players like Glen Robinson III and Alec Burks had their best output in many years playing with the Warriors. Developmental league players including Damian Jones and out of favor high draft picks like Marquese Chriss have surpassed everyone's expectations and secured long term contracts with the Warriors.

The results, as measured by wins and losses in the 2019-2020 season are disappointing to fans, but the foundation Steve Kerr has put in place with his coaching and mentoring of the young players and rejuvenated role players will result in amazing returns once the great players are back on the court. Unfortunately, far too many fans have not recognized or congratulated Coach Kerr for what many basketball aficionados consider his greatest coaching performance. Sound familiar to any B2B Sales Leaders reading this?

The Takeaway for Business Leaders

Leaders are far too often judged by short term performance. Great leaders, whether it be in sports or business do not always benefit from having great players (employees) in place when they first arrive. At a minimum, many of the potentially great players have not been coached and mentored well enough to realize their full potential.

As Coach Steve Kerr of the Golen State Warriors has proven, team leaders need to quickly evaluate the talent they have and identify ways to gain the maximum performance out of every employee on the team. By implementing a system/process designed to unleash the talent of everyone on the team, especially your potentially great players, you will over time maximize your team's performance. Within your plan, set a defined timeframe to give existing employees time to understand, adopt and deploy the new approach.

Ensure your CEO and Board of Directors are aligned and agree with the plan, especially the time horizon returns will start to show, the Key Performance Indicators being used evaluate progress and when the returns will reach their ultimate levels...like NBA Finals Champs!

Equally important, quickly identify and trade (remove) those employees who chose not to embrace the new approach and/or do not have the correct skill sets for the refined process and mindset. This does not make them bad employees, just not the right fit for the new processes and expectations you bring to the table. In fact, they will most likely look back in time and realize this was the best thing for them.

Be sure to handsomely pay and praise great players who perform at the highest level, while also promoting the corporate values and share your commitment to success. The impact on the team and organization will be immense.

Going back to the Warriors, Joe Lacob the team owner, is known to not allow money be an impediment to rewarding and maintaining great players, like Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Kevin Durant. Even the critical complementary role players, like Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala who share and promote the team values, and may even be the heartbeat of the team need to be rewarded and maintained for the benefit of the overall team.

Finally, to those top business leaders including CEO's, corporate investors and board members, be diligent and disciplined in understanding great leaders at every level of your organization, must be enabled and supported to recruit and maintain great employees.

Great coaches and great players must be surrounded with peers and colleagues that represent, expect and possess potential for greatness across the entire organization. One of the biggest mistakes made is for a great coach to be hired, and/or a great player to be recruited, yet not fully empowered to reach for GREATNESS! Define greatness, expect greatness and celebrate examples of greatness along the journey to becomming the champions in your industry.

As I opened, Revenue Generation is a TEAM sport. Many valuable lessons for business can be gained from sports and the Golden State Warriors are a pretty good place to start.

Great Coaches + Great Players = Championships.