2013

Amplifying our VOICE: How Sprint Leverages ‘Unlimited’ Content and Why Teams Could Do It Even Better

kirk_wakefield 2013, Digital Strategy, Relate, Sell, Sponsorships , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Amplifying our VOICE: How Sprint Leverages ‘Unlimited’ Content and Why Teams Could Do It Even Better
by Phillip Grieco – June 2013

Couch vs. Run?

Recently I was lounging on my couch after dinner, debating whether to make the effort to get to the gym or go outside for a run.

You can imagine which one won that battle. So, I ended up tuning into NBC’s THE VOICE. I’ve seen it from time to time until this season. Okay, so I may be a bit of a fan. No judging please.

During the show, co-host Christina Milian popped on camera to promote voting for contestants via mobile, social, and also showcase other behind-the-scenes content, all powered by Sprint. After hearing that, I decided to dig a bit deeper into the partnership and here’s what I found.

  • Sprint has been with THE VOICE from the beginning as the show’s first official sponsor and has expanded on the relationship this season.
  • Sprint’s platform is built around their overall brand campaign, ‘Unlimited’, providing fans with all the content that they crave and then some.
  • Sprint  offers a synched-to-broadcast second screen experience live during the show (voting, polls, chat rooms, Tweets, etc.). FYI, so does Walking Dead.

NBA teams build out platforms for sponsors better than most, but the full digital offering from Sprint grabbed my attention. Could teams synch scripts with games in the same way the Voice does?

Who’s on Second?

According to research firm NPD Group, 87 percent of U.S. entertainment consumers say that they use at least one second-screen device while watching television.  The average Fortune 500 company spends annually on digital approximately 20% of their promotional budgets. It’s safe to say  there’s a huge gap between that and most pro teams. We have to make digital a bigger priority.

Properties have several competitive advantages vs. our media counterparts.

  • Integration. We have the ability to bring a fully integrated, year round solution to amplify a prospect’s brand, reinforce benefits, differentiate and authenticate their messaging, create exclusivity, reinforce loyalty and ultimately drive sales.
  • Activation. Media partners cannot physically bring brands to life like we can on-site to millions of fans a year.
  • Relationship. Media partners don’t have a generational relationship with families and fans like teams do.
  • Community. Teams have an established footprint in the community.
  • DVR-Proof. Teams have eye balls here and now. You can watch The Voice later, but sports fans prioritize time to watch the game now.

Now we just need to better determine how digital can play a bigger role of the solution mix.

The Next Gold Nugget

The ability for us to bring our TV-game viewing fan base closer to the action and provide more real-time content is our next gold nugget.

We can borrow a page out of The Voice’s playbook by better monetizing digital. We can also make the idea more robust with other fan touch points, whether in-arena, community, digital and beyond. This is our next new inventory opportunity. It’s staring us in the face each week, courtesy of Adam Levine, Usher, Blake and Shakira. Well, you know what I mean. Let’s go get it.

Three ways to revitalize your franchise’s brand: Leadership Q&A with Kelly Roddy

kirk_wakefield 2013, Lead, S3 Spotlight , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Three ways to revitalize your franchise’s brand: Leadership Q&A with Kelly Roddy

Kelly Roddy

by Travis Martin – June 2013

Kelly Roddy is President of Schlotzsky’s, a founding partner of the S3 Report.

Leadership Challenge: Revitalizing the brand

S3 Report: Since assuming leadership at Schlotzsky’s, what has been your greatest challenge as a leader?

Kelly Roddy: After joining Schlotzsky’s in December 2007, it was clear the brand needed a makeover. Just like every sports franchise, restaurant franchises must evaluate where the brand stands in the minds of those in their respective markets.

S3 Report: What was the issue?

Kelly Roddy: Our research showed that we were no longer relevant with our customers and we needed a new look. Relevance is an important brand asset that influences overall brand value.

We are an established, well-known brand in our markets, but it was time for a change. I knew as a leader I had to guide Schlotzsky’s through a brand make over, but there were multiple challenges. I had to figure out how to quickly lay out the plan and then how to get a franchise system of more than 350 restaurants to embrace the idea.

When we began the economy was struggling and convincing our franchise partners to invest dollars into re-image was a difficult task.

S3 Report: How did you tackle the challenge?

We held tight to the rule, “Make new friends, but keep the old.” We didn’t stray far from our roots, so we stayed true to the product that brought us success. And through our planned program, our makeover paid off. We began with three very basic steps; easy in concept, not so easy in practice.

1. Pay attention to consumer trends

It’s crucial to understand consumer needs and trends and be willing to make changes to meet those needs and get ahead of the trends. This can be a struggle for a national company, particularly a franchise system, but it allows for an opportunity to build relationships with consumers and establish a level of trust with them that you’re building your business with the consumer in mind.

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”650px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]S3 Report: True. Sports teams must pay attention to trends like these:

  • Digital in-game experience: More fans are accessing second and third screens while attending or watching sporting events.
  • Gamification: the attention span of consumers continues to shorten, so sports and entertainment providers must find ways to incorporate game mechanics into their websites and social media (See related examples, such as the LA Kings, here: sports trends.)
  • Augmented reality/fan engagement: Teams (e.g., the Eagles) are among those adding features such as highlights, previews, player messages and stats to fans using smartphones to scan tickets. (See this Mashable article for other examples.)[/dropshadowbox]

2. Develop a clear brand strategy

While going through massive changes, it’s imperative to maintain the core of your business, but change enough for consumers to take notice.

We knew our product wasn’t the issue; it was the perception of the product. We needed to change our look and freshen up our restaurants while staying true to what our guests keep coming back for – our food.

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S3 Report: Perception is reality, so in the same way teams should track customer perceptions of their brands to evaluate the need for revitalization.

NFL perceptions

 

[/dropshadowbox]

3. Spend wisely

Rebranding is a major company decision. It becomes an even bigger decision with a struggling economy. Spending wisely is important, because the last thing you want to do is nothing at all. We knew we had to invest so we could emerge from the recession a stronger, refreshed brand, which is exactly what we did.

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S3 Report: That strategy confirms what we know from the historical evidence during downturns.

Firms that budget marketing as a percent of sales during downturns follow a self-fulfilling prophecy. Sales go down and marketing goes down; because marketing is down, then sales go down more…and the cycle keeps going. In contrast, firms that invest boldly (and wisely) in marketing during downturns far outdistance themselves from competitors who have all cut budgets.[/dropshadowbox]

Conclusion

S3 Report: As you look back, what were the major changes you made to the franchises?

Kelly Roddy: Re-branding is never easy, recession or not.  But, a franchise does not have to be a casualty of its own making or even its own inertia.

Our re-image ensured our franchise partners thrived, just as teams want their fans, sponsorship partners and the community to thrive.

Through innovative new menu items such as fresh-made salads and Cinnabons and a new service model in which we delivered food to tables, we changed more than just our look. We changed the perception of Schlotzsky’s.

Sports franchises must do the same. In fact, you might start by adding one of our Cinnabon, Carvel, Seattle’s Best or Auntie Anne’s brands at Focus Brands to your menu mix!

It was a tremendous challenge that required dedication not only from me, but the leadership in our brand and the entire franchise system. Through research and strategic planning, we updated the Schlotzsky’s brand and became a relevant, in-demand franchise.

Social Media Strategy: Put your voice where the ears are

kirk_wakefield 2013, Digital Strategy, Relate, Social Media , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Social Media Strategy: Put your voice where the ears are
by Daniel Fleming – June 2013

“Put your voice where the ears are.” At least that’s the way Ohio University classmate and fellow S3 writer Ken Troupe puts it.

Remove the name given to the internet-based communication platforms, social media, and look at what they actually are: FREE marketing outlets with the capability to reach thousands of fans, create exponentially more impressions, and push a desired message. Put your voice where the ears or eyes are.

How does social media fit into the bigger marketing picture? Think of the hub and spokes metaphor:  With each additional spoke you create (traditional media, PR, community efforts, etc.), the stronger the wheel and the better it runs. Social media should serve as a spoke in your marketing strategy and an extension of traditional marketing strategies.

How to invest social media efforts

With so many platforms, how do you decide where to invest?

Kevin Johnson
Kevin Johnson

When you take an objective look at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Pheed, and all the other social media platforms, Kevin Johnson, Director of Mandalay Creative Services at Mandalay Baseball Properties reinforces the realities of social media, “Content has been and always will be king. Fans love to see photos, videos, and participate in polls.” 

Start with a presence on Facebook. Facebook may be at its peak before it becomes MySpace, but you need to be there now.

Comparing the platforms, there is very little fundamental difference among the social media outlets. Understand that your content can be adjusted slightly to optimize it for the different platforms. Johnson emphasizes, “focus on the same tone, style, voice, and messaging throughout.”

Best Practices

A best practice among professional sports organizations on Instagram is the Seattle Mariners. They add production value to their posts  by creating a game summary graphic which needs no explanation. The same image can be posted to Facebook with a headline, Tweeted with 140 character or less caption, and posted on their (hypothetical) “Games Played” board on Pinterest.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins are always on the forefront of social media innovation. During the season and this year’s playoff run, the team posts 6-second videos on Vine of fans before the games, players coming on the ice, and other exciting moments easily captured with anyone with a smartphone. Click here to see a Penguins Vine in action. The Penguins are also one of the first to be on WhoSay, which is geared more to fans following individual celebrities and players like RGIII (see below).

 

 

Where am I supposed to get the additional resources?

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white_sox_social_media_lounge
White Sox Social Media Lounge
Picture thanks to Zach Hample.

The Chicago White Sox installed a social media lounge for fans to charge devices, connect with other users, create and promote White Sox content, and ultimately serve as brand ambassadors. White Sox Vice President of Sales and Marketing was quoted on CSN Chicago saying, “It doesn’t have to be marketing and sales, but it’s the best way to communicate with your fans and give them accurate info. It’s a great way to communicate what’s going on with the team and with the ballpark.” It also creates impressions to organically increase brand affinity. The increased and continuous relevance brings fans to your building and have them wearing your gear.[/dropshadowbox]The magic of social media is the vast community of viral ideas.

  1. Try crowdsourcing for ideas.
  2. Look internally. There are people in your organization that are paid for their great ideas. And there are people that don’t need to be paid to produce great ideas.
  3. Look externally. Allow fans to produce content and create another level of connection with your fan base. Check out what the White Sox did with their social media lounge!

Cutting through the clutter

BE CREATIVE!

One of the best recent examples comes from BNP Paribas, corporate partner of the French Open, and their activation with homegrown tennis superstar, Jo-Wilfred Tsonga. A social-media controlled tennis ball machine launched balls cross-court to help Tsonga train for the upcoming French Open. Fans have a unique connection with their tennis hero and feel a part of his team in helping him practice tennis.

Social media is a space intended for creativity, for innovation, and for busting down walls. It dares you to take chances, attract attention, and create viral buzz. In an incredibly competitive industry, sports, accept the challenge to beat your competitors. Create social media campaigns that leave your fans cheering and your opponents in shock and awe!

Which comes first: Happiness or success?

kirk_wakefield 2013, Careers, Lead, Learn, Personal Development, Research, Sales Training, Sell, Sponsorships, Tickets , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Which comes first: Happiness or success?
by Shawn Achor – June 2013

What is the connection between happiness and sales?  Most salespeople tell me it’s an easy question:  “When I’m selling then I’m happy.”

How could so many salespeople possibly be wrong?

Undeniably, we feel happier after a sale, but that common answer is actually holding down our happiness and lowering our sales.

Researchers at Harvard, Yale and UPenn have been studying this issue now for two decades. We found predicting who will be a good salesperson is relatively easy.  We just look for optimism.

Optimists beat pessimists

When we ran the numbers, optimistic salespeople outsell their pessimistic counterparts by 37% cross-industry.  At MetLife, the top 10% of optimists were outselling the other 90% by another 90%! That’s huge, and here’s why.

Most professionals face daily setbacks, but the life of a salesman is, almost by definition, fraught with failure and rejection. In many businesses, only one in ten pitches leads to a sale, meaning that those salesmen experience rejection 90 percent of the time.  (That was also my dating rejection rate in high school.) This can get pretty demoralizing after a while, which helps to explain why there is such high turnover, stress, and depression.

But here’s where it gets interesting: it turns out if you wait until a sale to be happy, you’re following a broken formula for happiness and success.  We think:

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Wrong thinking

I will work hard, then I’ll be successful, then I’ll be happy. [/dropshadowbox]

But every time you were successful in the past, what happened? Your brain changed the goalpost of what success looks like.  If you hit your sales target last year, what did you do this year?  Raised it.  Happiness after a success (like a sale) is very short-lived.

But flip around the formula and try to create happiness before the sale, and our success rates rise dramatically. (Want to know more about the effects? Watch this video on TED.com.)

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”curled” width=”450px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Right thinking

If I create happiness before the sale, then I’ll be more successful selling. [/dropshadowbox]

The Happiness Advantage

In The Happiness Advantage, I describe how positive brains have an unfair advantage over negative or neutral ones.   Positive employees:

  • have higher levels of productivity,
  • produce higher sales,
  • perform better in leadership positions, and
  • receive higher performance ratings and higher pay.

So how do we create happiness before success?

  1. Realize happiness only exists in the present, otherwise it will always be off in the future (never).
  2. Train your brain to become happier.
  3. Happiness is not only a choice, it is a work ethic:
    1. Write down 3 new things you’re grateful for each day for 21 days. This rewires your brain for optimism.
    2. Journal for 2 minutes each day about a positive experience. This is the fastest intervention for seeing the meaning embedded in your work.
    3. Write a 2 minute positive email or handwritten note to someone. This deepens social support, the greatest predictor of long term happiness. 

Evidence

One way to train your brain to become happier is to smile more.

At a group of hospitals in  post-Katrina Louisiana, we trained 11,000 employees to just smile and make eye contact in the hospital hallways.  Within 6 months, the number of unique patients rose and their likelihood to refer the hospital based on good care skyrocketed. 

At KPMG, I found that just teaching this concept (happiness first; success second) and practicing a positive habit can create greater happiness and job effectiveness 4 months later, in the middle of the worst tax season in recent history.

Happiness is a choice, but also an incredible advantage.  Do you want to see your true sales potential? See what you can do when your brain is set on positive!

[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”650px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Chip MaxsonI can’t help but think back to some of the best sales people I’ve worked with and their attitude – pretty positive. I also can’t help but think of the people I’ve let go in the past year, all very pessimistic. Another interesting angle to look at would be the affect an optimistic person has on a potential client. Essentially, people like to buy from people they like and people like positive and friendly people. ~ Chip Maxon, Sr. Vice President, Business Operations, Sacramento RiverCats[/dropshadowbox]

Empower your players

kirk_wakefield 2013, CRM, Lead, Relate, Sales Management, Sell, Tickets , , , , , , 0 Comment
Empower your players
by Eric Kussin – June 2013

Corey Gaines, head coach of the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, runs a fantastic clinic each season for local coaches. A great college and pro player himself, Corey always talks about leaders he played for and the effect they had on him.

pat rileyOne of Corey’s favorites is Pat Riley. With Riley, the devil was in the details – it wasn’t about “standing out wide” or “on the wing” or “in the paint” on a particular play.  Instead, if you were asked to be in a spot in the offense, the EXACT location was repeatedly drilled into your head: “Less than the distance of a dime between your heels and the baseline, precisely one foot outside of the lane.”

Every coach taught from a similar play book, but Riley wanted his players to run “his” plays better than anyone, creating more floor space than any other team, providing an opportunity for a greater percentage of uncontested shots and ultimately made-hoops on every single possession.

Running our plays

We all have similar play books and technologies to help us track how and how many times our reps run “our plays”  in a given day, week or month.  As managers, when we meet at conferences and workshops, we end up talking very macro – comparing minimum rep requirements on categories such as calls, opportunities, appointments, etc.

How can we learn from Riley and apply the same logic to how we lead our teams?  What tools do CRM and other technologies provide that enable us to dive deeper into the details of the plays we are asking our reps to run? We run four plays that have worked well for our team.

1. Turn Over New Stones

Just about every CRM system enables you to track the number of calls reps have made, per day, by campaign. With the Devils, where we use Microsoft Dynamics, the source campaign for a particular call could look something like this:

14DH- SGB 1/14/13 =  2013-14 Devils Hockey; Single Game Buyer from the January 14, 2013 home game

The approach we use remains the same across all departments: The only way to build your business is to ensure you get comfortable making the “uncomfortable” calls. Every day. This is how we manage that:

  1. Reps put the number of the call (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) in the subject line of every call into our CRM system as the rep moves the prospect into an opportunity.  
  2. Reps must make a minimum number of “FIRST TOUCH” calls each day to ensure new prospects constantly flow into the sales funnel.
  3. The number of required first touch calls vary by day based on rep product focus (seasons, groups, premium, etc.).

crm screens

2. Manage the Sales Cycle

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Nats“Today’s business world is entirely too customizable moves way too fast to be reliant on 3×5 cards and excel spreadsheets. If we demand excellence out of our sales representatives, we must supply them with the tools necessary to maximize their daily effort. Utilizing an integrated CRM system is one of the easiest and best ways we can ensure that our reps have the power of instant and real-time information to drive sales results.” ~David McElwee, Sr. Director of Ticket Sales and Service, Washington Nationals[/dropshadowbox]Our sales cycles begin in February.

  1. We offer fans “Early Access” to full season tickets.
  2. Partial ticket plans are not available during this sales cycle.  
  3. First-touch calls with legitimate full-season objections are assigned as a “re-approach” call in another sales cycle.
  4. Re-approach calls are never considered a “FIRST TOUCH” again during that “14DH” sales season.

The goal is to ensure a minimum number of real first touch calls are made each day by all the reps.  It’s not enough to make X number of calls in a day.  We want to know what types of calls are made. Specifically, we want new prospects worked into the mix every day.

3. Define & track opportunities

An opportunity is a prospect:

  1. whose needs have been assessed,
  2. has formed a relationship with the rep,
  3. at least been invited down for a tour, and
  4. has received a specific product recommendation. 

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]devils“In using Microsoft CRM on a day-to-day basis, I’ve found my time-efficiency improved dramatically due to the system’s ability to strategically pinpoint the length and nature of calls during the sales process. By utilizing the information previously entered into the system to monitor exhausted calls and outstanding opps, I’ve been able to concentrate my energy on more fruitful opportunities. Simply stated – meticulous tracking of calls within the system simplifies the process for the reps and saves time better spent on new business.” ~Brian Proctor, Fan Development Consultant, New Jersey Devils [/dropshadowbox]The challenge with most reps is holding onto these folks for way too long without a successful close. They are afraid to give them up. Reps commonly pile these up well beyond a month.

We track opportunities based on duration since opening into three categories: 0-2 weeks, 2-4 weeks and 4+ weeks. We’ve found a qualified opportunity (all 4 above) that takes over a month to make a decision or return a call isn’t likely to close. When we meet with reps, we have them leave a “break-up” message with these folks. This message informs the prospect that despite the early interest they showed this will be the last time the rep will be reaching out to them. 

The “break-up”:

  1. allows reps to “move on” from prospects taking up their physical and emotional energy,
  2. clears out time to bring more Call #1 prospects into daily outreach, 
  3. prompts a % of the prospects to call back, knowing the rep will no longer be contacting them, and
  4. ultimately gives the rep some form of closure. 

To make the reps even more comfortable with the process of “breaking up,” if a broken up account calls back and buys something from anyone in the department within the next 60 days, the sale is credited to the rep who left the break-up message.

4. Empower Your Players to Call Their Own Plays

It’s great to have a system. It’s even better to have a system your reps believe in and follow.

Each morning reps are asked to pull up their virtual “Hustle Boards” from CRM and send an email to our management team. The email contains an evaluation of the previous day’s outreach:

  1. First touch numbers
  2. Multi-touch  numbers
  3. Other opportunity calls
  4. Opportunity break-ups
  5. Appointments set

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Madison_Square_Garden_logo“CRM allows me to track all touch points throughout the sales process from cold outreach to warm opportunities, and stay completely organized. This allows me to maximize my time and effectively manage each prospect.” ~Jared Schoenfeld, Director at the Madison Square Garden Company[/dropshadowbox]By having reps evaluate their hustle boards each morning on each bullet point, we ensure reps stick to a strategy they believe in.  If first touch calls are low on a particular day, they know they need to pick it up the following day. 

Managers could review the hustle boards on our own, but asking the reps to pull up their boards and email key learnings ensures they understand how our system works. Our system becomes their system. They can understand and run and make changes effectively on their own without our having to tell them what to do.

Winning

Riley  succeeded at every level in the NBA from coaching to the front office:  Showtime Lakers, Bruising Knicks, and now the Big Three Heat.  At each stop, the players and their individual styles have changed. Yet the attention to detail has not. Riley’s consistency resulted in NBA Finals and Championships.  Sales people change year to year. The real question is how will you use CRM and technology to pay attention to the details to ensure your team’s success?

What makes a great ballpark?

kirk_wakefield 2013, Experiences, Learn, Research, Sell, Tickets , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
What makes a great ballpark?
by Kirk Wakefield – May 2013

My favorite is AT&T Park. You don’t have to love baseball to love going there. And that really is the business issue: How do you build or maintain a park that attracts people who don’t really care about baseball? The Cubs aren’t spending $500 million in renovations because baseball fans don’t love Wrigley. They’re concerned about the long-term attractiveness of the park and providing all fans, baseball lovers or not, with a good experience.

What makes a good park?

In the past two weeks I visited  Dodgers Stadium, Petco Park (Padres), and Citizens Bank Park (Phillies). On this three-park trip I focused more on the team stores in addition to the sportscape. Let’s take a quick look at the good, the bad, and the ugly. Let’s start with the good.

sportscape-factorsSan Diego’s Petco Park is also one of my favorite parks. The location is perfect, adjacent to the Gaslight District for fine eating and close to major thoroughfares and public transportation for easy access. Walk two blocks and you’re good for a stroll along the bay. I’ve been here many times, so the pictures highlight a few things you might not notice if you’ve only been here once or twice.

Many team stores are designed as an after-thought. Not so at Petco Park. The Padres team store opens to an exterior retail street. The merchandise assortment, displays, lighting, and layout are as nice as any comparable upscale retail store. (Place cursor over pictures to pause & read comments.)

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Philadelphia’s Citizen’s Bank Park is located in the same area as all of the Philly sports facilities. Public transportation is great (take the Phillies Express to the AT&T subway station), parking is fine, but if you plan to do anything else besides go to the game, forget about it. Outside of the Xfinity Live! establishment on the corner by the football and baseball stadiums, there’s nothing but concrete for miles.

Great parks have signature foods and restaurants–not only in the club level–that fans actually want to consume beyond standard hot dog & beer fare. Outside of maybe the Philly cheese steaks, this is not one of them. The food service on the club level is above average, but the general access food is typical. Overall, the layout and design of the park is easy to navigate and the size of the stadium makes for good sight lines and seats all around.

With respect to the team store, fans may be deceived by the relatively small storefront visible from the concourse. The store is very large and contains an extensive collections of kids and women’s clothing. As with the Padres, the Phillies offer some exclusive items you can only get at the park. Good call.

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Dodger Stadium is iconic. Any baseball fan will love it.

Dodger Stadium Access
Dodger Stadium Access

Any non-fan? Not so sure. You may have heard it’s in a ravine. From a traffic standpoint, the vast majority of fans assume the only entrance is off the 110 via I-5 or the 101 (blue line on map). The reality is not that LA fans are fashionably late. They are all stuck in traffic about a mile from the stadium.

After sitting at a complete standstill for 15 minutes coming off the 101, I took off to explore an alternate route (the black line) away from the traffic jam. (“Yes, dear, it IS better to move no matter what than to stand still in traffic.”)

In short order I ended up parked–for free–on a nearby street where all the locals obviously go. Traffic was still piled up at the bottle-necked entrance as I walked past the $20 parking. All it would take would be a few traffic cops directing to the less traveled routes. Alternately, like the San Antonio Spurs and others have done, teams can place traffic directions on the website for newcomers. Better yet, email to new ticket buyers.

Now to the apparel and a few other things. Since I love Magic Johnson and the Dodgers I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

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The smaller team store, drab concrete floors and facades, and cramped serving areas are problems with any park built back in the Stone Age of stadiums (1950-70s). Food service areas, passageways, restrooms, and virtually anything that should provide amenities were designed as discomforts. That said, the lower levels have better food service, but fans aren’t allowed to go below their seated level.

Franchises can make some changes. The Dodgers could generate millions in new revenue by moving the press box out of its prime space directly behind home plate. Other parks (e.g., White Sox, Astros, etc.) moved press boxes and immediately sold out all of the new premium seats.

Want more?

These are just snapshots of a few things baseball franchises (MiLB and MLB) should be monitoring. As part of Baylor’s Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program, we go into these issues and many more. If interested in an in-depth treatment of sportscape management, you may want to read more at www.teamsportsmarketing.com. As information, this text contains frequent attempts at humor.

Why aren’t sports teams building the most popular Pinterest boards?

kirk_wakefield 2013, Digital Strategy, Relate, Social Media , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
Why aren’t sports teams building the most popular Pinterest boards?
by Kirk Wakefield – May 2013

Why your digital marketing manager should be all over Pinterest

The majority of Pinterest users are women (about 2/3rds). What should this tell teams?

A great way to reach women is through Pinterest. Last time I checked, women are an important audience for any sports team. The fact that teams aren’t effectively using Pinterest likely says more about the makeup of the digital marketing team than it does the potential benefits of building out the team’s Pinterest boards with the same intensity as we have our other social media.

What should stand out to you from these Pinteresting facts is that 28% of users are moms with household incomes above $100,000 and that the referral rate from Pinterest dominates other social media.

Pinteresting facts
by Christine Erickson

In addition to directly building and reinforcing fan passion among women, teams should effectively communicate with women because of their influence on joint family decisions, like buying season tickets and influencing media viewing habits.

How can we do a better job?

What teams are doing a good job with Pinterest? Comment below or send an email to suggest follow-up articles on the S3 Report.

A couple of suggestions

Given what’s of most interest on Pinterest now (below), how could teams capitalize on the millions of followers? I’ll start with two ideas: First, partner with a brand who does well in targeting women. Second, start a board on Weddings at the Ballpark.

Most popular brand boards on Pinterest
Most popular brand boards on Pinterest (click to go to source article)

Sales Training: How to Handle Objections

kirk_wakefield 2013, Sales Training, Sell, Sponsorships, Tickets , , , , , , , 2 Comments
Sales Training: How to Handle Objections
by Sean Ream – May 2013

Handling Objections

How often do you hear the proud statement from a sales representative, “I just had a great conversation, they are definitely going to buy.”  A natural response from the manager usually is, “What are his/her concerns?”   And then comes the answer you don’t want to hear.  “They don’t have any.  They just want to look the information over first.”

How do managers eliminate these conversations?  How do we not only handle the stalls and objections, but seek them out?  Younger salespeople typically avoid objections because they aren’t fully prepared to handle them.[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Gregg Allen
Gregg Allen

Coupling urgency techniques and preempting objections before they become an issue is a crucial step to shortening the sales cycle, which gives the salesperson more time to find that next client. [/dropshadowbox]

How should objections be handled? Let’s line up all of the objections so we know what we are working with.

  1. Identify the stall or objection,
  2. Ask for and isolate all roadblocks, and
  3. Gain a commitment from the customer pending a solution to all of their concerns.

As veterans in the sales process we understand that drawing out objections is a natural part of the sales process.  Yet, one challenge I have faced as a manager/trainer is how to impart confidence and excitement to attack the hoops customers make us jump through.

At the Major League Soccer National Sales Center, we have built a library of drills to battle this challenge.  Here are a couple of favorites you might want to add to your arsenal.

Objection Rolodex Workshop       

Trainees begin with a standard issue Objection Rolodex (see picture below).  Start by asking the trainees to whiteboard all objections heard on the phones, no matter how crazy they may seem.   Once all roadblocks to a potential sale are exhausted, the class enters these objections on the top of an index card within the rolodex.imageimage

Take the top two or three objections and ask the class to contribute or develop their best rebuttals.  Responses are recorded on the back of the corresponding index card.

The real power of this exercise lies within the freedom to think creatively with no pressure and to build off of teammates’ ideas.  Perhaps you can award a prize for the best new rebuttal.

Running this exercise each month brings recent objections to the forefront and salespeople can share rebuttals that are working.  The Rolodex then becomes an updated resource to review and share throughout a sales career.  Documenting great responses ensures they are habit-forming and never lost.

Objection Flip Cup 

We repurposed a favorite college drinking game, flip cup, utilizing root beer or water for this game.  (Google if unfamiliar.)

The catch is that a common objection is entered on the bottom of the cup.  Once the root beer is consumed, the trainee reads the bottom to find the objection.  Before attempting to flip, the person directly to the right must provide a rebuttal to the objection.  If the cup does not land on its top, the partner must reply with another rebuttal.  This continues until the cup is flipped on its top.  The process begins again with the next teammate and progresses down the line.   It’s a race!

Managers can stand behind the trainees as a judge.  Was the rebuttal truly a response that could handle that particular objection?  We also videotape these games for review on a debrief.  Practice and repetition helps make these rebuttals commonplace on the phone.

Our younger sales staff loves this game.  I wonder why?  More importantly, it forces your partner to develop a new rebuttal in a very short amount of time.  Especially if you have a teammate who is as bad at flip cup as I am.

Improvisational Comedy Exercises

Improv forces participants to listen, accept all ideas given to them by their partners, and react in a way that moves the scene or conversation forward.

In the clip, “What’s in the box?”  we explain the way the exercise can be completed and how it relates back to ticket sales.  Please contact us if you would like more information on this exercise.  We are happy to provide tips to get the most out of these drills from a facilitation standpoint.

Follow us @MLSNSC and friend us on Facebook.

 

I’ve got the golden ticket! Breaking down the anatomy of a ticket sales promotion

kirk_wakefield 2013, Sell, Tickets , , , , , , , , 1 Comment
I’ve got the golden ticket! Breaking down the anatomy of a ticket sales promotion
by Ken Troupe – May 2013

NO, not really.  The University of Minnesota Golden Gophers have the original Golden Ticket.  What we at the Phoenix Coyotes saw was an idea that worked for another team, so we developed a version that would work for us.

It has always been my thought that to be good at the business of selling tickets you need to always be looking for and trying to develop the next “great idea.”  In my eye, the next “great idea” can be something truly original or something you saw work (or not work) for another team.  The latter was the case here with the Coyotes GOALden Ticket.Phoenix Coyotes Goalden Ticket

The Golden Gopher’s Golden Ticket was based around the idea that if you saw the Gophers Men’s basketball team lose at home your ticket was voided.   They sold some packages, but they also got a tremendous amount of buzz, and created exposure for their program.  We took the idea and adapted as our own with three main focus points.

    1. We wanted to develop a ticket package to help drive sales over the last 10 games of our season, which are games that traditionally we struggle with.
    2. We looked at the GOALden Ticket as an excellent branding tool to create some buzz within our market and possibly nationally.
    3. We continually work to find ideas to help fill our building which also increases the demand and perceived value of our season tickets.

A Golden Incentive Plan

Emphasize potential savings. We built incentives around the Coyotes version of the GOALden Ticket to encourage our fans to attend as many games as possible.  The package centered on the number of goals allowed at home emphasizing the “potential” value/savings the holder of a GOALden Ticket may receive.

We offered a five goal package for $100 and a twenty-five goal package for $250.  We picked a seating area with the smallest percentage of season ticket holder in a lower level section normally listed with a gate price of $75.  If we had given up five goals that first game, those folks with the 5-goal package would had seen one game for $100.  As it turned out we surrendered five goals over three games, so the average ticket price ended up at $33.33 a seat and a great value for our fans.

Promote additional attendance. As of today we have given up fifteen total goals over eight  games, so it appears that our 25-goal GOALden Ticket buyers will see all 10-games. That works out to the great value of $25 a game.  Additionally we added an element to encourage buyers to attend each of our games: If GOALden ticket plan buyers see a shutout the team will provide extra tickets to the last regular season game of the year.

Distribute via multiple channels. We marketed the GOALden Ticket via an email blast, the use of a variably printed postcard to past season ticket buyers (5-6 years back), a purchased list of recent new movers from hockey markets, a strong social media push and newsletter/press release inclusion.

The GOALden Ticket ended up being a tremendous win for us, selling around 200 packages for $35,000 in revenue, and another $10,000 in revenue coming from other packages that resulted from call campaign to past STHs.

What’s your idea?

Now, of course, the challenge becomes to find that next big idea and adapt it as our own.   Tell us what’s worked for you in the comment section below and tweet @KTsportsmarket and @BaylorS3.

 

5 Ways to Keep Partnerships Fresh

kirk_wakefield 2013, Sell, Sponsorships , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
5 Ways to Keep Partnerships Fresh
by Dawn Turner – May 2013

Keeping it Fresh

Signing a long-term deal can be compared to getting married. In the beginning the relationship and courtship are very exciting. Executing the agreement constitutes the end of a courtship process.  The first couple of years are the honeymoon phase. Then the focus switches to how to keep things fresh.

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Padres SVP
Tyler Epp

san_diego_padresWith all of our focus on measurement, impressions, ratings, and formulas, the success for our long-term partnerships are more a product of relationships with partners and consistent commitment to truly investing in our shared community in an authentic and meaningful way.[/dropshadowbox]

Keeping things fresh is a challenge all brands and properties eventually face.  But, thankfully, there are five steps partners can take to ensure things run smoothly.

1. Communicate. Maintain regular intervals of communication to make sure changes in priorities, objectives, staff or branding are shared and understood by both parties.

2. Take time. Deep relationships at multiple levels inside both organizations takes time. Doing so allows both parties to build camaraderie and strength that will become important during the latter years leading to renewal or renegotiation.

3. Anticipate staff changes. The folks that negotiate and execute the long-term deals are not always going to be around to see them through. When staff changes *on either side), both parties must work to maintain consistent communication and share past history, programs, successes/failures, etc. Doing so will ensure seamless transition when these changes occur.

4. Review terms. Terms negotiated in long-term contracts need revisiting and maybe even refreshed at regular intervals.  A good example is a 10-year contract that began in 2000. Who knew the internet and social media would evolve the way they did during that time?  Odds are that properties took the opportunity to create additional revenue streams via these channels with other partners. However, they should consider offering alternative assets to a long-term partner to demonstrate how important they are to the organization.  Parties that anticipate changes and are willing to make room for them throughout the term of the contract will find themselves in the best position for creating and maintaining long-term relationships that last.

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Wayne Guymon
Wayne Guymon

foxsports san diegoThe key element of long-term agreements is the ability to continually re-visit the partnership throughout the term.

The worst case scenario for both sides is simply being heard from at renewal time. In order to ensure continued success, a long-term partnership should be treated as an annual renewal. While the framework of the agreement stays in place, continual evolution of the elements is critical.[/dropshadowbox]

5. Renew your vows. Just because a partner signed a long-term deal does not mean properties should say, “Thanks, here are your assets. Have a nice life.”  Over time a property may come to rely on this partner revenue as “expected.” See what happens in other relationships when you take someone for granted. If you want to sustain the relationship, work closely with partners to ensure the relationships remain deep, programs relevant and results are shared on a continual basis.  Properties taking this approach rarely find themselves in divorce court, barring a massive shift in strategy, finances or other extraneous reasons.

What will you do today?

During the courtship process both parties have stars in their eyes and see infinite possibilities. What do you need to do today with your partners to create and maintain the enthusiasm you had back in the beginning?

Mutual respect takes time, effort, constant open lines of communication, openness to change and making room for change.  If you follow this road map to partner relations, odds are you’ll celebrate a series of milestone anniversaries for years to come.