Rely on strengths, team to succeed

Defined roles help organizations grow. A basketball legend shows the power of focusing on one area.

Whether you are a sports fan or not, anyone can respect “the greatest scorer of all time.”

In the sport of professional basketball, that honor does not go to Michael Jordan. It doesn’t go to Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Dr. J or even Kobe Bryant. Though all were tremendous players, that honor goes to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Over the course of his 20year career, he scored 38,387 points — the most the sport has seen.

How did he score all of those points? Well, it’s actually pretty simple. His primary focus was ... well ... scoring.

He didn’t call plays. He didn’t dribble the ball up the court. He didn’t try any fancy maneuvering in between defenders.

For the most part, he found a good position on the court that gave him his best opportunity to score. And he waited for someone to get the ball into his hands.

Once they did, he lifted up and took a particular shot that he had perfected. Sometimes it would miss, but most times it went in.

Someone else was responsible for calling the play, dribbling the ball up the court, maneuvering through the defender, and getting the ball to him. Once he got it, he scored. That was the plan. Worked like a charm.

Imagine how odd it would have looked to see Abdul-Jabbar, standing at over 7 feet tall, trying to dribble the ball up the court, maneuver between defenders, and then score.

Sure he could have tried, but he probably wouldn’t have been very good at the first two.

Dribbling the ball up the court would have been very awkward. And since the other players were shorter and faster, trying to maneuver between defenders would have also been difficult.

He would have more than likely discovered that trying to do everything himself would not have worked as well. Plus, he would have burned out much quicker and wouldn’t have lasted 20 years in the NBA.

It was best to choose a single area and focus on it. Scoring was the best one to focus on.

Your business can probably learn from Abdul-Jabbar. Here’s how:

If you have the type of business that relies on outside sales representatives to bring in new client orders, you should think of Abdul-Jabbar.

Your sales rep should focus his attention on one thing and one thing only — scoring (closing sales). That’s it. He shouldn’t be trying to bring the ball up the court (searching/ generating fresh leads) nor should he be trying to maneuver in between defenders (qualifying the lead to determine their interest/need/ problem).

Sure he could try, but as Abdul-Jabbar has so eloquently showed us, trying to do everything yourself is not the most effective way to go.

A true salesman might not even be as good at these other two areas. In fact, a true salesman might not even like these other areas. A true salesman wants to spend as much of his time closing. And the more “hats” he is forced to wear, the faster he will likely burn out. Just as Abdul-Jabbar would have.

Your point guard (marketing department) should be responsible for generating leads, qualifying them and passing them over to Abdul-Jabbar (your sales guy).

Whether it’s through advertising efforts, public relations efforts, search engine marketing, direct marketing, social media, or even some combination of all the above — your marketing department is responsible for calling the plays, dribbling the ball up the court, maneuvering in between the defenders, and then “passing” the ball over to Abdul-Jabbar (your sales organization) who then takes a shot they’ve likely perfected and scores.

If sales and marketing function as a team with clearly defined responsibilities and goals, your organization will reap the benefits just as many of AbdulJabbar’s teams won championships. However, if one or the other tries to do all the work themselves, your organization will suffer the same fate as every sports team with a superstar that tried to “do it all.” None of them have ever won anything. Ever.

Courtney R. Harris