Fan loyalty is at the forefront of every team’s objectives. Loyalty is defined as “having or showing complete and constant support of someone or something.” Teams build loyalty in many ways: social media, events, player appearances and, of course, winning. Season ticket holders are a prime example of fan loyalty. They are the super fans.
Building loyalty with corporate partners presents a bigger challenge. They aren’t the super fans. In fact, they may not live in your city, or state, and could be fans of another team. So the question is: How do you create fan loyalty with corporate partners?
Listen
Listening is important in all aspects of life: school, work, relationships (trust me on this one). When it comes to corporate development, both sales and activation, listening builds the foundation for loyalty. What are your partners telling you? What is important to them? What are they hoping to get out of the partnership? How do they measure ROI? Who is their target audience? At the same time it is equally important for you to ask the right questions to assist in uncovering these answers.
“Partnerships that stand out are with teams that take the time to understand our needs and the needs of our brands. We work together to create programs in and out of the game day experience and we make sure that our programs make sense for both parties. We are simply not filling a round hole with a square peg.” – Doug Mraw, Anheuser-Busch
Understand their business
In corporate development you are not only working for your team, you are working for your client. Your client’s goals are your goals. Understanding the client’s industry will help you to accomplish this.
Do research on the company and stay up-to-date on industry news. I have found that social media is one of the best ways to stay informed. Follow your client and others in the industry on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. You’ll be surprised how much you can learn about the client as well as be in the forefront of industry news. Is there a platform they are focusing on? For example, how can you build off of State Farm’s “assist” platform? Is there a new product they are pushing in the market? Anheuser-Busch’s big push of their new brand, Montejo is another great example. Understanding their business will help you bring new ideas to the table and make a huge impact on your client.
Creativity
Now for the fun part! Use the information you gathered to come up with creative and unique activations. Be creative and stand out from what other teams are doing to separate you from their other partners. Always be sure to keep their goals and objectives in mind.
“We created a monthly newsletter for one of my biggest clients. We wanted to keep both the client and us as an organization engaged together throughout the season. Recapping their involvement with SSE each month reinforces our commitment to each other’s goals. The newsletter also makes it easy for their company as a whole to be looped in on what they’re doing with us throughout the season.” – Ashley DelValle, Partnership Activation, San Antonio Spurs
Relate
It is easier to sell and retain clients with whom you have a close relationship. Meet with your clients face to face on a consistent basis. Find out what is important to them personally. Do they have kids? Pets? When are their birthdays? Surprise them by remembering this information. If a birthday is coming up, send gift. Stop by the office with breakfast, cupcakes, or team gear on game days. It will make them feel important and make a big impact! If they aren’t local, call them on their birthdays or mail them gifts. Get creative! Go above and beyond!
ROI
At the end of the day, what your client is looking for is a return on investment. How this is measured will vary on the client. It could be growth in sales, brand awareness, capturing leads, driving traffic to their website, and much more. Customer surveys are a great way to capture this information. Do fans recognize the partner as a sponsor of the team? Are your team’s fans more likely than non-fans to be aware of, consider, buy from, or visit the website of the partner?How does that make the fan feel towards the partner? Are they more likely to recommend to a family member or friend? If you can give your client the return on investment, you’re going to have a good shot at increasing loyalty and building a successful partnership.
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]In true collaborative spirit, this article was co-authored by Bryce Killingsworth, Development Associate in the School of Arts & Sciences, & Shane Crawford, Senior AVP of Leadership Gifts at Oklahoma State University.
[/dropshadowbox]There’s a reason it’s cliche to say college athletics is the front porch of nearly every university — it’s true, especially for the power five conferences.
Game days are a special piece to the puzzle of donor and fan engagement, but only when utilized strategically. Athletic events overflow with thousands of students, faculty, alumni (young and old), and donors who identify as fans. You would be wise to take advantage of the opportunity. After all, it’s much easier to get a key donor on campus for a game rather than a campus visit in the middle of summer. Athletic teams brand the institution locally, nationally, and for some, even globally because of consistent viewings of logos, nicknames, and media attention a university receives. It is crucial that we, on the academic side of the university, utilize these attractive events to engage prospects. For the purpose of this article, we will focus on football games, as Boone Pickens Stadium is a big draw for donors to Oklahoma State University.
Strategy
Boone Pickens Stadium Suite Level
There must be a strategy and purpose behind every engagement opportunity with a prospect — for development professionals in both athletics and academics. But first things first. Let’s not invite our top 100 donors simply because they are top donors. We need a specific strategy in place. Why are we inviting them? Is it a step within their stewardship plan? Are we cultivating them toward their next large gift? How are we bringing them closer to the University, the Dean, or relevant faculty members? The point is: have a purpose.
Purpose. At Oklahoma State, the academic units or colleges share suite tickets with a limited number of games and tickets per game for each college. With a limited ticket supply, we rely solely on strategic moves to move the donor down the continuum. Each college may have the respective Dean present or a key faculty member to connect with the invited donors. Be specific and purposeful about the interaction in order to maximize the experience for prospective donors:
Has the donor been solicited within a few months of the event or are we planning to ask them soon?
Are there high-capacity prospects that you have not met face to face?
Are there donors whose relationship could be moved forward by meeting the Dean and returning to campus?
Has a donor recently made a major gift and you need to thank them?
Are there high-capacity donors who would not otherwise travel the distance to come back to campus?
Referrals. We also consider asking a key donor who is an advocate of our mission to invite a friend to the game in an effort to cultivate new relationships. Alternatively, we might ask donors with suites of their own to invite key prospects on our behalf. The objective is to use stadium and club level tickets to provide a chance for key supporters to sit with the Dean, Provost, or other key people.
You can develop other creative approaches. Let’s not get content on the money we raise, but think about the possibilities that could become reality if our strategy is meaningful. We can achieve so much more if we engage our donors, our most precious assets of the university, and strengthen those relationships.
Several Teams, Same Mission
Collaboration between academic and athletic development officers (DOs) is a necessity to maximize donor engagement and support. The majority of top university donors financially support both academics and athletics. Take into account the collective interests of each donor. If we embrace this concept, we show donors a united team that values their interests above our own.
Are you an academic DO? Embrace the fact that many donors are passionate about sports and want to ensure their university has a competitive athletics program. The more engaged donors are with an athletic program, the more engaged they will be with the university. For many donors, their initial support to their alma mater begins by first becoming involved as a season ticket holder.
Are you an athletic DO? Embrace the fact that the majority of alumni did not attend a university simply to go to athletic events, but rather to get a degree that led to their present-day success. If the athletic department is the front porch to a university, the various academic units are the foundation for the entire house. Universities do not exist for athletic programs. They exist to further educational pursuits. Successful athletic DOs will fully embrace and understand this concept.
Strategies must be inclusive rather than exclusive to maximize donor support. Academics and athletics should embrace what the other side brings to the table. Always put donor needs in the forefront with a collaborative spirit when developing strategies and solicitation plans. Do more joint calls. Think outside the box. Create an amazing donor experience. Celebrate when one side of the house receives a major gift. Recognize each gift further connects and commits donors to the university. Our individual donor strategies should never be mutually exclusive from one another.
The collaboration concept is simple in theory. But institutions struggle to create and maintain academic-athletics partnerships. Each party must assume positive intent to communicate and ultimately to trust. Reach out to your counterparts on a consistent basis to understand needs and objectives. The more educated we are about each area the better we can provide a better experience for donors. Communication is the key pillar. Communication takes time. Commit to spending this time to develop trust that results in better collaboration. We will not reach our full potential as fundraisers without embracing the roles each of us play in advancing a donor’s relationship with the university. We have more to gain by working together and more to lose if we do not have a collaborative spirit.
Next month we’ll continue with this topic and share stories of how to put the collaboration concept into practice.
Loyalty programs have been around now for thirty years. The first were travel programs, created initially by Hal Brierly for companies like American Airlines and Hilton. After three decades, we’ve learned a few things about what works and what doesn’t. One of the things we’ve learned: You don’t need a loyalty program to build loyalty – or rather, you don’t need a frequency program.
Most programs are built on some measure of frequency. Our local Starbucks had a punch card long before Starbucks official reward program: If you bought 10, you got the next one free. The loyalty program simply took that concept to the next level – and often to the Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels. But this type of program requires tracking systems that can be expensive. Even if you can’t afford a fancy tracking system, there are things you can do to reap the benefits of loyalty.
What you do need?
Some questions to ask yourself first.
What type of loyalty do I want? Do I want people to like us more or engage in some specific behavior? While these may seem obvious, the answers are important. Too many organizations want better sales but then create programs that reward the wrong behavior. For example, JC Penney created a very loyal base of customers who loved the company but were trained to wait for the sales. Exclusive access to merchandise for your most loyal fans, for example, doesn’t mean you put it on sale. If you always give your most loyal fans bigger merchandise discounts, then they’ll love you right out of business.
What is the current state of fan loyalty? In some instances, fans may love a team but love to watch it on TV. Or they only come to premium games – great for the broadcast sponsors but not so great for the team. Loyalty programs are not free. By setting specific goals, the question becomes not does it work, but what works?
What do you do?
Now that you know what you want and where you are – what do you do?
Randomize (Some) Rewards. One benefit of a tiered system is the observed increased frequency of purchases as customers get near the next level. But, we’ve also seen increases in purchases following a random reward. Panera and Sonic both use randomized rewards, such as a free desert. These aren’t truly random; to the customer, it appears that way. But both Panera and Sonic use loyalty systems to trigger rewards to specific customers. You can use attendance records and other mechanisms to identify who gets rewarded even if you don’t have an official loyalty program.
Say “Thank You.” Organizations give things away for various reasons. Sports teams may give away items as a way to promote sponsors, but it’s not really a gift. Make it clear that you are giving this to the fan who is loyal. Thank the fan for attending. Vary the gift by tier; for example, give premium parking to an upcoming game to a season ticket holder who wouldn’t otherwise qualify. But don’t vary the communication – make it clear that this gift is special because the fan is special as an individual.
Listen. One of the most consistent findings in loyalty research is that loyal customers expect to be heard. They are willing to offer input, even anxious, to offer input. But not as many want to do surveys, especially long surveys. Nor is there anything special about an exit survey given to every fan who leaves the stadium. Your challenge is to find a way to listen as you gather the information.
At a Mavs game with a loyal fan last season, my buddy greeted his aisle vendors by name and had real conversations with them. Just last week, I attended a Norfolk Tides game and the guy next to me knew his beer man’s name, the name of the usher, and the cotton candy girl. Your loyal fans know your employees, and your employees hear things. Empower them to be your fans’ spokesperson.
Think creatively. Complaint systems aside, use decisions as an opportunity to gather fan input. For example, when I visit a new-to-me ballpark, I always ask fans for the signature food. All too often, they can’t say there is one – and that’s too bad. A fan voting contest could determine that (along with follow-up promotion to sell more), but you could ask only season ticket holders. Similarly, you could ask them to nominate the vendor of the season. Oh, and while you’re at it, ask a few questions to help you improve service. Yes, it’s doing a survey, but it’s fun (and be sure to report back on who wins).
Respond. When you introduce new things because of fan input, make it clear that’s why you’re doing it. Citibank may be the best at communicating customer input because no change is introduced without acknowledging customers. One result is a higher take-up of new offers, compared to other banks. The thing is, fans want to know that you not only listen but that you act. The action doesn’t have to be specific to what I said or what she said, but the fan does have to believe that you are acting in response to what fans are saying. The research is clear: When customers believe the organization responds to input, whether their own or other customers, their loyalty goes way up.
Oh, and remember those employees. Make them part of the communication process by letting them know why you are doing something new. If a fan asks, they can answer.
Engage Employees. The research is also clear – happy employees make for happy customers. If you follow these tips, you’ve already adopted a couple of actions that will strengthen your employees’ engagement. You’ve empowered them to provide input and you’ve included them in the decision process by giving them the information to be more knowledgeable when talking with fans.
You can wait for a championship season to build loyalty, but even that fades. The type of loyalty that brings them in game after game takes a little work and a lot of creativity, but the benefits are steady and profitable.
My sales philosophy: Better to go after the big fish than waste time fishing for minnows! Anyone can go to the local watering hole, cast a line, and catch small fish. But if LinkedIn is your fishing pole, businesses will be the big fish you are trying to catch.
[dropshadowbox align=”center” effect=”lifted-both” width=”550px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“It’s no secret that today’s business decision makers have greater control over the buying process. Three-fourths of B2B buyers use social media to educate themselves before making purchasing decisions and twice as many use LinkedIn to research purchasing decisions than any other social network.” ~ LinkedIn.com[/dropshadowbox]
If 75% of B2B buyers do social media research prior to buying, you can bet that business professionals preparing to make a large monetary commitment will run a background check on the seller–and that’s you!
First Impressions
People buy from people they like and often decide if they like you within the first few moments of contact. What will buyers think if they look on your LinkedIn profile with no picture? A photo helps prospects put a face to the person they’re talking to and helps develop familiarity.
Your story
Provide a short background story about yourself and list your job responsibilities. I recommend listing sales accomplishments since people are more likely to buy from people who are successful at what they do. They perceive that if other people are buying from you then you must be trustworthy. These may seem like nuances, but they will help build trust with your prospective buyer and trust ultimately leads to sales.
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]”New and different methods to contact decision makers are invaluable. LinkedIn is an effective, smart tool for prospecting new companies, identifying decision makers and increasing your network. Professional salespeople will definitely increase productivity, generate qualified leads, and have a higher closing ratio when using LinkedIn.” Jesse Salazar, Manager of Season Sales, Houston Rockets[/dropshadowbox]
No Off-Season
At the Houston Rockets, our motto is, “There is no off-season!” Although some sales reps choose this time to relax and take a break, this is the perfect time to build your sales pipeline. I spend most of the off-season business prospecting.
Prospecting
Prospects can come from oil & gas magazines, billboards on your drive into work, or simply searching under the “people you may know” tab on LinkedIn. With over 500+ connections, many are within my target industries of oil & gas, construction, & law firms. When you search for a new company on LinkedIn simply type in the company name and it should pop up under the drop down menu. Once you have your company selected you can begin to filter by city.
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“LinkedIn is an essential tool for staying connected to business professionals and a creative method to target companies. C-level executives are almost impossible to get on the phone. LinkedIn is just another way to get in front of decision makers in a competitive business environment where their time is limited to unique salespeople who they see as a resource to get them immediate results.” Rob Zuer, VP of Ticket Sales & Services, Denver Nuggets[/dropshadowbox]
Once you identify a company, contact one of the following from your search of their LinkedIn profiles: Business Development Manager, Marketing Manager or Executive Assistants to CEO. These are typically the people that either make decisions on purchasing season tickets or handle the distribution of tickets.
You make the call
Call the mainline of a company and ask directly for the person by name. I’ve seen sales reps call the mainline and use basic intro lines like this:
“Hi, this is Michael Dimitroff with the Houston Rockets. I was wondering if you could put me in contact with the person who handles season tickets purchases at your company.”
Gatekeepers are taught to screen such calls and you’ve just given them a layup! Instead, act confidently, as if you’ve already had a conversation with the person. Ask using their first names (e.g., Rob, or Rob Zuer; not Mr. Zuer) to give the sense you are familiar with them. Once the gate keeper transfers you to the direct line…now it’s time to work your magic and catch the big fish!
“Genuine leadership comes from the quality of your vision and your ability to spark others to extraordinary performance.” – Jack Welch, Former Chairman and CEO of General Electric
Leadership is “organizing a group of people to achieve a common goal.” As a leader, you may or may not have any formal authority. You may be the president of your organization or you may be in an entry level sales position. There are many things that determine your ability to lead, including your ability to positively interact with others, your behavior, your vision, your values, your charisma and your intelligence, among others. One of the key traits of a great leader is the ability to execute at a high level.
As a leader in charge of execution, what do you do? How do you keep from being a micromanager, caught up in the details of running the business? The answer is to exhibit the seven essential behaviors of successful execution management discussed in Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan’s book, “Execution.”
Seven Essential Behaviors
Know your people and your business.
Are you familiar with the details of your business? Are you spending time with your people? Are you asking questions and understanding how they spend their time? Are you only getting your information from your direct reports and peers or are you talking to others in the organization like teammates that work in other departments and customers to understand the details of your business? Leaders know what is going on in their business.
Insist on realism.
Most of us in business and sales are optimists. We always expect the best outcome. That is great, but as eternal optimists we can’t avoid reality. Make sure you are being honest with yourself. Look at the facts. Don’t hide mistakes. We can only make great decisions and execute at a high level if we understand the details and facts of the business. We must be realistic and set priorities against reality.
Set clear goals and priorities.
“We don’t think ourselves into a new way of acting, we act ourselves into a new way of thinking.” ― Bossidy & Charan, Execution
I like to set priorities in groups of five. A few clear priorities done well will produce much stronger and more sustainable results than many priorities done mediocre or not well. Focus on the few key priorities that will have real impact.
Follow through.
This is the area in which I see leaders fail too often. At the end of the day, your clear goals are meaningless if resources are not dedicated to those goals and actions are not happening. There must be follow through mechanisms put in place. You need key performance metrics and scheduled follow-up meetings. Everyone must know what their roles are in the process and what actions are needed.
Reward the doers.
“The foundation of changing behavior is linking rewards to performance and making the linkages transparent.” ― Bossidy & Charan, Execution
Do you want results? Then you must reward people who drive those results. We all need to recognize those who execute at a high level and move things forward for the organization. Sometimes the most meaningful reward is as simple as verbal recognition or a personal note, telling them “Great Job!” The doers are the people who should receive recognition and rewards.
Expand people’s capabilities.
One of your most important roles as a leader is to pass along your wisdom and experience to the next generation of leaders. This is imperative for your aggressive growth plan at your company or team. Teach others.
Know yourself.
We all know the importance of character. To lead execution, strong character is critical. You must have the strength of character to deal with the realities of your organization and the strength to give forthright assessments to others in the organization. You also must have the courage to make decisions that sometimes are not easy.
We need great leaders in business and sales. We need leaders with clear vision to execute at a high level to produce positive results. Your ability to lead execution has never been more crucial. Be a great leader of vision and of execution!
You graduated from college. Networked with all the right people. Beat out thousands of other candidates. You landed a job in sports!
Now what?
With all of the articles out there about what to do to get a job in sports, I thought it would be helpful to share some of the things I have learned in my first year of working in sports full-time.
Out of college, but not out of class
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“Not all readers are leaders, but all leaders are readers.”~Harry Truman[/dropshadowbox]College is just the beginning of the true learning journey. You’re still in class, being evaluated compared to your peers. You just may not realize it. If you are content with just being in sports, no need to read any further. But, if you are interested in management and eventual executive leadership, learning will help separate yourself from your peers. Typical resources (SBJ or IEG’s Sponsorship.com) help you stay up-to-date on sportsbiz news. Pick up the local business journal. Read a leadership or sales philosophy book. Learning about the local community and improving your sales and leadership skills will separate you from the rest of the class.
Group projects aren’t over
Whether on an inside sales team, interning in corporate partnerships or working in another department at a sports property, collaboration and working together are critical. Remember those peer evaluations? They’re even more important here, because if you play well with others, you get to stay in the game. But, if not, you may be looking for another team soon. I interact with other departments to get partner activation plans executed. Our plans for new initiatives will affect multiple departments. As a student-fan, I had no idea how much teamwork went into executing partnership plans, but suffice it to say you must be able to perform effectively in a team.
Dress for success
Remember all of those times you dressed up for career fairs or special speakers in class? You wanted to make a great first impression. You wanted to communicate your professional approach to whatever opportunity might become available. If you came in t-shirt and shorts, trust me, they noticed. That’s a tough first take to overcome. Professional dress is still important. You want to impress upon new co-workers, supervisors, clients, and prospects that you mean business. Studies from the Harvard Business Review show that dressing well is associated with success. They advise you don’t have to buy the most expensive clothes, but that a switch from Dwight Schrute (The Office – my favorite TV show ever) to Don Draper (Mad Men) might be in order.
Be willing to ask for advice
We can’t make it in this business without some help from others who have been there and done that. With only a year under my belt, I found it fitting to ask some other industry professionals what newly minted sports business professionals should do to be successful.
Go the extra mile!
Eric Sudol, Vice President, Corporate Partnership Sales & Marketing with the Dallas Cowboys, offers this great advice:
“One of the most important keys to success for a recent college graduate in the sports industry (and arguably any industry) is to be willing to do anything. This means not being above any job to garner a foot in the door, going the extra mile to assist wherever, and maintaining an exceptional and humble attitude.”
Don’t be afraid to ask questions!
Wesley Streitenberger, Manager, Affinity Sales at FC Dallas, shares that to learn you have to ask questions:
“The two things I think that can really help a recent college grad in any industry would be (1) Not being afraid to ask questions and (2) Realizing that the best way to learn is from experience. The more you do and the more you ask, then the more knowledge and experience you gain, and will continue to!”
What about you?
We haven’t covered everything you need to do after you get the job, for sure. We’d love to hear more from you. What advice would you give to someone that just got a job in the business of sports?
The Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program graduated 30 students in the 2015 class. Two, Erin O’Neill and Travis Roeder, opted to pursue law degrees at Tulane and Alabama, respectively. We congratulate them and the others in the 2015 class with this slide show highlighting their placements. We offer a special thanks to Murray Cohn, Vice President of Team Ticket Sales (NBA), for his dedication and help, as well as to the many other great people and organizations who give back their time to help these newcomers into the sports industry.
https://youtu.be/NqmETZyOrBg
Internships
In addition to the 30 graduating seniors, the S3 program also placed 28 juniors for training in one of the three S3 tracks offered to students: Sales, CRM & Analytics, or Brand Activation & Service.
https://youtu.be/LGDEvE01TyE
If you are interested in learning more about Baylor University, the S3 program, and the S3 Advisory Board, please visit our webpages at www.baylor.edu/business/marketing/sports.
The most valuable thing any sports professional can give is time. It doesn’t matter what stage in the career – looking for a job, recent hire at a job, or a seasoned veteran – because how time is spent defines one’s self and, ultimately, one’s career advancement.
Time management is often not formally taught in school or even at jobs for that matter. Yet it is directly mentioned in a vast majority of sports job descriptions. Entering college, students are thrust into an environment where they have to balance a workload of multiple classes, assignments, and extra-curricular activities. So, they become self-taught time management enthusiasts. Some students figure it out. But, what worked in college may not equate to success in the sports industry when it comes time to get a job, start a job, or continue as a seasoned veteran in this industry.
How to Best Use Time to Get a Job
Let’s focus on first-time job seekers.
1. Intentional Internships: To get a job you have to have experience and to get experience you have to have a job. So, the most important use of your time should be finding an internship that directly translates to a desired occupation, rather than just accepting whatever will give course credit. Sometimes that means pursuing & creating an internship where one didn’t exist. You must intentionally commit scheduled time to develop relationships & connections. Your university, as well as the sports organizations in your area, often provide opportunities to network with executives. You should be first in line and last to leave after getting their business cards.
2. Navigate Patience vs. Persistence: College students work their way through four years of school (or more) and have a job waiting for them when they graduate. Wrong. Not in sports! In a perfect world, sports administration programs would have rolling graduation dates to coincide with the off-seasons of the four major professional sports. Because that is not a reality, most first-time job seekers must be patient. The hiring cycle in sports does not always fit with recruiting practices of corporate America.
While patience is necessary, persistence is required to make sure your resume floats to the top of the pile when a job opens. Time must be spent reaching out to prospective employers letting them know about a related school project, something you saw in the S3 Report (duh), or some form of warm and NOT random conversation. Then when a job does open up, the decision becomes much easier on who the employer should reach out to first.
How to Best Use Time as a Recent Hire
Too many want to rush this stage without taking the time to develop their skill sets, instead diverting focus by looking for the next promotion or better job opportunity.
3. Train like it’s a marathon, not a sprint: Rarely does someone become General Manager or Vice President before the age of 30. Developing leadership competencies (see right) don’t happen overnight or even in a few years. Marathon runners are known for superior endurance and mental toughness. Half of running a marathon (other than the 26.2 miles) is believing it can be done. Time must be devoted to training, learning how to crash through “the wall,” and sacrificing momentary pain for long-term accomplishment.
Recent hires need to work like this. Impress the person who hired you by showing a high level of commitment and ability to accomplish delegated tasks. It may seem tough to endure while wondering if that promotion is ever going to come. That is a mental block or wall to overcome. Stay focused on the task at hand. Gradually earn more responsibility as you train, ready to go the entire distance. Don’t be the one who stops halfway and hops on the bus for the easy ride back home.
How to Best Use Time as a Seasoned Veteran
As you develop leadership skills and are in a position to lead and help others, two of the best ways to use your time are to give back and to work with the right people.
4. Give Back: To become a “seasoned veteran,” others had to help along the way. Devote time to the next generation of up-and-coming sports industry superstars. These superstars could be looking for internships, first-time jobs, or taking a step to further their careers. But one thing is the same: a knowledge transfer from a veteran is what will help pave the way for the superstar’s future success.
5. Hire the Right People: There is no better way to spend time than building a highly functional team. The trick is to identify resources during one’s career that produce top talent either by coming up through a highly reputable organization (led by seasoned veterans) or college students who have been given a superstar skill set by their institutions. Once these areas have been identified, finding the right people becomes much more efficient. And with efficiency comes better productivity and more time to train – making the team that much better.
Time is Always Needed for This
Here are a few exercises to practice no matter what career stage.
6. Say Thank You: Handwritten notes are still king because they take time to write. But, don’t neglect a verbal thank you, either. Whether in the office or over the phone, saying thank you preaches humility – which is also why this act should be done to subordinates as much as superiors.
7. Learn More to Teach More: Take time to find your inner curiosity. Discover something new like learning HTML or attending an online seminar. Better yet, gain new knowledge and disseminate that knowledge amongst peers and coworkers. It doesn’t help anyone when knowledge is concealed.
8. Call Your Family: Whether it’s a special occasion like Father’s Day or just the start of a new week or month, make a point to reach out to your family – especially Mom and Dad. They are, after all, the ultimate seasoned veterans.
9. Find Your Happy Place: Everyone goes through difficult days where stress pops up in unforeseen ways. Powering through it some days may work but use these opportunities to “take a lap” around the office. With most teams, a lap means walking around the arena to clear the mind and refocus but it could also be in the form of a physical workout.
How do you measure a salesperson’s hustle? From an activity-based and CRM standpoint, is it the number of tracked phone calls, emails, and appointments in a week? What about LinkedIn InMail, Social Media, and text messaging? With the amount of different communication methods available now, does it matter what communication medium salespeople use as long as they are moving prospects through the pipeline and closing sales?
This past season we redesigned our Ticket Sales’ hustle metric by shifting the focus from activity-based performance to pipeline management. Our main objective was to let the reps sell the way that works best for them and their customers. To accomplish this objective, we wanted the reps to focus on advancing quality leads closer towards a sale, rather than hitting certain activity based quotas. Additionally, we wanted our reps to view and utilize CRM as a sales management tool and less like a simple correspondence tracking system.
Going from Quantity to Quality
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”395px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“Our new effectiveness metric has been transformational in refocusing sales reps on engaging high-quality customers and building out their pipeline rather than achieving phone call and other activity-based benchmarks.” – Jay Riola, Assistant Director of Business Strategy, Orlando Magic [/dropshadowbox]
Old Metrics:
Phone Calls
Completed Appointments
Referrals
Talk-time
Hand-written notes
[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”395px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]There is a “direct correlation between effective pipeline management and strong revenue growth.” – Harvard Business Review, Companies with a Formal Sales Process Generate More Revenue[/dropshadowbox]
New Metrics:
Completed Appointments
Pipeline Growth through Personal Prospecting
Pipeline Advancement
How does it work?
Score – Each metric is weighted with a certain value. For example, a completed appointment is 25 points, a personally prospected sales opportunity is 2 extra points, and each positive movement through the pipeline is weighted by stage and product.
Competition – Weekly, the reps compete against one another to get the highest score. The reps are then ranked, top half are winners and bottom half are losers. Over a certain period of time, the reps keep a win-loss record and prizes are given for the top performers.
Conclusion
It’s been four months since we redesigned the hustle metric and already our sales reps are better at utilizing our CRM as a sales tool. They have even started asking for more data on how to streamline their sales efforts. The Ticket Sales management team has done a great job in assisting the sales team with pipeline management by leveraging our pipeline and appointment reports. Having leadership adopt and support this new philosophy has helped the implementation and success of the program measurements as a whole.
In the end, activities are still important because those interactions are how prospects are engaged, qualified, and moved through the sales funnel; but instead of being measured on how many calls a rep can make in a week, we measure our reps on how efficient they are in closing a sale and generating revenue, which is their main responsibility at the end of the day.
It’s not news that traditional advertising reaches fewer people and fails to cut through the ever-increasing noise in our daily lives due to the fragmentation of the media ecosystem and, for those of us willing to admit it, an ever-shortening attention span.
A silver lining for marketers is that sports marketing offers a unique opportunity to engage consumers around a common and, in many cases, deep passion. But simply opening the checkbook and sending your brand’s logo in various file formats to your local team’s marketing department isn’t the answer. Sports partnerships forge a deeper relationship than mere sponsorships by delivering benefit around agreed-upon business objectives that create value for both parties. So what can brands do to ensure they approach a sports marketing opportunity as a true partnership?
What makes a true partnership?
Establish KPIs & stick to them
First, do your homework before signing a contract. It’s critical to identify the primary business objectives and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) upon which success will be determined. Having a clear understanding of what matters most about your brand to your target audience will help you negotiate the assets and activation opportunities that will create true engagement. In too many cases a brand aligns with the CEO’s alma mater or favorite team that may not resonate with the people you’re trying to influence.
Integrate with the annual marketing plan
Once you’ve inked the deal, support the partnership with the full power of your annual marketing plan. Identify all potential channels that can effectively deliver the message you’d like consumers to play back, especially broadcast and social media. Don’t forget to include and leverage your internal audiences, from front line employees to the C-Suite. This will help ensure universal buy-in and support from all stakeholders within the organization.
Think omni-channel
Signing the deal isn’t the hard part. Negotiating the partnership cost and assets is just the beginning. Set aside adequate budget and resources to bring the partnership to life via on-site and multi-channel activation. Otherwise you’ll be treating the opportunity like a sponsorship (not a partnership) and will leave most of the potential value on the table.
Engage
Waste Management Phoenix Open
Once the partnership is active, engage! Your brand’s involvement and support will demonstrate you care about the team and its success. Create and distribute content that links your brand to the team, thereby leveraging fan affinity and giving consumers another reason to care about your brand. Look for ways to authentically engage fans in interactive experiences that leave clear memories they will want to share with others.
Measure
Finally, take the time to periodically measure, refine and optimize the partnership. Building in flexibility during the initial contract negotiation will allow you to enhance and extend the elements that deliver value to the bottom line and eliminate those that do little to move the needle. In true partnerships, both the property and the brand care about delivering measurable success consistent with the KPIs established at the onset.
