S3 Spotlight – Page 2

S3 Alumni Spotlight: Taylor Bergstrom, Texas Rangers

kirk_wakefield About S3, Careers, S3, S3 Spotlight, Sell, Tickets, Work ethic February 10, 2013November 2, 2018account executive, career path, cross-sell, phone sales, referrals, revenue, Sales, selling, sportsbiz, Texas Rangers 0 Comment

by Jennifer Macintyre – February 2013

The Texas Rangers take staff to playoff and World Series games. Above, at the 2011 World Series: Elisa Bergstrom (wife), Taylor Bergstrom, Kevin Kimball (lucky friend), and Matt Bergstrom (brother).

Motivation to sell

What drives a top sales rep like Taylor Bergstrom as a Senior Account Executive for the Texas Rangers?

“Seeing my name at the top of the Big Board sales chart is extremely rewarding to me because it shows my hard work pays off,” explained Bergstrom. Taylor’s competitiveness motivates his day-to-day work ethic, but as rewarding is meeting clients at games and seeing them enjoy experiences at the Ballpark in Arlington.

Taylor has always had a strong competitive spirit to win. Brayson Burchfiel, Taylor’s roommate for three years in Dallas, explains,

“From the times playing golf with Taylor, every little detail about the game keeps him engaged. Even if he hits a good shot but not quite up to his expectations, Taylor will look for ways to improve on the next hole. I think this same concept can be applied to his professional life and the successes he’s had with the Rangers. Taylor will do what it takes to beat his competition, and in this case, his competition is to win against the other members on his sales team. He will look for the competitive advantage to do just that.”

Taylor’s managers have appreciated watching him grow to be one of the top salespeople at the Rangers. “I’ve worked alongside Taylor for over six years. He has always gone well above and beyond the call of duty,” explained Jason Fortune, Season Ticket Sales Manager at the Texas Rangers. “He provides superior customer service to all of his accounts while consistently being one of the top generators in new business revenue. Taylor takes pride in all aspects of his job and always displays great character and a team first attitude.”

Career path of a sports sales executive

A native of nearby Carrolton, Taylor’s preparation as a major in Baylor’s Sports Sponsorship & Sales (2007) program provided the opportunity to work with his hometown Texas Rangers straight out of college. After spending one year in inside sales, Taylor was promoted to an outside sales position serving corporate clients from the Rangers’ corporate office in Dallas.

In 2010, Nolan Ryan took over the team and all sales offices returned to the Ballpark. There, Taylor was promoted to a Full Service Season Ticket Sales position. Then in March 2012, Taylor was promoted to his current job of Senior Account Executive, which includes premium suite sales. One of Taylor’s goals is to eventually be able to share and mentor other young salespeople as a manager.

Learned along the way

When asked about the keys to successful selling, Taylor offered four great tips:

Concentrate on doubling revenue on each of your accounts. In other words, focus on turning each small account into a bigger one.
Ask for referrals. Closing rates increase with a referral to qualified, interested prospects.
Cross-sell. Cross-selling helps clients who may have originally bought for company events also find ticket packages and other events to meet additional needs. Conversely, season ticket holders may be interested in group outings or other events.
Pick up the phone. Making more phone calls always gives you more chances. It’s like they say, “Selling is a contact sport. It takes contact to make sales.”

Breaking Dawn: Proud to be American

kirk_wakefield S3, S3 Spotlight January 17, 2013November 2, 2018AA, AA.com, American Airlines, brand, new logo, partners, plane, redesign, sponsors 0 Comment

by Dawn Turner – January 2013

Today (9:00 CST) we revealed a new look for American Airlines. I’m asking my fellow board members on the S3 Report and our readers to join me in celebrating this significant step forward in our journey to become a more modern, world class global airline worthy of the name American.

And, in anticipation of your questions: No, I didn’t design the new look. I was tasked with helping plan the launch of an iconic American brand that hasn’t been refreshed in 45 years (what an honor!). It is a significant milestone for the company, and one of those career-defining moments for me, so I hope you will join me in watching the unveiling today:

January 17, 2013: www.aa.com/newamerican

Tweet #newAmerican

We’ve been hard at work building an exceptional travel experience with our customers at the center:

adding hundreds of new planes – including the Boeing 777-300ER set to fly in a matter of weeks
cutting edge technology, and
more ways to keep our customers comfortable and connected throughout their travels.

Today’s announcement takes our transformation one step further.

I look forward to strengthening our valued partnership throughout this journey, and invite you to be among the first to see our new look. Many of you know I have recently been preoccupied with another project, and, well, this is it! I am very happy to be able to share this moment with you.

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, we understand the rollout of our new look will take time, but are excited to take this step forward with you today. For our business partners, we will reach out to you to help define a conversion plan including our new look in your communications and channels. Thank you for your continued partnership, and for putting your trust in American Airlines.

S3 Board Member Spotlight: Kris Katseanes, FC Dallas

kirk_wakefield S3 Spotlight, Work ethic January 1, 2013November 2, 2018FC Dallas, hiring, management, marketing, MLS, Sales, salespeople, soccer, work ethic 0 Comment

by Travis Martin – January 2013

Kris Katseanes, Vice President of Ticket Sales and Service for FC Dallas, has been an invaluable member of the S3 Advisory Board. Because of Kris’ leadership and willingness to mentor the careers of young people entering the profession, Baylor’s S3 program annually places interns and new employees with FC Dallas.

Each fall semester Katseanes visits the Baylor campus to interview S3 students for internships the following summer. For most juniors this is the first real interview with a team. Katseanes helps calm the tension as students walk into the one-on-one interviews. As with other on-campus interviews with board members, students meet with the S3 Program Director, Dr. Darryl Lehnus, to help learn for the next interview.

All the students who meet with Mr. Katseanes quickly learn about his opinion of the value of hard work. His strong work ethic was instilled in him since he was a boy. Growing up on a potato farm, hard work was the only way to go when your day starts at 4:00 am.

One demonstration of this kind of dedication came one afternoon when Katseanes found inefficiencies in the team’s database. Salespeople were wasting time and it was clear the system needed organizing. Since the team did not have a specific person assigned to the database, Katseanes took it upon himself to work from 7:00 pm that night to 7:00 am to clean up the leads in the system. This not only helped them gain more sales, but gained admiration around the office for making everyone’s life easier.

Along with integrity and networking, work ethic represents part of the Baylor S3 W-I-N acronym instilled in students. Katseanes believes we reap what we sow and luck finds people who work hard. For young professionals, the best way to improve your career is to volunteer for anything and everything. This puts you ahead of the person next to you and gets you noticed by the right people.

“But, you have to be careful,” Katseanes says. “I see young professionals always looking to the next step so much that they can’t be content with the current. The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, so find a place where you can be happy.”

Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Strategic Planning FC Dallas — Kelly Weller

“He’s fair, creative, solution and result oriented,” said Kelly Weller, Vice President of Marketing, Communications & Strategic Planning with FC Dallas. “Everyone has a chance to succeed with him. They are given all the tools, resources and time to perform their best to not only hit their individual goals, but to help achieve the overall objectives of the company. He’s one of a kind in my book!”

Katseanes loves working with the S3 program because of the leadership the program offers to its students. At FC Dallas, Katseanes has developed a leadership development program that helps employees set written goals with measurable results and deadlines. Katseanes enjoys working with the the S3 professors and S3 graduates, because the emphasis is on preparing to enter a career and not just get a job.

S3 Alumni Spotlight: Jay Kinderknecht, Order My Gear

kirk_wakefield S3, S3 Spotlight January 1, 2013November 2, 2018IMG, New York Mets, Order My Gear, S3 Alumni, South Florida, USF 1 Comment

by Blake Cargill – January 2013

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Transitioning from college into the work force always poses challenges and growing from them is necessary for success.

Jay Kinderknecht (S3, ’12) first interned with the New York Mets following his junior year in the S3 program at Baylor. “It was great getting exposure to several areas of the Mets organization,” said Jay. “While I started in a CRM position, I grew into sales, marketing, and gameday operations roles as well.”

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”275px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]”Jay was our first intern specializing in working with our newly launched CRM database. He was an integral part our team, providing assistance in training, prospecting, and lead generation for our sales team. Jay was a top performer in his intern class and has been able to translate the skills he learned into a successful professional career.”

Brian Towers
Director, Inside Sales
New York Mets

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After considering offers from professional sports teams during his senior year, Kinderknecht decided he wanted to work in the college sports environment. Jay started working for IMG at the University of South Florida as an Account Executive in June of 2012.

Raised in Columbia, Missouri, Kinderknecht had to make many adjustments when living in South Florida. “Professionally I knew what to expect, but personally it was hard,” Jay shared recently. “The culture was a lot different from my experiences living in Missouri, Texas, or New York.”

While working at South Florida, Kinderknecht gained valuable lessons in the selling of sports. As an account executive, he was the point of contact for customers buying tickets. Jay said he learned through this, “how much preparation and thought should go into the product before you sell it.”

Using leverage is an aspect of ticket selling Kinderknecht gained when South Florida hosted Kansas State University in football. South Florida required groups to double-up on purchases in order to get tickets for this game. If a group brought at least 20 people to the Kansas State game, the purchase also required them to do the same for any other game. The high demand for tickets enabled South Florida to do this. They had no problem selling tickets even with the tie-in requirement for group sales.

Timothy Riva, a co-worker, said of Jay, “His unquestioned work ethic was proven by the results he was able to achieve with our USF staff.” Another co-worker, Bryan Mathis, added, “Jay displayed a strong work ethic and incredible attention to detail. But most importantly, he had a sincere desire to make our team as strong as it could be.”

After fulfilling his initial contract with IMG, Kindernecht was hired as a sales executive for Order My Gear, a software company that works for different sporting goods companies. The company’s objective is to simplify the supply chain between sporting gear companies and high school teams, groups, or organizations.

Kinderknecht is excited about the new opportunities this position presents, as well as the leadership in place. “I know I am working with someone who has my professional and personal best interests in mind.” Kinderknecht will also be given more responsibility through the position. He will travel more and sell a broader range of products than at IMG.

Kinderknecht says that he now welcomes challenges. The new position will pose different challenges and present new opportunities. He believes working with Order My Gear will strengthen his track record and help him become successful in the future.

The Chevrolet S3 2012 Awards

kirk_wakefield About S3, Lead, S3, S3 Spotlight October 18, 2012November 2, 2018Bill Boyce, Eric Fernandez, integrity, Joe Clark, Medialink, networking, S3 Awards, San Antonio Spurs, Temple University, Texas Legends, Todd Pollock, work ethic 1 Comment

by Kirk Wakefield – October 2012

Thanks to Chevrolet and S3 Board Members Dave Nottoli, Steve Flynn, and Jeff Busch, the 2012 S3 Board Meeting marked the first year of the S3 Awards for Outstanding Board Members (Corporate & Team), Outstanding S3 Alum, and Outstanding S3 Writer. Selections were based on those who exemplify the S3 motto of WIN (work ethic, integrity, and networking) and their contribution to the program.

Steve Flynn presented the awards, a bronze Baylor Bear, along with S3 faculty Dr. Darryl Lehnus and Dr. Kirk Wakefield. The names of each winner will be placed on a perpetual award plaque located in the S3 classroom.

This year’s winners: