sports

Baylor S3 Welcomes New Director | Kicks-off S3 Zoom Class Reunions

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Baylor S3 welcomes Lane Wakefield as new S3 Director

Welcome to the new S3 Director

S3 Alumni + Business Professionals: Would you like to be involved in S3 this coming school year? Dr. Lane Wakefield invites you to let us know how! Click here.

With co-founder of the S3 program, Dr. Darryl Lehnus, retiring close of Fall 2020, Baylor University’s Hankamer School of Business is bringing in Dr. Lane Wakefield (Baylor MS ’11) as the incoming Director of the Center for Sports Strategy and Sales (S3). Lane followed in his father, Dr. Kirk Wakefield’s footsteps to create a program patterned after S3 at Mercer University after completing his PhD at Texas A&M in 2016. After a national search, Lane was selected as the incoming S3 Director.

At Mercer University (Macon, GA), Lane helped build their Sports Marketing & Analytics program and launched the National Collegiate Sports Sales Championship. He has published research in prestigious marketing journals, including the Journal of Service Research and Journal of Interactive Marketing, as well as upcoming articles in the Journal of Advertising and Journal of Advertising Research. At Mercer, Lane worked closely with the professional sports teams in Atlanta and throughout the Southeast, as well as with companies and agencies, to educate, train and place students.

With two Dr. W’s in the Center for Sports Strategy & Sales in the Marketing Department, Kirk will continue as the Executive Director, while Lane is the Program Director. As Marketing Department faculty members, both report to the Department Chair, Dr. Chris Pullig, and together will continue the innovative efforts initiated by Dr. Lehnus and the senior Dr. Wakefield.  As Lane noted,

“We have always worked well together. Not only through childhood, but even the last few years on research papers. The potential synergy is exciting. It usually takes years to get to know your colleagues, to develop trust and an understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses—we’ve got that in spades,” Lane said.

Lane added how it will be an honor to follow the leadership modeled by Dr. Lehnus,

“There should be another version of ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary ‘Doc and Darryl’ to share what Baylor S3’s Dr.’s Kirk and Darryl accomplished. Most everyone in the sports business world knows and respects S3. A key reason is the Center’s mission to instill integrity. Darryl shared with me how central integrity is to his S3 courses and relationship-building with students. It’s an honor to have the opportunity to build on what he’s done through the Values-Based Leadership course and how the two together established integrity as a hallmark of the program.”

S3 Zoom Class Reunions with Dr. Lehnus

As Professor Lehnus enters his final semester at Baylor this fall, we schedule S3 Class Reunions on Zoom to chat with Dr. Lehnus, each other, and we’ll save a little time to meet the old and new Dr. W’s.

Each meeting will start at 5pm, Thursdays, as follows, with designated class captains helping us get everyone Zoomed in. Click here to register. You’ll need the Eventbrite (free) ticket to access.

  • September 10 | Classes 2006-2007 | Todd Pollock + Brian George
  • September 17 | Classes 2008-2009 | Mike Vogelaar + Lauren Ward
  • September 24 | Classes 2010-2011  | Chase Jolesch + Evin Martinez
  • October 1 | Classes 2012-2013 | Michael Hurley + Sarah Proctor
  • October 8 | Classes 2014-2015 | Austin Avery + Blake Pallansch
  • October 15 | Classes 2016-2017 | Julio Pineda +  Erica Moulder
  • October 22 | Classes 2018-2019 | Ali Harman + Tanner Clark

Other previous or current advisors and friends in the professional ranks are invited to join any of the class meetings.

 

The Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) Program Expands!

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The Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) Program Expands!
S3 in LA circa 2009

When the S3 program launched in 2004 we were—and are—the only academic program in a business school devoted to developing talent aimed specifically at generating revenue in the business of sports. After placing more than 270 professionals in sales and analytics positions we see even greater demand for Baylor S3 graduates. Notable S3 alumni in management and executive positions at scores of professional teams, corporations, and agencies now mentor, train, hire, and advise students right alongside us, as do many outstanding professionals from coast-to-coast.

As we look forward to the next 15 years we must set the stage for success for those who follow. Much has changed in the past 15 years. Think about it. After the first graduating class of S3 majors in 2006, the iPhone was introduced in 2007. This mobile revolution transformed how fans search, buy and go to the game. Augmented and virtual reality are changing how fans engage with our experiences and sponsors. Venues are beginning to use facial recognition as admission.

With the onslaught of data and digital selling, properties and brands recruit and pay for the talent to manage and analyze data to more effectively and efficiently reach fans where they are—which is mostly (online) on their phones, tablets or desktops. The most productive organizations invest heavily in technology capabilities (in-house and/or outsourced) to enable the salesforce to connect and engage with fans in ways we couldn’t even imagine even 10 years ago.

Our position has always been at the forefront leading the way into the future. In keeping with our WINS values, we need more hard-working, integrated, relationship-driven, spirited people to join us.

Missing Talent

The advantage and disadvantage of the S3 major in the Hankamer School of Business has been its exclusivity. The most successful students consciously committed to a career in the business of sports no matter what the costs. That is still the case. As a side note—conscientious commitment to excelling in your craft, to your career, is still the price to be paid for success no matter the business. Companies still buy from people who know where they are going.

At the same time, S3 missed potential sales superstars. Great salespeople love to keep options open. Not wanting to be constrained to sports, they didn’t take the chance to be sold themselves. The Vice President of Sales at the San Antonio Spurs, along with many executives at other teams, often say, “Hey, just let me have a chance to talk to them!”

S3 missed out on problem-solvers keen to manage and analyze data to answer big questions businesses have in a digital-first marketing world. Marketing majors with a double-major with MIS, Accounting or Finance took their talents elsewhere. The Wide World of Sports has been slow to get up to speed. But, like every company today, they now demand more highly skilled analytically-minded graduates to close the gap.

Opening the Doors

S3 majors have always been well-rounded. Salespeople understand analytics and analysts understand sales. All understand the importance of living lives of integrity. Having integrity means having the courage to face the demands of reality. The reality is sales-oriented students thrive in the sales courses. Analytic types want the freedom to build out technical and quantitative skills.

Recognizing these realities, and the realities of marketplace demands and opportunities, the S3 program has moved to open courses to all Marketing majors. Students may choose an emphasis in S3 Sales (MKT 3310 and 4341) or S3 Analytics (MKT 4342 and 4360), plus an internship, for a total of 9 hours. They can still take all S3 courses (15 hours) if they use additional upper-level business electives. All S3 students selecting one of the two areas of emphasis will complete an internship in sales or analytics in the summer after the junior year. Read more here.

Internships

Our stock & trade has always been internships at the highest levels of professional sports, as well as associated brands and agencies. As Colin Faulkner, Senior Vice President of the Chicago Cubs, famously said in our first S3 promotional video, “In sports, to get a job you need experience. But to get experience you need a job.” Internships provide the job that provides the experience that gets you started in your career in sports.

We will continue placing students in internships for those that declare an S3 emphasis and take the sales or the analytics courses in succession during the junior year. Others may take the courses and interview for internships and positions as available, with priority going to declared S3 program students.

Graduates in the 2021 class and beyond may submit their declarations as S3 program members by completing this form.

The S3 Club

S3 Mentors

Further priority for internships and positions is given to those active in the S3 Club. The S3 Club will continue under S3 faculty advisement but will be wholly and completely run by students, supported by an S3 Alumni Advisory Group. The objectives of the club will continue to be to network with sports business executives and to learn more about relevant careers.

The End Goal

With the end in mind, our vision continues to be to instill integrity in the business of sports & entertainment. What’s changed? Nothing, except we want more students to catch the vision, to consider the opportunities, and to join us! We’ve removed every obstacle to keep superstars from exploring business careers in sports. Want to talk some more?

Interested in sports sales? Contact Darryl_Lehnus@Baylor.edu

Interested in sports marketing analytics? Contact Kirk_Wakefield@baylor.edu

How Sales Management in Pro Sports Can Catch Up to Corporate America

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Why do parents, teachers, politicians, managers and salespeople continue bad practices? Four reasons and the ways we express them are:

  1. We do what was done to us and assume it was best practice.
    • “Look at me, I turned out OK didn’t I?”
  2. We lack the depth and breadth of relevant education to recognize bad practices.
    • “See, you can succeed with any background!”
  3. We judge outcomes based on the exception rather than the rule.
    • “Look at her, she started here and is now vice-president!”
  4. We lack the courage to meet the demands of reality.
    • “I know this isn’t working, but I can’t change what I’m doing now.”

Sports sales recruiters often ask applicants, “Why do you want this job?” The wrong answer is, “I just love sports.” The irony is when it comes to pay, work hours and benefits, they literally bank on the applicant’s love for sports to compensate for, well, real compensation.

How Do We Know the Sports Sales Management Model is Broken?

Sales 101

First, consider some basic 101 principles of sales management. These quotes are directly from a leading sales textbook 1

  1. To attract and keep the best talent compensation must be uniform within the company and in line with what competitors’ salespeople receive.
  2. Salespeople who perceive the system as unfair may give up or leave.
  3. A constantly changing system may lead [salespeople] to constantly change their activities but never make any [more] money.
  4. Companies that do not emphasize service or do not anticipate long-term customer relationships typically rely heavily on commission plans.
  5. Salespeople working primarily on commission have little company loyalty and certainly are less willing to perform activities that do not directly lead to sales.

Inside sales reps in sports do not receive compensation in line with what they can get anywhere else. Top salespeople often see the system as unfair (given effort & reward) and leave as soon as a client sees how good they are (and offers multiples of current pay). Teams frequently “play with the lights” changing compensation systems in ways that rarely favor the rep by making the rep more money. The shift toward service-only reps leaves inside sales reps relying heavily upon commission and sacrificing customer welfare and service. As a result, few have loyalty and are certainly unwilling to do non-sales related activities.

Turnover

Second, consider the effects and costs of turnover. Average sales turnover across industries annually hovers around 25%. 2 Typical sports sales practice is to recruit a new class of inside salespeople every 4-6 months, suggesting something closer to the average turnover among car salespeople (~70-75%). 3 Some are promoted (internally or externally), but most leave the industry voluntarily or involuntarily.

Costs of turnover are estimated between $75,000 to $200,000 per salesperson4, taking into account recruiting, training, and lost sales. You can calculate yours here. The NBA estimates third-year reps generate 3.4 times the revenue as first-year reps. Unfortunately, relatively few get to the third year.

If I fail over half of my students each year, you wouldn’t say I’m a good teacher. In our program, we can’t blame the students. We recruited them. The same is true for teams. If annual turnover is anything much more than the non-sports corporate average (25%), at some point we must have the courage to start looking at the system and grasp the reality.

Training

Most sports sales managers are interested in training. The problem is the low proportion of these with any professional training in personnel management, compensation structure, leadership, and other sales management responsibilities. Many make great effort to learn to compensate for the lack of formal training (i.e., business management-related degrees). A few have had professional selling courses. A few have MBAs. Most were selected on the basis of being great salespeople, rather than management skills–which are two quite different things.

Sales students not taking the sports route are often hired by companies like Oracle, IBM and other major corporations who offer starting pay closer to $100,000 than $30,000, even while spending months in training before ever making a sale. We don’t expect teams to be on par with Oracle. But, $10-$20 an hour and first year commissions won’t attract the best talent among graduates who just spent tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars getting an education and accruing student loans.5

A New Model

Sales executives and managers (in sports) routinely bring in motivational sales speakers and hold weekly pep talks. Why? Because the nature of the role and associated benefits of the job aren’t intrinsically motivating on their own merits.

One of our partners, Spurs Sports & Entertainment, decided to do something about it with the support of leadership, including Frank Miceli and Tim Salier. Lindsay Beale, Director of Business Development at SS&E, walks us through the four steps they undertook.

Step 1: Look at the hard truth

We studied our sales work force and realized we were recruiting talent, investing resources into their professional training and development and they were leaving our organizations for other local corporations in sales roles.  We thought we had the hiring and recruiting figured out. We found individuals who really wanted to sell. For years we felt our compensation was competitive to other sports organizations. This helped with recruiting, but when you hire talented salespeople, they have opportunities outside of the sports & entertainment business.

Corporations look for talented salespeople from reputable organizations. They use aggressive recruiters, signing bonuses, high base salaries and competitive compensation packages to attract them.  We realized we couldn’t compete with them–specifically with our representatives with under 3 years of tenure.

We worked with finance and HR to evaluate our current sales structure to establish a plan to address our top concern of retention.  Through our research it was also clear compensation wasn’t the only place sports sales are behind the corporate sales world.  We are currently in the process of addressing sales retention by reviewing three areas: compensation, sales enablement and culture.

Step 2: Create competitive compensation

Teams may think their compensation is competitive with other teams, but that is the wrong comparison point if the goal is to retain talented salespeople. We restructured in four ways.

  1. Supplement commission in the first few years with a higher base salary to provide stability while the sales representatives build their books of business. [Among S3 partners moving in this direction, this ranges from $30,000 up to $42,000 for base pay.]
  2. Restructure commission to reward all sales revenue. We realized our commission structure heavily rewarded products that more tenured representatives were selling but weren’t incentivizing newer representatives.
  3. Provide a strong upside for top sales representatives, with clear rewards and recognition for high achievement.
  4. Hire sales representatives at a full time, full benefits position. No seasonal positions.

Step 3: Give them the tools

We established a Sales Enablement strategy applying digital tools, analytics and strategic processes to allow our sales team to excel in their jobs.

  1. Utilize data and analytics.
    • Lead Scoring
    • Appending data to sales leads to target individuals for specific campaigns
      • Examples: Outer markets for weekend plans or high net worth individuals for premium events.
  2. Invest in technology to improve sales efficiency.
    • Conversica, artificial intelligent sales assistant
    • Zip Whip, texting platform
    • ZoomInfo, business to business prospecting tool
    • Linked-In Sales Navigator
  3. Train and develop adaptive selling skills.
    • SS&EU: Classes are offered during work hours, are hands-on, and cover a variety of topics. They are facilitated live by in-house experts to encourage the cultivation of ideas and relationships across departments. SSEU is supported at the highest level of the organization and every executive teaches a different course.
    • Internal and external sales trainers
    • On the job sales training

Step 4: Create a people first culture. Really.

  • Provide a clear path for internal promotions.
  • Recognize each seller has an individual selling style. Coach, develop and set metrics to fit each representative.
  • Promote work life balance for everyone.
    • Eliminate the following phrases from management vocabulary:
      • Grind.
      • First one in, last one out.
      • Outwork everyone else.
    • Focus on quality of work and their commitment to the sales process, goals and team.
      • Commitment (you want) vs. Compliance (you must)
  • Allow flexible hours that still meet business needs.
  • Increase self-empowerment. Encourage reps to make their own decisions on how to manage time and activities to reach goals rather than micromanage to the numbers.
    • Coach reps to improve each day and strive for stretch goals they set for themselves.

Conclusion

We believe the S3 program can recruit more and better talent to the major the more teams buy into the new model aimed at development and retention. Just because teams can recruit people to fill each sales class with low wages and benefits doesn’t make it the right thing to do–either for the candidate or the team’s welfare. Basic sales management principles show us how we can do better.

Some teams are taking the lead. Since word has gotten out, others have reached out to say they are following suit. Do you want to join them? Are you in?

  1. Selling: Building Partnerships, 2014, Castleberry & Tanner, New York: McGraw-Hill. Quotes straight from the book are in italics. ↩
  2. https://www.ringdna.com/blog/work-to-retain-sales-reps. ↩
  3. https://www.wardsauto.com/dealer/maxdigital-out-stem-74-turnover-rate-among-dealer-salespeople. ↩
  4. Sales Management: Analysis & Decision Making, 2012 Ingram et al., London: Sharpe. ↩
  5. Even if it isn’t a private school (average ~$35k/year), public school still costs at least $10k/year for tuition/fees alone. ↩

Want a QUICKWAY for a great activation strategy?

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Want a QUICKWAY for a great activation strategy?
by Itzayana Aguirre – February 2018

Sponsorship Shorts: QUICKWAY

Wesley Abercrombie (S3, 2017), the General Manager for Partnership Sales at Southeastern Louisiana University Athletics, shared this creative partnership activation strategy:

If the basketball team makes eight 3-point shots, everyone at the game wins a free slushie from our local convenience store partner, Quickway. We keep track of it by hanging up letters on a wall. Once it spells out “QUICKWAY” everyone knows they win slushies. We call it our “Slushie 3-point shot tracker.”

How successful is the promotion?

Wes explained,

Tonight, there was 30 seconds left in the game, and the team hadn’t hit the challenge yet. It spelled “QUICKWA” and we were just waiting for the clock to run out to win the game. The other team wasn’t even playing defense at this point! Fans were literally standing up yelling “one more three” at our team from the stands and our coach heard it!

So as our team was waiting for the clock to run out, coach told our point guard to just go ahead and shoot it, to try to complete the challenge for our fans. He missed the shot, but it was really cool to see the fans react to our promotion the way they did and to see our coach acknowledge it instead of just letting the clock run out to win the game. The best part was, the partner was at the game, and texted me saying that the promotion was the best form of marketing he has ever seen.

Share your story

Wes worked with Quickway to develop a powerful partnership platform that engages the team, coaches and fans for an ultimate experience. Share your Sponsorship Shorts story if you would like to be considered for a feature on the Baylor S3 Report!

Wes Abercrombie is an employee of Peak Sports Management, which manages sales & marketing for Southeastern Louisiana Athletics. 

Spurs Share Values & Insights with Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3)

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Spurs Share Values & Insights with Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3)
by Brad Sherrill – September 2017

What can we learn from the Spurs organization?

The Spurs were the first organization contacted before the S3 program launched in 2004. We often say that the Spurs organization is “Baylor South,” because so many of the 250+ S3 graduates started careers in San Antonio.

Nine members of Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) engaged in a series of small group panel discussions with over 100 S3 students at the September S3 Club meeting. Among these nine were Joe Clark, Laura Dixon, David Elkins, Justin Wynter and S3 alumni Stephen Gray, Lindsay Beale, Travis Gafford, Ashley Johnson and  Erika Moulder.

These professionals discussed how S3 Values play out in day-to-day life in successful careers. 

Take It Personally

Justin Wynter, Manager of Corporate Partnerships for the Austin Spurs, shared a story in support of the S3 Culture tenant to always “take it personally.” Wynter spoke about how he and his associates rose from underachieving to become a top of the league organization. This hard work came to fruition when the team received 8 of 10 year-end NBA G-League awards after receiving zero only a few short years before Justin Wynter and Stephen Gray (S3 2011) decided to take personal responsibility for business performance.

Act with Integrity

Joe Clark, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Service, encouraged students to interview teams and companies. He highlighted the importance of making sure that an organizational culture is strong and a positive fit. Finding those organizations that care and do things the right way is an integral part of experiencing long-term success in the sports industry.

Go the 2nd Mile

Laura Dixon, Head of External Relations, exemplified the broad landscape of positions available across the sports industry. S3 Club members heard about her journey from working on an Olympic bid proposal to her current position where she works to strengthen stakeholder relationships on behalf of Spurs Sports & Entertainment. In going the “2nd mile,” Dixon does a little bit (or a lot) of everything in this role, going beyond the job description people typically associate with the sports industry.

Group Sales Representative Ashley Johnson shared a story of how Sales Representative Erika Moulder’s group were recently given a goal of making five in-person sales appointments for the week. Ashley noticed on the sales board that Erika set 19 appointments, going the second, third, and practically the fourth mile.

Redefine Success & Failures

S3 Club Member Tatum Lowe spoke highly of the insight she gained over the course of the evening. Lowe said she learned, “the idea of redefining our successes and failures . . . focus on the small victories that you achieve every day, before you know it these will add up to major successes.” She was inspired by how visibly passionate SS&E executives, managers and employees are about their careers, exemplified by the core principle of going the 2nd mile, in San Antonio as much as it is in Waco. In fact, they traveled 200 miles each way to freely share their time with S3 students.

How to Choose Among Job Offers

Lindsay Beale, Senior Manager of Group Sales, shared a common theme to the Spurs and S3: Pick your next position based primarily on the character and values of the manager who will directly supervise you. This person plays an integral role in developing your abilities and determining the opportunities for success. When they move up, you’ll have chances to move with them.

Next Up

Our next S3 Club outing with the Texas Rangers is on Tuesday, September 26! We will join Nick Richardson and four more S3 alumni at the Rangers, Taylor Bergstrom, Mike Segoviano, Jeff Brown and Jonah Erbe, as the Rangers take on the Astros from Globe Life Park in Arlington.

An Internship Model for Sports Sales, Marketing, CRM & Analytics

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An Internship Model for Sports Sales, Marketing, CRM & Analytics
by Kirk Wakefield – January 2017

After arranging & supervising hundreds of sports internships for the last dozen or so years, Dr. Darryl Lehnus and I devised a system that works well for us.

Ideally, partners provide the internship with the same objective of developing and evaluating talent in view of future employment there or elsewhere. Our partners see intern successes as their successes, as it reflects on their abilities to train, motivate, and model excellent performance.

Among others, the Pittsburgh Pirates B.U.C.S Academy and the New York Mets are ahead of the game in organizing internships and recruiting to careers. While many teams and companies provide summer internships, the Houston Texans (sponsorships) and Houston Astros (CRM) provide 9-12 month postgraduate internships specifically for our graduates to gain more in-depth training before launching careers.

Our best-in-class partnerships do five things:

  1. Budget for internships.
  2. Show up every year to interview.
  3. Provide awards or incentives. (Examples: See StubHub & MLBAM.)
  4. Serve as mentors.
  5. Initiate follow-up with interviews to (a) hire or (b) refer for hiring.

Five Not-So-Easy Steps

From a process standpoint, partners follow these five steps. We’ll explain each in turn.

  1. Prepare students for careers.
  2. Determine parameters & responsibilities.
  3. Define, communicate and evaluate on criteria that predict success.
  4. Hold students responsible.
  5. Review insights & follow-through with students.

Prepare students for careers

Ask employers what they want. Continue to ask.

Too many prepare students for sports marketing or sports management jobs. The only problem is no entry level positions exist for “sports marketer” or “sports manager.” Entry level positions do exist in ticket sales, sponsorship sales & service/fulfillment, CRM, and analytics. Design coursework and programs accordingly.

Business schools have courses in professional selling, database management, statistics and predictive modeling, and data visualization (Excel, Tableau, etc.). Take advantage of these courses in planning curriculum requirements. When employers see you take them seriously, they’ll line up for your students.

Determine Parameters & Responsibilities

Once employers agree, we send them a link to an online form to identify the supervisor, time frame (start, finish, hours per week, pay or course credit), and responsibilities. Most likely you’ve already discussed this, but best to not be surprised at the end of the term that the internship didn’t include a vital part of what they needed to experience.

After selecting the type of internship, the employer completes the appropriate section for what the intern will do. Our forms are below.

Define, communicate and evaluate criteria for success

Every year the National Association of Colleges & Employers (NACE) publish a list of attributes most desired of new hires. These could differ among some, but odds are they are the same. With a little adaptation, we use these for midterm and final evaluations by the intern’s direct supervisor.

Responses on the primary criteria (below) are shared with the intern in a meeting with the academic advisor. We also ask about punctuality, attitude, performance, and overall grade from the direct supervisor of the internship at the employer. The entire form may be downloaded here.

Sports Internship Evaluation Criteria

Specific to our own preparation and values, we ask students to be 2nd milers. When asked to do something (walk a mile), go above and beyond expectations (go the second mile). Supervisors rate the intern accordingly (below).

Hold students responsible

Students should perform well in the internship. We expect that.

We also expect them to reflect on what they learn. Keeping a daily or weekly journal is recommended.At the end of the term, students must submit the S3 Internship Report Form (click to download) regarding a weekly log of hours, assignments, volunteering, accomplishments, application of class material, issues (problems or challenges & resolutions), culture, behavioral adaptation, recommendations, and net promoter score rating for the internship.

Review insights & follow-through with students

Meet with each student to get his or her take on the evaluation provided in Step 3. Usually there are no surprises. Employers do a good job of picking up on areas for improvement that you’ve likely noticed in class. So, it’s nice to have someone else see it and say it.

Generally, these are great times to encourage students in careers. On occasion, you can use these to give appropriate kicks in the pants. We’ve seen these have fairly drastic effects on capable students who needed to get with the program. On occasion, you find some who need to find another program. The wide world of sports, perhaps the same as other industries (but we think more so),demands a high level of commitment. We help students by holding them to a high standard.

Conclusion

Providing good internship experiences takes effort on the part of the academic advisor, student, and employer. But, working together, internships are the foundation for successful careers. No class, book or assignment can substitute for on-the-job reality training.

The very best part of what we do is to see students succeed in their careers.

Feel free to borrow, steal, or adapt any or all of the attached materials! If you’ve found other things that work well, please let us know!

Why are internships so important for employers?

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Why are internships so important for employers?
by Kirk Wakefield – November 2016

Meaningful Careers Begin With Meaningful Relationships

We need meaningful relationships. Young employees thrive or dive on the strength of positive relationships in the workplace. Such important relationships should start well before college students graduate.

time-use

We spend the bulk of adult life with people at work (see chart). According to research, the top three reasons people leave jobs are relationship driven:

  1. Supervisor: People leave managers not companies.
  2. Co-workers: Appreciation, recognition and respect from peers make or break us.
  3. Culture: How we personally fit with the values of those we work for and with points us to open doors or out the door.

Wouldn’t it be a good idea to get a head start on knowing the nature and culture of these people before launching a career?

When is turnover too high?

The most productive recruitment strategy would seek more, not less, information on candidates. Too often recruiters make decisions based on a resume, references or referrals, and a few hours in an interview. The average turnover rate in sales is 25%. Many believe if the employee churn rate is higher than 10% the problem is the manager not the employees. None of us want to be that person.

As professionals, now is the time to invest in the lives of young people while they are still in school. They need your  experience, guidance and counsel to understand and discern the best fit to start careers. Your organization gets the best read on recruits by getting to know them 12-24 months in advance of hiring decisions. You–and they–will make better, more informed decisions. Internships provide the needed edge to make good decisions and the opportunity to give back like others have done for us.

Commit this to be your best year yet in relationships and recruitment.

Contact Kirk_Wakefield@baylor.edu with questions about S3 recruitment for careers and internships.

How Academic & Professional Partnerships Work: Baylor S3 Pro Day

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How Academic & Professional Partnerships Work: Baylor S3 Pro Day
by Kirk Wakefield – November 2016

If we, will you?

In 2003, the Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program began the day we walked into the San Antonio Spurs offices and asked Russ Bookbinder, “If we did this, would you help?”

Darryl Lehnus and I then set out to every other team in Texas asking the same question, getting feedback, making adjustments and gaining support to launch the program in 2004 with the first graduating class in 2006. Students will get a kick out of watching the original S3 promo video. The keys, then and now, to make academic and professional partnerships work are simple:

Steps to Build Partnerships Ask/Offer
Identify the unique need. What is your biggest need?
Identify competition. How is this need addressed now?
Ask for commitment. If we, will you?
Ask for referrals. Who else might be interested?
Develop relationships. How can we improve?

We keep asking these questions to maintain position and relevance. In the beginning, and in adding the CRM & Analytics track (2011) to the major, we did not accept more students than industry commitments to help with placement.

Today, with over 210 S3 Alumni, many reaching management and executive levels, our vision is the same: to instill integrity in the business of sports & entertainment. Integrity starts with delivering on what we promise to students and employers. And listening. And learning. A lot.

Listen. Learn. Launch.

Board members began asking for more recruits. Board members moved to new teams, which usually means adding another team to the board. We saw the opportunity to grow, but at the same time maintain Baylor’s goal to keep classes under 20 students. So, in the past three years, the number of qualified students admitted to the S3 major doubled from the original 19 to 38 as we increased the number of sections for each class. We launch a new Sports Sales Management course Spring 2017, with board member Bill Glenn, leading the class. More changes are in the works for the CRM & Analytics graduate program, as we launch a global partnership in the United Kingdom.

For the first 12 years (2004-2016), recruitment was combined with the S3 Board Meeting. The S3 Pro Day was launched based on feedback from board members Alan Aldwell (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Rob Erwin (Dallas Mavericks), among others. After asking others for input, with the support of Patrick Ryan & Eventellect, we launched the first ever S3 event dedicated entirely to recruitment. We moved the S3 Board Meeting to a different date (January 17-18, click here for more information), focused on best practices and developing mentor relationships for career-long impact. We will keep listening and learning.

In the process, we also developed an interview scorecard to help both students and recruiters focus on the values and skills important to us. Feel free to edit and adjust for your own use in developing or recruiting talent. Click here to review and download.

Eventellect S3 Pro Day in Pictures

Thanks to the recruiters from the teams, companies, and leagues that participated in the Eventellect S3 Pro Day!

pro-day-attendees

Here are the S3 Senior Pro Days in pictures.

Night at Vitek’s

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Ticket Sales Interviews

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 Partnerships and CRM & Analytics Interviews

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What’s new in S3 for 2016-17?

kirk_wakefield 2016, Learn, S3, The S3 Program , , , , , , , , ,
What’s new in S3 for 2016-17?
by Kirk Wakefield – April 2016

April 2016 Newsletter

We have big plans for the 2016-17 academic year. Here’s some of what’s in store!

Friday, November 4, 2016

S3 Senior Pro Day

  • Texas BBQ on Thursday Night:  S3 Advisory Board members meet the students & network with managers the night before interviews.
  • S3 Senior Interviews All-Day Friday: Managers meet each senior for 10 minutes in the morning, speed-dating style; then call back your top draft picks for afternoon interviews.
  • Stay over for the TCU-BU game on Saturday, November 5, 2016.
  • All S3 Advisory board teams and companies are invited to interview our 40 seniors for 2016-17! Board members should feel free to invite HR personnel to join us for the Senior Pro Day!
  • Virtual interviews may also be set-up for those who cannot make the physical trip to Waco.
  • Mark your calendars now. Official invites will arrive via email.

Tuesday & Wednesday, January 17 & 18, 2017

S3 Board Meeting

Based on insights provided by the S3 Executive Council and input from board members, we recognize that focusing on recruiting seniors in November and juniors in January better fits the schedules of many teams and companies. Hiring managers will get to meet every senior at the fall Pro Day and can still interview seniors at the January meetings. An additional benefit is that juniors will have a semester completed in the S3 program and be better prepared to meet board members and interview for internships.

Held right after Martin Luther King Day (1-16-17), the S3 Board meetings will include:

  • Junior Internship Recruitment & Senior Follow-up Interviews:
  • Phillips 66 Banquet & Corporate-Property Networking: Focused time to develop relationships with other S3 Board members.
  • Mentorship Hour: Share career advice with your mentorship group of S3 students. Board members will have the opportunity to volunteer as mentors and role models as a way of giving back to students as they begin their careers.
  • Ticket Insights: Roundtable discussion on pricing analytics presented by new S3 partners Eventellect & Stubhub.
  • Campaign Management: Roundtable discussion on best practices in strategy. Stay tuned, board members, for the opportunity to submit your best campaign strategy to present at the meetings.
  • S3 Brand-Building Brain & Barnstorming: Board members will discuss ways to strengthen and spread the good word about S3, as we continue to grow on a national and international basis.

We thank the S3 Board Members who recruit seniors for full-time positions and juniors for summer internships, as well as provide financial support for the program. We especially thank our anchor (1) corporate partners at Phillips 66, Eventellect, Schlotzsky’s, and La Quinta Inns & Suites, and (2) team partners at the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans and Dallas Mavericks. These organizations have gone above and beyond!

Welcome to New Board Members!

Dan Fleetwood, Vice President, Global Sponsorships, SAP

Patrick Ryan, Co-Founder of Eventellect

Geoff Lester, Head of Partnerships & Business Development, StubHub

Katie Scallan, Senior Manager, Engagement Marketing, Gulf States Toyota

Chris Talley, Vice President, Corporate Communications, USAA

Garrett Smith, Manager, National Soccer HOF Club Sales, FC Dallas

Doug McNamee, Senior Associate AD, Baylor

Katy Young, Director of Recruiting, Learfield

We also welcome, Christine Stoffel, CEO, SEAT Consortium, who will share some exciting news with us next month!

This month in the S3 Report we begin features on the culture, values and practices of some of our great team partners. This month, read about the San Antonio Spurs Sports & Entertainment:

Cover Photo: April S3 Club Meeting with San Antonio Spurs Brooke Gaddie (S3 2014) and Lindsay Beale (S3 2010) sharing insights with S3 students.

 

8 Tips to Getting Promoted in the Sports Industry

kirk_wakefield 2015, Careers, Lead, Learn, Personal Development, S3, Work ethic , , , , , , , 0 Comment
8 Tips to Getting Promoted in the Sports Industry
by Rocky Harris – October 2015

Managing expectations

I get asked all the time what it takes to get promoted in the sports industry. Over the last 15 years the industry has encountered rapid growth, which has provided more professional opportunities and raised expectations for getting promoted faster.

When I got my first full-time job with the San Francisco 49ers, I felt lucky to have an entry-level position. It was highly competitive. No one seemed to get promoted or leave for other jobs. Upward mobility was more aspirational than realistic. Today, people enter the industry expecting to become athletics director, president or general manager by the time they are 30. Somewhere along the way, we stopped worrying about excelling at our current jobs and only focused on reaching the next step.

How to advance in 8 easy steps

Instead of trying to reverse the course of the industry, I have some direction for those looking to advance their careers.

  1. nickbakerExcel at your current job: Many people think all they have to do to get promoted is meet the minimum expectations for their current positions. I always tell my staff that the first step is to excel at what you were hired to accomplish. AEG Senior Vice President Nick Baker, who started at AEG as an intern and worked his way up, explained: “You have to have proven excellence in your current role before you can be considered for additional responsibilities and opportunities.”
  2. Impact other departments: Once you effectively manage all current responsibilities, the next step is to positively impact and contribute to other departments. It shows you are a team player. Other leaders within the organization will notice your contribution in helping them reach their goals.
  3. Focus on solving organizational objectives: I was told early in my career to solve the problems of the most senior decision-maker in the department (president, athletics director, owner, etc.). After perfecting the job you are hired to do and helping other departments reach their goals, spend your spare time figuring out ways to solve organizational problems. Delivering a solution to an issue that keeps the team owner up at night will help you get noticed and promoted.
  4. Know your strengths and weaknesses: Focus on using your strengths to deliver short-term results. Develop and display a skill set relevant to the objectives of the organization. Example: If your boss is a luddite, and you are tech-savvy, your technology skills can deliver value to the organization that no one else can that sets you apart.
  5. Dress for the job you want, not the one you have: One employee asked for a promotion because he felt he was ready to take on a more senior role. I told my boss about his desire for advancement and we were considering it. The next day, the employee walked in to the office with tennis shoes and his shirt un-tucked. My boss said he refused to promote him, regardless of the work he produces, until he learns professionalism.
  6. Find mentors: I wouldn’t be where I am without the help of others. It is critical to your professional development. Mentors can help you develop your personal plan and provide much-needed guidance.
  7. Build relationships: Have a positive attitude. Be the kind of person people want to work with. Leaders can easily identify divisive people. Dividers will not be promoted regardless of the results they drive.
  8. stevewebbBe open to change: Executive Director of Compliance at Arizona State University, Steve Webb, has lived in four different states to pursue his goals in the sports industry. Webb said, “In the sports industry, you have to be willing to change jobs, move and take on new roles in order to grow. The more flexible you are, the more likely you will move up the ladder quicker.”

 

These steps do not guarantee you will fast-track to the top of an organization. But, if that is your goal, these pointers will give you the best chance to reach your career goals.

Cover photo courtesy of Pascal.