About S3

S3 Summer 2022 Update

kirk_wakefield 2022, About S3, The S3 Program 0 Comment
S3 Summer 2022 Update

What’s happening in S3?

New in 2022-23

All S3 Club meetings (schedule TBA) will be open to S3 Club members, alumni, recruiters and long-time supporters to join on Zoom or drop by in-person if you’re in town. These Wednesday/Thursday lunch meetings (12:15-1pm) feature Shorty’s Pizza, the official pizza of S3! The S3 Awards Show in April is also open to S3 club members, alumni, recruiters, and long-time supporters. Complete the form at the bottom of this page to be notified about dates, times, people and places.

Program Growth

S3 Club Six-Year Expansion = +74%: Membership in the S3 Club, which feeds into the S3 Marketing major, has recovered from Covid to set an all-time high along with enrollment in the S3 program.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

S3 Major → S3 Marketing Major Growth = +58%: Moving from a dedicated S3 major to the MKT major with S3 Sales and/or S3 Analytics tracks for the first full class in 2022-2023 continues to attract quality students into the program. The first two classes (2022-23 and 2023-24) in the new program exceed 40 students each. The S3 major averaged 26 for the previous six years.

Placement: Historically, over 95% of S3 seniors find full-time positions by the month of graduation. Half (50%) of these work in professional sports.  In 2022, the program placed over 40 students in professional internships. Click here to see the internship and placement list dating back to 2016.

Student & Professional Engagement

The S3 program generated and expended over $53,000 on S3 student activities to engage with teams, agencies and brands in 2021-2.

The Values Based Leadership Program

Supported by corporate and professional sports partners, students in each class took trips to San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, and Boston to engage professionals in SIC ‘EM Discussion Panels. SIC ‘EM stands for Spirit, Integrity, Commitment, Empowerment, and Motivation.

With corporate support from BirdieBox, WOWorks, 9th Wonder, and team support from the Dallas Cowboys, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Dynamo, Houston Rockets, and San Antonio Spurs, S3 students learn how to make better decisions with fewer regrets. Check below on the form if your organization is interested in participating. Read more about S3 Values Based Leadership here.

The National Collegiate Sports Sales Championship (NCSSC)

Registration for the ’21-‘22 event included 61 schools (+50%) and 185 students (+42%) for the online qualifier round. The Championship hosted nearly 200 people at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, GA and was co-hosted by the Atlanta Hawks Basketball Club. Recruiting and limited sponsorship opportunities are available for ’22-’23. Click here to learn more about the 2022-23 Sales and Analytics Championships.

Recruiting at S3 Pro Days

Recruiters for interns and full-time positions in sales and/or analytics can register here. Pro Days will be virtual on November 11th and January 27th.

Demonstrated Leadership

Online reach: The Baylor S3 program (1600+ followers) and NCSSC (2000+ followers) each has more followers than any other sports-related academic program, such as Michigan, Texas A&M, Oregon, UCF, USF, and Ohio University, on Linked-In. Join us!

Research: Lane Wakefield and Kirk Wakefield, with co-author Kevin Keller, co-authored the 2021 “Paper of the Year in Sports Marketing” by the American Marketing Association’s Sport Special Interest Group (AMA SportSIG) published in the Journal of Advertising. Lane Wakefield was awarded the “Emerging Scholar in Sport Marketing” by the AMA SportSIG on the strength of publications in the Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Service Research and Sport Management Review. Kirk Wakefield, awarded the AMA SportsSig Career Achievement Award, publishes in the leading marketing journals, including Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Service Research, and many more.

 

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S3 News Fall 2019

kirk_wakefield 2019, About S3, S3, The S3 Program , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
S3 News Fall 2019

New S3 Center Space

The new Center for Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) on the second floor of the business school offers great opportunities to engage with students on a daily basis. With three offices and visiting area, we can readily welcome students, guests, and families. Come by to visit us anytime!

S3 Free Fridays

To take advantage of our location we are launching #S3FreeFridays. We invite teams, corporations and agencies to promote themselves to Baylor students by providing branded items (caps, shirts, etc.) and/or a prize (signed jerseys, 2-4 tickets, a cruise to the Bahamas 😊) to distribute to office visitors on a Friday devoted to the organization. Click here to request a week!

For the team, corporation or agency, we will (a) run your PPT or videos on our office and classroom video board (located in main hallway on the first floor of the business school) all week, (b) collect the names of students interested in interviewing for internships or careers, and (c) facilitate recruitment via phone, video conference and in-person on our S3 recruitment days in January & February (see below).

S3 Save the Dates

Are you interested in recruiting S3 Sales or S3 Analytics students? Mark your calendars for:

1. S3 Analytics Careers Conference on Thursday/Friday on January 31 and February 1, 2020.

2. S3 Sales Careers Conference on Thursday/Friday on February 13-14, 2020.

We will host S3 alumni and guests for meals, conference sessions, and recruitment spaces to interview juniors for internships and seniors for careers. Premier Sales partners are welcome to schedule days in the fall to coincide with S3 Free Fridays to conduct virtual or in-person interviews.

Corporations and agencies associated with S3 can select which conference best suits their interests and attend one or both. As Kelly Roddy shared, demand for talent in analytics continues to rapidly grow for brands and agencies. At the same time, S3 has always produced graduates that excel in sponsorship activation, selling and measurement. Those with that interest may choose to attend the S3 Sales Careers Conference where others in partnership sales & activation will attend.

S3 & BU Athletics Official Partnership

The brainchild of Ryan Eklund, in a one-of-a-kind groundbreaking agreement, the Baylor Athletic Department is partnering with the Center for Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) to place S3 sales and S3 analytics students into paid positions working on the business side of the Athletics Department.  Thanks to the vision of Jeramiah Dickey, Jovan Overshown and Cody Gougler, the top students in S3 Sales and S3 Analytics will have the opportunity to gain two years of work experience in Baylor Athletics in one or more of the following roles:

  1. Analytics: CRM Campaign Management, CRM Campaign Analytics, Direct Marketing, Website/Google Analytics, Digital Applications/Yinzcam, and Data Engineer.
  2. Sales: Season memberships, ticket plans, group sales (Fan Engagement), and sponsorship sales (Baylor Bear Sports Properties)

The net result will be highly seasoned, experienced graduates ready to assume greater responsibilities and higher compensation than other recent graduates competing for jobs in the business of sports. Read more here from Baylor University about the announcement.

S3 Leadership Partners

Are you a leader? Does your organization develop strong leaders?

S3 Leadership Partners are committed to improving the industry through education and talent development. Financial support goes directly to place S3 students into paid sales & analytics positions in the Baylor University Athletic Department. Leadership Partners receive preferential treatment with prominent displays in the S3 classroom, S3 office suite, S3 materials, S3 website, and first crack at recruiting and event registration.

Let us know if your organization would like to join the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans, Texas Rangers, Baylor Athletics, Phillips 66 and Eventellect in this prestigious circle of S3 Leadership Partners.

In addition, our S3 Premier Sales Partners offer qualified S3 Sales graduates entry level positions as account executives with compensation and benefits competitive with other corporate professional sales positions. Read more about these partners here.

S3 Director Search

As we chart the future for the S3 program, we seek an innovative faculty member to come alongside and shepherd the students in the S3 program to continue the legacy Dr. Darryl Lehnus has set for us. Dr. Lehnus is officially retiring in December of 2020, but will always remain connected through our S3 Alumni Network and Friends. We look for someone similarly like minded dedicated to following Christ in service to others, with experience and motivation to continue the growth of the S3 program. Please help us spread the word! A Masters is required and a PhD is preferred. The full job announcement and application is located here. Initial interviews begin in August 2019 at the AMA National Meetings in Chicago and can also be arranged via video conference.

The Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) Program Expands!

kirk_wakefield 2019, About S3, Careers , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
The Sports Strategy & Sales (S3) Program Expands!
S3 in LA circa 2009

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

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

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

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

Missing Talent

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

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

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

Opening the Doors

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

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

Internships

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

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

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

The S3 Club

S3 Mentors

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

The End Goal

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

Interested in sports sales? Contact Darryl_Lehnus@Baylor.edu

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

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

kirk_wakefield 2018, About S3, Integrity, S3, Sales Management, Sales Training, The S3 Program, Tickets , , , , , , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

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

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

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

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

Sales 101

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

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

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

Turnover

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

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

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

Training

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

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

A New Model

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

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

Step 1: Look at the hard truth

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

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

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

Step 2: Create competitive compensation

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

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

Step 3: Give them the tools

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

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

Step 4: Create a people first culture. Really.

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

November Newsletter

ian_young 2018, About S3, Careers, Learn, S3, The S3 Program 0 Comment
by Will Evans – November 2018

S3 Alumni Spotlight

Vishal Nagarajan

Vishal Nagarajan (S3 2018), KORE Software, Junior Associate

Tell us about your experience at Data Strategy Day?

“S3’s Data Strategy Day was a great experience. For the students there, being exposed to the information the various speakers provided is invaluable and will go a long way to jump start their careers. For alumni and other business professionals in attendance, it was a great opportunity to reconnect, network, and learn how other areas of the industry are growing and advancing. Very much looking forward to next year’s Data Strategy Day!”

S3 UPCOMING EVENTS

Premier Partner Day

  • When: November 9th, 2018
  • Where: Foster 143/144, Baylor University
  • Why: To introduce S3 seniors and juniors to the best sales career opportunities and internships in the sports industry.
Brand Strategy Day

  • When: January 25th, 2019
  • Where: BBVA Compass Stadium (daytime) and Toyota Center (evening)
  • Why: To engage, educate, and recruit students interested in careers in brand strategy and partnership sales, service and activation in sports & entertainment.
  • Register: baylor.edu/business/s3/brand

Data Strategy Day Speaker Highlights

S3 Alumni at Data Strategy Day Top: Colby Conner, Matthew Burke, Chase Kanaly Bottom: Vishal Nagarajan, Leslie Horn, Brooks Byers, Alex Karp

Leslie Horn (S3 2012) – StoneTimberRiver and SSB
StoneTimberRiver, now a part of SSB, is a third party vendor for CRM solutions serving over 60 professional sports teams and entertainment events. Horn serves as the manager for Client Services. At Data Strategy Day, Horn spoke about the importance of proper training for using CRM at teams and organizations. She noted that the biggest problems she sees with teams are bad data and bad usage of data.

“CRM can be an amazing tool to increase the efficiency of your organization. However, you get out what you put in. If you have bad data, you are going to have bad results, no matter how good your salespeople are.”

Grant Bills – (S3 2009) – FISH Technologies

FISH provides strategy and services to derive optimal results, and derive meaningful insights from events and conferences. Fish has worked with hundreds of events including the NBA and NHL All-Star Games and the 2018 College Football Playoff. Fan interaction at events begins with gaining data through app-signups and tablet registration. All data is tracked through the fan’s app, and gamified experiences engage fans and reward them for active participation. As Bills explains,

“The FISH Platform ensures that the entire event ecosystem is connected and measurable. This ensures fan engagement is tracked throughout the entire event footprint: understanding where they engage, what they collect, what they share, and how that behavior applies to a refined Unified Fan Profile.”

Thank you to our guest speakers from 4FRONT, StoneTimberRiver/SSB, and FISH Technologies!

Want to get involved with S3? Click here or email Ian_Young@baylor.edu

S3 September-October Newsletter

kirk_wakefield 2018, About S3, Careers, Learn, S3, The S3 Program
S3 September-October Newsletter
by Ian Young – October 2018

S3 Alumni Spotlight

Blake Pallansch

Blake Pallansch (S3 2015), Phoenix Suns, New Business Team Manager

How did S3 prepare you for a sales management position?

“S3 did a great job of preparing me for a management role. I felt very knowledgeable about the structure of an organization and the amount of time and hard work associated to make a move into leadership. S3 also prepared me for how to succeed in the role early on with a high level of integrity.”

What is one piece of advice you have for S3 students looking for jobs or internships in sports sales?

“Learn as much as you can at every event and opportunity you have to meet people through S3. Fully utilize the platform S3 provides to you. You have so many opportunities to meet with and learn from some of the best leaders in this business. S3 provides the groundwork for students to gain a head start on long-term success in an exceedingly competitive industry.”

S3 UPCOMING EVENTS
Data Strategy Day

  • When: October 5th, 2018
  • Where: Foster 250, Baylor University
  • Why: To engage, educate, and recruit students interested in careers in data science, data strategy, or digital marketing.
  • Register and find details online at www.baylor.edu/business/s3/data.

S3 Internship Spotlights

Collin Kensinger – New York Mets

“What we learn in adaptive selling is a great foundation for what you do as an intern with the Mets. Dr. Lehnus’ class equips you to apply what we learn much more in-depth once you are on-board with a MLB team. The highlight away from work was taking a sunset cruise around New York to see so much history and amazing sights like Ellis Island & the Statue of Liberty, One World Trade Center, and the Brooklyn Bridge.”

Tatum Lowe – BBVA Compass

“I learned how to effectively manage partnership relationships and evaluate those partnerships and the ROI from partnerships like the BBVA Compass Stadium and the Houston Rockets. S3 more than prepares you for internships. Dr. Wakefield and Dr. Lehnus gave us all the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace to build relationships and exhibit a strong work ethic. So many people don’t understand these two basic issues. Having these skills definitely gives us (S3 majors) a leg up on the competition in the sports industry.”

S3 Summer Internships

 

 

Want to get involved with S3? Visit www.baylor.edu/business/s3 or email Ian_Young@Baylor.edu. 

Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) Newsletter: The Relaunch

kirk_wakefield 2017, About S3, Careers, Lead, Learn, S3, The S3 Program , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) Newsletter: The Relaunch
by Kirk Wakefield – May 2017

S3 Newsletter

May marked the relaunch of the S3 Newsletter–and the next issue could be starring you! Sign-up here to receive each issue via email, as well as to share news, such as:

  1. Moving: From one sports/entertainment related position to another
  2. Shaking:
    1. Promotions,
    2. Awards, or
    3. Other stupendous feats of possible interest to readers.

In in this month’s newsletter we learned of:

S3 Track Rebranding & New Faculty

To better align the curriculum with the needs of the industry, Baylor S3 now offers three tracks:  Ticket Sales, Strategic Partnerships & Branded Content, and CRM & Analytics. After completing her Ph.D. at Rutgers, Dr. Tyrha M. Lindsey-Williams joins the faculty in the Department of Marketing this fall to teach advertising & digital marketing as part of the partnerships track.

S3 Club Record

The S3 Club includes all junior & senior majors and underclassmen interested in S3. With 138 active members, we surpassed the previous high membership set the year before by over 50%. Thank you board members and alumni for your support!

S3 Placement

Thanks to our partners for another great year placing S3 students in careers & internships. See who went where here.

Want to be involved next year? Register now for January 2018 Pro Day & Board Meetings!  We are currently accepting new supporting and leadership partners.

AT&T Challenge Winners

As part of Pro Sales II with Dr. Lehnus, juniors teamed with AT&T to create strategic partnership solutions for the Dallas Mavericks to reach fans in Mexico. This year’s winners of the competition were Diane Siri, Dodge Bludau, Courtney Ulrich and Ian Young.

Special thanks to our judges: Bill Mosely (AT&T), Eric Fernandez (SportsDesk Media), David Peart (Root Sports), Travis Dillon (The Marketing Arm), George Killebrew (Dallas Mavericks), and Jason Cook (Baylor University).

 S3 Bright Futures Awards

In partnership with BBVA Compass Bank, S3 honors the female and male outstanding seniors with the #BrightFutures Award at the Senior Banquet. This year’s winners are Erika Moulder (SSE) and  Grant McLaughlin. Thanks to our guest speakers Sheiludis Moyett and Tuck Ross from BBVA Compass!  #LiveBright!

The Bright Futures Award goes to the male and female seniors who best exemplify the S3 values of WINS: Work ethic + Integrity + Networking + Spirit. Winners are honored at spring events, awarded plaques, and receive $1000 toward attending the Daniel Summit after completing one year in their careers in the business of sports.

 S3 Movers

  • Mitch Mann (2009) – Associate Athletic Director, Baylor Athletics
  • Tommy Wright (2011) – Marketing Sponsorship & Partnership Manager, Houston Space Center
  • Travis Gafford (2011) – Inside Sales Manager, Spurs Sports & Entertainment
  • Alex Karp (2012) – Senior Business System Analyst, Utah Jazz
  • Twila Mulflur (2015) – Client Support Coordinator, Stone Timber River
  • Hayley Di Naso (2015) – Hospitality Sales, San Francisco 49ers
  • Anthony Potts (2015) – BI Manager, Houston Dynamo

 S3 Shakers

  • Austin Flagg (2010) – Senior Manager, Business Development, PGA Tour
  • Blake Pallansch (2015) – Premium Account Executive, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • Austin Dinnes (2015) – Premium Account Executive, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
  • Nick Buckley (2016) – Account Executive, Membership Sales, Houston Rockets

Next month we will feature the Movers & Shakers of S3 Board Members–so share your news here! 

Special thanks to our premiere Leadership Partners, StubHub (Geoff Lester), Phillips 66 (Tami Walker) and Eventellect (Patrick Ryan)!

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

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

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

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

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

Our best-in-class partnerships do five things:

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

Five Not-So-Easy Steps

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

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

Prepare students for careers

Ask employers what they want. Continue to ask.

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

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

Determine Parameters & Responsibilities

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

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

Define, communicate and evaluate criteria for success

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

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

Sports Internship Evaluation Criteria

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

Hold students responsible

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

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

Review insights & follow-through with students

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

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

Conclusion

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

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

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

Floor or Front Office: It’s all the same at Spurs Sports & Entertainment

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Floor or Front Office: It’s all the same at Spurs Sports & Entertainment
by Kirk Wakefield – April 2016

Values-driven

What values drive your organization? What values drive you, personally? If you had to choose one word–one value–to describe what is most important to you, what would it be?

Integrity–doing the right thing–is the most important value of the San Antonio Spurs Sports & Entertainment (SS&E) organization. You can’t miss it. The values of the organisse valueszation are posted throughout all the offices, meeting rooms and on the desks of the over 250 employees, which is sure to grow as SS&E recently added a fifth franchise, San Antonio FC, in the USL.

The success of the Spurs on the floor and front office is no accident. From ownership to the coaches and players to the interns, the values are clear. As Frank Miceli, Senior Vice President, Sales & Franchise Business Operations, shared, “They are openly discussed and shape everything we do from our ownership down to every member of the staff. We have a common vision,  engage in transparent communication and everyone has a voice. We are deliberate in our decision-making and are open about questioning everything in an attempt for continuous improvement.”

How do values shape the culture?

The three values of integrity, success and caring are the basis for daily operations. The same respect you see on the court you see in the offices, as employees are encouraged to collaborate, display humility and demonstrate a team orientation where no one person is more important than the team.

As Mr. Miceli points out, “Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, but of strength, to utilize the many talents and resources of SS&E.” Employees are more likely to ask for help and achieve personal and professional growth in a place where they know caring, respect, sincerity, support and compassion are part of the DNA of ownership and management.

Success is important at SS&E, but the process is as important as the outcome. An individual may have great personal success, but it must not come at the expense of the team. Rather, the team achieves targeted goals together, each pulling together and demonstrating care for others in the process. It’s not all about work for the sake of work; employees are encouraged for being creative and innovative and having fun along the way as they enjoy the journey together.

Baylor S3 success stories

Thanks to the leadership which began with Russ Bookbinder and continued thanks to Rick Pych, Frank Miceli, Joe Clark, Tim Salier, and Lawrence Payne, SS&E has hired the most graduates from the S3 program than any other partner.

Lindsay Beale (S3 ’10) started as a summer intern her junior year and joined SS&E after graduation as a group sales account executive. Mlindsay bealer. Miceli observes that Lindsay consistently exhibits all of the traits valued by the organization and climbed the ladder with patience and humility from account executive, to senior account executive, and now Group Sales Manager for all the SS&E properties.

Stephen Gray (S3 ’10stephen gray) joined the SS&E inside sales department after graduating from the S3 program. Stephen’s hard work led to a promotion with the organization’s AHL team, the Rampage. Stephen did very well selling, setting Rampage individual sales records. But, more importantly, as Mr. Miceli points out, “Stephen really understood the sales process and how to motivate others. He became Manager of Ticket Sales for our NBA D-League franchise in Austin and has really helped turn the franchise around.”

True Partnership

Many of the teams and companies who partner with the Baylor S3 program do so because of shared values. The relationship between the Baylor S3 program and SS&E operates as a true partnership, where the values of both organizations closely match. Issues and opportunities are discussed with transparency. Each is concerned for the welfare of each other, but most importantly, for the welfare of the young people entering and growing in the industry.

As Mr. Miceli shares, “We are honored to be members of the Baylor S3 Board. The relationship with the program and students has been very valuable for us from the standpoint of meeting(and hiring many) well-trained students ready to join the sports world in sales and customer data management.” In return, Baylor is deeply indebted to the leadership of the SS&E organization and their contributions to the school and the program.

The Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program is the only academic program housed in a business school with a complete major focused entirely upon sports sales & analytics. Please contact us if you are interested in learning more about the Baylor S3 program by visiting www.baylor.edu/business/S3. 

Cover photo courtesy of Chris Covatta, SS&E and USL Soccer.

 

Who went where: S3 Graduate & Internship Placement 2015

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Who went where: S3 Graduate & Internship Placement 2015
by Kirk Wakefield – June 2015

Careers in 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.

 

Special shout out to Daniel Phillips and Ashley Malik for helping compile the slides for the videos.