“Frustration, like nerves, can either benefit or tear down. I tell our salespeople that the only person frustration hurts is yourself–it’s all internal, not external. The opportunity is still there to find out what others need or want and to find solutions.”[/dropshadowbox]Choose who to be:
Welcoming. Open up don’t close down. “Come in, let’s talk.”
Calm. Cool down don’t heat up. Nothing says confidence more than calmness during frustration.
Able. Assume a do-something posture.
Bonus: Optimistic. Express optimism while acknowledging realities.
Choose what to do:
Acknowledge don’t ignore. “That’s frustrating,” is better than, “It’s not that bad.”
Run toward not away. Deal with it now or you’ll deal with it later. Curiosity coupled with courage expands leadership and productivity.
Stay focused not distracted. Frustrations that distract from the big picture grow larger than they are.
Bonus: Involve others. Don’t act alone. “What can ‘we’ do,” is better than, “What can ‘I’ do.”
Three warnings
Frustration in one area tends to bleed into others.
Don’t let short-term frustrations make long-term decisions.
Frustration’s biggest danger is its ability to create imbalance.
Rudyard Kipling wrote:
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
…
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it …
Brands highly prioritize social media engagement when partnering with sports properties. But who are these social media fans? Who are we reaching with the team’s social media?
Earlier this year we sampled registered users from a professional franchise (N = 469). The chart below displays the results of a cluster analysis grouping fans based on similar characteristics within the group, but significantly different between groups. These groups are not significantly different from each other in terms of ethnicity, household size or income.
Group 1: Passionately engaged
About a quarter (23%) of those studied frequently(66% of the team’s games) used social media (including texting, Facebook, Twitter) to send or receive information related to the team and games. This extremely passionate group (Passion Score = 95) is relatively young (M = 40) compared to other registered users of this team (M = 49). That the database skews older reflects typical season ticket holders, but may also indicate the need for teams to attract younger fans or at least get them to sign-up.
Looking at the chart, what else do you see? This group is more likely to follow on the team’s website, watch games on TV, and listen to games on the radio.
Since most of the sample are males (69.5%), the results show this group (64% male) is more likely to include females than the other three groups. They’re more likely to be single (61%) than the other groups. And, they’re relatively likely to have some form of season ticket plan (35%) and live within the metro area (e.g., within 20 miles).
Social Media Fan Groups
*Percentage of all games in a season
Characteristic
Passionately Engaged
Distant Lovers
Passionately Disengaged
Dispassionately Disengaged
Social Media Usage*
Send/receive text messages about the game
Post messages/comments on social media (Facebook/Twitter/Websites) about the game.
66%
36%
10%
11%
Passion for the team (100 max)
95
90
90
63
Games reported attended*
23%
8%
21%
11%
Team Website: Visit the team website before, during, or after the game.*
73%
68%
47%
22%
Radio: Listen to games on the radio or internet.*
54%
29%
25%
13%
TV: Watch games on screen (TV, Internet, DVR).*
65%
49%
51%
24%
News: Follow the results in the newspaper or internet.*
78%
89%
85%
23%
Distance from venue (miles)
20
113
19
25
Age
40
46
49
40
Males (Overall: 69.5% male)
64%
81%
72%
68%
Married (Overall: 52.5% married)
39%
66%
64%
47%
Fan base (% of fans surveyed)
23%
10%
32%
34%
Season plan member (partial or full)
35%
13%
45%
29%
Group 2: Distant Lovers
Although not a large segment (10%), this passionate (Passion Score = 90) fan group travels in from outside of town (average distance of 113 miles) a few times a season to attend a game or two. These somewhat older (M = 46) fans sometimes use social media (36%) to find or share information about the game, but they’re most likely to follow the team news through the newspaper or online (89%).
This group is less likely to tune in to TV (49%) or the radio (25%), which may be more a function of availability in their distant markets than interest. Consequently, the team’s website (68%) is a good way to reach this crowd, in addition to the relatively frequent social media use compared to the next two groups of fans.
Group 3: Passionately Disengaged
Although this group is as passionate as the second group (PS = 90) and attend about as many games as the first group, they rarely engage via social media (10% of games). This older group (M = 49) really don’t pay much attention to games on the radio (25%) even though they live in-market (~19 miles). Nor are they particularly avid viewers of TV broadcasts (51%). They do faithfully follow the team through the news, either print or online (85%).
This group is most likely to have some form of season ticket package (45%), particularly full-season.
Fans in this segment need to be energized as team partners to engage with the team. One suggestion is to partner with your local Apple store to offer fan workshops, perhaps specializing in the use of team apps. My 85 year old mother is on Facebook all the time, but would benefit from knowing what else to do with her iPad. The size and age of this segment suggest efforts like these could be worthwhile, because they also have higher discretionary income that would otherwise be spent on their grandchildren.
The Houston Astros target this older season ticket base by providing a headquarters for STHs, equipped with multiple iPads and other devices. And, as you can see from the cover photo, it’s sponsored.
Group 4: Dispassionately Disengaged
This relatively young (M = 40) are not particularly passionate fans (PS =63) and they show it by not following the team through virtually any media. They attend games (M = 9)a bit more than the out-of-towners in group two and live a little further out (M = 25 miles) than the two most frequently attending groups (1 and 3).
This group is the most likely to have mini-plans among the four groups, which suggests they get packages to occasionally go to the game–perhaps to entertain clients or go with friends–but they aren’t big fans.
One of the best ways to enhance fan passion is to provide direct contact between players and fans. Targeting this group with relevant events may be a way to move them into one of the other passionate groups, which in turn leads to more media usage and better fans for your partners.
I got this headline “Market Like a Rock Star” in an email after I read the book Radical Marketing. They were trying to sell me a book about the Grateful Dead. No sale, but it caught my attention.
What if I really did market like a rock star? What would that look like? Here are four ways I’ve come up with so far. Feel free to tweet more to the list (@lynnwitt) or comment below.
1. Rock stars have larger than life personalities.
Most rock stars (think Ozzy & cats, Bon Jovi & hair, Madonna & sex) have VERY large personalities. Some trait or characteristic they exploit to the fullest becomes their trademark.
We can do that in sales & marketing. Figure out the one thing you can hang your hat on and roll it out big time. Go with the largest “personality” your company has. For you personally, what one thing do you want customers and colleagues to know you by? Don’t hope they catch it. Make it central to who you are and what you communicate.
2. Rock stars are considered crazy.
You hear about it all the time. Rock stars are nuts. Troubled. Deemed crazy. And in this case, usually they are.
But in marketing, we can be crazy in a good way. We can dare to do things that people deem unconventional. I watched an old video of Steve Jobs. The commercial at the end of the video is what sticks with me. Look at people like Jobs that the world called “crazy” and look at what they accomplished because they didn’t listen to the World.
3. Rock stars love what they do.
In Radical Marketing, the Grateful Dead talk about their passion for their music. They grew bigger than life but it was always about making music.
Do you love what you do in sales & marketing? Because if you don’t love it, how can you expect your customers to love it. Passion is contagious.
4. Rock stars dress the part.
Led Zeppelin
When it comes to attire, rock stars GO BIG or GO HOME! When you are a rock star your “outfit” is as much of your personality as you are.
I attended an Aerosmith concert and Led Zeppelin opened for them. Those dudes STILL have the outfits, the beards and the long hair long long after they hit 60 years old.
When it comes to marketing your product, what is the packaging? How are you presenting it? Are you putting your best foot forward and giving your audience something to remember you by?
What about you?
Well, that’s it. I don’t want to be a ROCK STAR but I’d like to market like one. If you’re going to be a rock star in sales & marketing, what other tips do you suggest? Click the tweet button below and let me know (@lynnwitt)!
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
Think about a sales contest you have conducted (or participated in) that was missing something. Perhaps it did not have a specific purpose, was unorganized, anticlimactic, or even ineffective? Rather than using a generic model, create a personalized strategy that will help your team accomplish its goals.
Step 1: Set Specific Objectives
The first step in designing an effective sales contest is to determine the ultimate objective. Goals for entry-level sales staffs can vary; therefore it’s imperative to set specific objectives for your sales contest. Write down, in detail, what you hope to accomplish and how you will measure your success.
“An effective sales contest, done the right way, can produce big results for your team.
The preparation leading up to it, the execution throughout and the post contest assessment are all vital in maximizing the results from your contest. In order to get the desired outcome when building the sales contest, it’s important that it’s designed to help accomplish a specific agenda, create a fun and competitive environment, engage your employees and drive big revenue.” [/dropshadowbox]Are you basing the contest solely on revenue production?
Are you trying to increase departmental revenue by 10%, 25%, 50%?
Is there a specific team revenue goal you’d like to reach?
Historically, what was produced during this period of the sales cycle?
Are you focused strictly on moving inventory – regardless of revenue?
Is there specific inventory you’re focused on selling (club seats, VIP seating, etc.)?
Are you also focusing on increased call volume, on-site appointments, or other “hustle” metrics?
If so, do all of these metrics directly contribute to your ultimate goal?
Are these metrics readily accessible throughout the day to encourage/drive individuals?
Step 2: Design the Program
Establish each of these for every sales contest.
Team, Individual, or Both?
Recognize when it’s most effective to use a team-based contest versus an individual-based contest.
A team contest will help drive departmental unity. In theory, every member of your team will work together to accomplish the goal to receive some type of incentive. In reality, be aware of free-loaders who don’t contribute and seek the same incentive as the rest of their team. To address this, set personal “minimum qualifiers” to motivate everyone on the team to participate.
Is your sales group full of competitive, result-driven employees? If so, an individual-based contest may be the best route for your team. Create and facilitate a program that will bring out the competitive nature of your sales team as they compete against one another.
Sales contests can also tie in both team and individual aspects that will build team unity while rewarding top performers. Focus on dynamics that will motivate the team as a whole, while also pushing individual performance within the contest. An overall team incentive can be supplemented by smaller prizes throughout the contest to key performers.
Theme
In order to keep your team engaged throughout your sales contest, it’s crucial to design your sales contest around an exciting and entertaining theme. Whether you use current events (Olympic Games, March Madness, Draft Lottery), movies (Fight Club) or board games (Monopoly, Scrabble) to model the contest, it should be creative, fun, and most of all, engaging!
Time frame
The length of the sales contest is one of the most important pieces of the design. If your contest is too short, it may not give your sales team the proper time to accomplish the set objectives. If your contest is too long, your objective will lack urgency and it can grow stale. Refer to previous sales/hustle metrics to determine the appropriate timeframe to accomplish your objectives.
Incentives
What will truly motivate your team to increase their performance? Simply ask them! By [dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]
“After running plenty of sales contests that produced different results, the underlying factor that motivates everyone is free and simple: recognition.
For example, the 2013 Final Four was in Atlanta so we capitalized with a sales contest. The winning member received two tickets to the tournament, assorted gift cards, in addition to a trophy and picture that we sent to the NBA league office and our executive team. After the hundreds of dollars we spent on the prizes, the winner was most proud of the email we sent to the league and the executive team with his picture!” [/dropshadowbox]asking your sales team what incentives they desire most, you’re accomplishing two things:
First, and most obvious, you’re able to put together a list of incentives they desire. Send out an email asking your team to present you with three items (under your set budget) that they would love to have. Whether its cash, gift cards, concert tickets, autographed memorabilia, or other prizes, you’re sure to get authentic feedback. (Best answer to date: C.R.E.A.M: Cash rules everything around me!)
Secondly, and just as important, you’re empowering your employees with the task of helping design their very own sales contest. This leads to increased buy-in and appreciation from your team. Further, you are presented with ideas you never would have thought of yourself.
Step 3: Review, Recap, Revise
What could have been done better?
Was the contest too long? Too short?
Was your sales team engaged? What could you have added to make it more engaging?
Did the original rules work throughout, or did you have to adjust them at some point? Why?
Did the incentives actually motivate your sales team, or were they simply a nice reward?
How close did you come to accomplishing your goals? Were the goals too easy? Too hard?
Analyzing Metrics
Simply put, did the contest accomplish your set objectives? Compare your team’s performance during the contest against previous data to measure the true impact. Record your results as they compare to historical metrics and save for future referral.
Finally, measure your team’s output over the weeks and months following your contest to gain additional insight into the contest’s level of effectiveness.
How much revenue was produced compared to last month?
How much revenue was produced compared to the same time in the selling cycle last year?
What percentage of sales was from the targeted inventory?
How does outbound call volume compare to the average call volume for the last week? Month?
The word “best” is interesting. While clearly defined in sports with crowned champions, MVPs, medals and trophies, the business side of sports is a little harder to understand.
Who is the champion of website marketing? What was the best in-game promotion?
Sure, there are awards for these types of things, but they are voted on by members within the industry – based more on gut and feel rather than stats and numbers.
If I ask you who’s the best hitter in baseball, you should reply with the league leader in batting average (don’t say Yasiel Puig!). If I ask you to name the best promotion in Minor League Baseball, you could reply with a variety of answers from Brittany Spears’ Child Safety Night with the Newark Bears to Free Gas Night with the Fort Myers Miracle. Different promotions are the “best” in their own unique way.
Best in class
A characteristic of the best salespeople and managers I’ve known is that they have a clear vision to be the “best” wherever they are. If people in this business are satisfied with middle of the pack or bringing up the rear, odds are it won’t be long before they’re realizing their vision of work somewhere else. Here are some tips that have helped me stay focused on the right path.
Define what value means to your organization–>especially your boss.
Not everyone has the same idea. You should constantly present data, statistics, or examples that prove your worth to the organization. For those already employed, this is a great way to solidify your position within the organization. For those seeking employment, this is a great way to get a foot in the door. Dan Migala, Founding Partner of Property Consulting Group, could not agree more:
“Iowa State University Associate Athletic Director, May Pink, just reminded me at NACMA this year that hiring decision-makers look for candidates that show they want the job the most. I think this is great, timeless advice. I would encourage any applicant to find multiple opportunities during the interview process to show vs. just tell why you want the job the most.”
Always encourage others. Go out of your way to compliment a job well done.
You can’t get anywhere in your career by yourself. The people who can propel your career development are the ones with whom you work most closely.
Take time to cultivate those relationships; it will strengthen the chemistry within your team and positively affect the culture within your organization.
The faster you embrace your company’s culture, the better, says Migala, “Understand that the culture and people you work with and learn from are more important than the logo on your business card.”
Be unique
You are your own person. “Be yourself, ” says Oscar Wilde, “Everyone else is taken.”
“Legendary Notre Dame SID Roger Valdiserri taught me early in my career that each person is the sum of their own experiences,” explains Migala. “The minute I realized this, I stopped trying to guide myself into the box of what I thought the industry wanted me to be and focused instead on carving my own path.”
Start now
So start being the best around. And if you are the best, share it. Shout if from the mountaintops, market the heck out of it, or more literally, leave your comments below. Remember, we make each other better. The worst thing that you can do is keep your “best” to yourself.
Two governing principles drive sales management success: people and process. The right personnel following the right procedures equal success. The numbers will be there. In Vegas the house always wins because it knows and plays the odds. In the same way, we fail when we don’t play the percentages of tried and true methods. Many managers find inexplicable (for them) failure because of this very reason:
Trying to follow a process with the wrong people OR failing to provide the right process to the right people.[/dropshadowbox]
Managers get too caught up chasing numbers, telling the team they need more of [place your metric here] without showing them how. Reps fizzle out for that very reason.
Two vital steps for new leaders
Relationships
The vital first step of your process as sales leader is building the relationships. No team respects someone who shows up and starts barking orders. Why should they? This manager has not established trust, gained respect and earned the right to lead. The manager title is one thing. But two-way communication fosters a winning team. Building relationships involves:
rolling up your sleeves,
getting in the trenches,
learning from front line employees what actually transpires and needs improvement, and
seeing through their eyes what works and what doesn’t.
There is no better way to diagnose the business. You cannot introduce changes to processes without taking these first steps.
Martin Coco, Director of Ticket Sales and Marketing for the St. Louis Cardinals, shares, “Two of the most important things we need to do as managers is to establish relationship and legitimacy with our staff.” With the Cardinals in particular, Martin says, “It helps that all of our manager-level staff have been promoted internally. They have done the job of the individuals they now lead.”
Although teams can’t always promote from within, Coco points out that it helps when you can. Managers have instant legitimacy with the group they are leading, as Coco points out, because they can say, “I’ve been in your shoes, and I know what challenges you are facing.”
Focus
Once relationships are built, don’t focus on selling more. Focus on what prevents sales. Gain trust by eliminating obstacles to selling.
[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”600px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#fffffff” ]When obstacles are removed there is nothing left to do but sell.[/dropshadowbox]
Sell your team on why process tweaks are beneficial; they fear change just like a customer does.
Understand the sales food chain: your relationship with your team is akin to the rep relationship with a customer. You must
ask questions,
learn their existing processes,
gain trust,
expose gaps they may not have even known about, and
convince them to change based on need.
Make the fear of status quo outweigh the fear of change. Reps can make their choices. Either way, they get outside of their comfort zones. Your ability to move them away from comfortable ways of failing or maintaining mediocrity determines your success.
Staying ahead of the curve
None of us wants to have trouble with the curve. The key to hitting curve balls is watching the release point to identify the pitch. Then you can adjust the swing. So everyone on the team keeps their eyes on the ball, you must do three things with sales reps so that they can see what’s coming:
Document: where we’ve been, where we are, where we’re going and what steps we are taking to get there.
Hold accountable: did they take the steps to get there? If not, why not?
Recognize: pay with money, pay with promotion, pay with attention.
Strive for personal stretch goals bigger than the commitments you must meet for your organization. Term organization goals as minimum expectations. Then even barely falling short of your stretch goals means you stay ahead of the curve.
Key account management (KAM) may take on a different meaning depending on the size of your organization. Coming from a smaller property, key account management is essential for us to be successful. In comparison to major college and major league franchises who may consider its five to ten primary or anchor sponsors as key accounts, just about every account we have needs to be treated like a “key account.”
We must approach all of our customers with a different mindset and philosophy. To us, EVERYONE is important, but we need to be careful to not cross that fine line that may damage value down the road. [dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]
We compete with the big boys in three ways. We offer great:
Value. We have the same footprint as the SEC, but partners don’t have to pay a premium just for the association.
Access. Our staff is easy to access and we treat our partners with more care than our larger competitors can afford.
Accessibility. Partners can get access to athletic directors, coaches, sidelines and the venue to really activate the brand in ways you often can’t other places.
Our fans are just as passionate as anywhere else. The difference is we can really integrate the brand into their experiences in ways the big boys have a hard time doing. [/dropshadowbox]
How to compete with the big boys
At the conference level we are more than just raising funds through sponsorships. We are educating, providing scholarship opportunities, enhancing the student-athlete experience, and off-setting costs.
It’s not a technique; it’s how your organization does business. The organization needs to commit to work differently with each customer. Recognize that up front before the process begins.
Get high-level buy in. Obtain support from the member school presidents, athletic directors, coaches, and other key stakeholders. A smaller property will obviously not have the same resources of a major league team. Get creative to enhance your corporate strength.
Gain support from the top of your organization to facilitate interactions with member schools.
Work with the head decision maker in your department.
Have an open communication style to discuss new opportunities.
Identify key accounts.
Identify the sponsor category or type: product trade, off-setting costs (travel agreements), media exposure and traditional cash partnerships are a few examples.
Rank each partner’s level in each category. A partner may not spend $50,000 a year with us, but they may provide merchandise or media exposure just as valuable. The account paying $5,000 but providing other assets valued at $50,000 is more valuable than the $10,000 straight cash sponsorship.
Set expectations fitting each account level, but recognize how small the sports industry is and how quickly word gets around when expectations aren’t met.
Understand potential lifetime value. You may struggle at times, but don’t sacrifice long-term relationships for quick dollars. You may get the quick dollar at your current organization, but poor decisions can produce long term damage. You may not only lose clients at your current property, but also lose the lifetime value of that customer (and positive word-of-mouth) over your career. In other words, don’t sacrifice ethics or relationships for a $10,000 deal one year, in what may turn into $1,000,000 over your entire career.
Keep the fresh ideas coming. Changes occur in needs for the conference or for the sponsor. For trade partners, be sure your needs continue to be met with what they can provide. On the flip side, an existing key account may completely change their needs. Be known as someone who is flexible enough to adjust what you can provide for them.
Within the context of premium and corporate sales, let’s explore more what it means to establish and grow your “Personal Brand.” A large portion of what I’ve learned and applied through the years came through a workshop facilitated by John Maguire, Sr. Vice President of Corporate Partnership with the New York Giants.
What Makes You Unique?
At any given time in a market there are perhaps as many as 1,000 professionals selling marketing and/or advertising to your competition.
What are you doing differently than your competition to make “You” stick out from the competition?
My “personal brand” started innocently enough at a store with my wife four years ago. I happened to pick up a bow tie and asked her opinion. Her disapproving look was enough motivation for me to purchase said bow tie and wear it the next day to work. I happened to have a meeting with one of the most notorious “bully clients” in the city of Houston. When I walked in, he said, “I like the bow tie, it makes you different.”
From that moment forward the bow tie was a signature of my “personal brand.” So I ask you:
What is your signature?
When people mention your name in conversation what association is made?
When you walk into a meeting, what is your go-to opening that breaks down the wall of conversation?
Whatever you choose to be the signature of your “personal brand,” ensure that your promise, pricing and results are in line. It does you no good to have a signature only to have someone think of it in a negative light. Just like you protect the intellectual property of the company you work for, you need to have a constant understanding of how the actions you take with everyone around you affect your signature; that is, what you leave with them.
3 Brand Relationships
There are three types of brand relationships:
Brand Awareness: I know you exist.
Brand Identity: I know who you are.
Brand Loyalty: I like who you are.
One of the key takeaways of the workshop was: “Industry leaders make the effort to convert brand awareness and identity relationships into brand loyal ones by offering new and improved features of their brands.”
Assuming you want to be the best at what you do: Take a look at individuals who are probably loyal to another personal brand or know who you are–but aren’t buying. Come up with a tangible action plan to convert them to be brand loyal to your brand.
Understanding that the world of selling premium products and sponsorships has evolved so much in the past decade, relationships are still the most important part of what we do.
My relationship with others is based upon their personal brand perceptions. The question is, “Who’s buying?” For personal and professional reasons, I need to be conscious at all times to represent my own personal brand as best as possible.
Sports franchises may draw some of the less-discerning masses with dollar hot dog night and all-you-can-ingest seating sections, but luxury seats and suite buyers expect intimate personalization.
You can’t get intimate with an advertised special or promotion night. As with any other relationship in life, intimacy doesn’t lend itself to just anyone who makes an offer. As customers, we are only willing to commit ourselves to those who take the time to get to know us, understand what we like or prefer, and are interested in our past. Then, maybe, we can talk about having a future together.
What does it mean to delight customers?
Consumer psychologists have studied the concept of consumer delight–the consequence of surprise mixed with joy–for over two decades. Not all surprises are good, of course. Surprise mixed with anger results in outrage. Good to avoid those types of surprises.
More aggressive, proactive properties now go beyond trying to satisfy customers to interact on a very personalized basis. Why?
Selling suites and luxury seats caters to an expert clientele dissatisfied with what everyone else gets.
Fans with limited resources and experiences (novices in terms of sport & entertainment consumption) may be excited just to see a game from the upper deck. But expectations are much higher in premium sales situations and it takes much more to truly delight expert consumers.
Steve Massi, Director of Marketing and Client Strategy at International Micro Systems, explains, “Customer delight is driven by one primary insight: Know Your Customer. At IMS, we transform our customers’ businesses through unique utilization of real-time customer-centric data, resulting in more relevant customer engagement, customer experiences and organization-wide ROI.”
First, to drive real-time behavioral engagement and incremental revenue at the transactional “moment of truth,” and
Second, by making this customer-centric data accessible and actionable to develop more relevant offers, communication, and customer experiences.
Mass/group focus vs. Individual focus
Pre-planned, scripted elements of the event experience are aimed at masses or groups. No surprise there. And no delight.
Venues with commercial messages seen on TV surprise no one. Bored or annoyed would be more like it.
Groups brought on the court for special occasions are expected. The only possible delight is when the little kid in the dance squad performs in some unexpected way. Of course, those in the group benefit from belonging, connecting, and recognition (see Fan Intimacy matrix). Semi-scripted portions are more enjoyable.
We only begin to make real progress when we begin to reward and acknowledge individuals with meaningful, relevant methods illustrating our understanding of the customer as an individual.
Brandon Steffek, Director of Sales at Full House, helps properties delight customers by incorporating variable information into the designs and content of email and direct mail collateral. Through analyzing market and customer data, Full House can use variable information such as surnames, demographics, company names, industry specific images and content to appeal directly to the behaviors most applicable to customers. Brandon emphasizes, “This approach creates a more personalized and meaningful touch to our email and direct mail efforts both internally and for our customers.”
The Oakland Raiders, for instance, can personalize emails and mailings to individuals who’ve leased a suite in the past or are identified as potential suite customers.
First thing to do
The first thing you must do to delight premium customers is simply to understand that’s the goal. If you think it’s just to sell them space in a seat or suite, provide an entertaining experience, and good service, they can get that at a lot of places. If you continue to do only what expected, you’ll keep getting what you’ve been getting.
The second thing you must do is take advantage of the technologies available to us today to market, sell, and service on an individual personalized basis. We’d love to hear your ideas and examples of ways you’ve found to truly delight premium buyers in your markets. Leave a comment or tweet to us @BaylorS3 and @KirkWakefield.
We hear the word thrown around in the sales industry about as often as actual sales are being made.
Gallup defines culture as “the attitudes that employees have about the environment in which they work.” Every organization defines and creates culture in different and unique ways, but most agree the key to a successful sales culture is engaging your employees and creating an environment that promotes and allows them to have success.
At Monumental Sports, we strive to create a culture within our sales department that displays our commitment to becoming the best at what we do through education, hard work, accountability and having fun! We keep employees engaged through team building events, sales contests, and consistently communicating expectations for success.
Create an identity
An important element of developing a solid culture is creating and communicating an identity as to what your team values and promotes.
At Monumental, we created an identity within our Inside Sales department to accomplish these goals known as the S.W.A.G. program. This program helps identify the culture and core pillars of what our program is built on and promotes:Success, Wisdom, Attitude and Growth. Through recruiting, daily management and tracking progress, we consistently communicate our expectations and use these characteristics to build our foundation. What do these four pillars mean?
“Strong culture is at the core of every successful sales team. Culture is especially important for entry-level departments that feed the rest of the organization. Employees take pride in the culture and traditions they helped establish, and bring that with them as they move into senior level positions within the company. Strong culture is paramount in building a successful and sustainable sales and service team.” [/dropshadowbox]
Success – We will put employees in a position with the tools necessary to be successful. Success is defined differently for everyone – learning, selling, driving revenue, making money, getting promoted – we will work to find what your goals are and provide you with the necessary resources to accomplish your goals and be successful.
Wisdom – Learning never stops!We believe in continued education and development for all reps. We want our dedication and commitment to training and year-round development to be unrivaled in sports. Our focus and goal is to give employees the foundation of wisdom and knowledge to grow and build their career on. The focus is on career not a job.
Attitude – We help guide employees to understand what it takes to be successful by reinforcing the attitude and confidence needed to reach their full potentials. Our goal is to be the best in the business and expect nothing less.
Growth – The primary goal and motivation of our Inside Sales program is to give employees the opportunity, knowledge and tools needed to grow their careers and grow within Monumental Sports. We promote from within. Our success is defined by how many careers we can start and grow within our company. Over the past two years, we promoted 33 reps internally to senior level positions within Ticket Sales, Group Sales, Guest Services and Sponsorships.
What about you?
Every organization has different philosophies and principles that guide and dictate their culture, but the key is engage and lead your team to help establish what your guiding principles will be. In establishing the culture within our department, I followed the roadmap below to help achieve our identity.
Create an identity
Consistently communicate principles and expectations
Follow through and live your brand
Every successful organization has an effective culture that helps drive big results. What will yours be?
[/dropshadowbox]Choose who to be:
[/dropshadowbox]Are you basing the contest solely on revenue production?
[/dropshadowbox]asking your sales team what incentives they desire most, you’re accomplishing two things:
None of us wants to have trouble with the curve. The key to hitting curve balls is watching the release point to identify the pitch. Then you can adjust the swing. So everyone on the team keeps their eyes on the ball, you must do three things with sales reps so that they can see what’s coming:
Gallup defines culture as “the attitudes that employees have about the environment in which they work.” Every organization defines and creates culture in different and unique ways, but most agree the key to a successful sales culture is engaging your employees and creating an environment that promotes and allows them to have success.