ticket sales – BaylorS3E

How to successfully transition from sales to management

kirk_wakefield 2014, Careers, Lead, Learn, Personal Development, S3, Sales Management, Tickets October 3, 2014November 1, 2018Astros, career plan, development, game plan, manager, patience, ticket sales 0 Comment

by Andre Luck – October 2014

Early in my sales career I knew I wanted to make an impact in young people’s lives, and I felt the best platform for me to do so was as a ticket sales manager. The transition from a successful salesperson to a successful sales manager is an exciting yet challenging transition. Fortunately I had great leaders and mentors that prepared me for this step. I wrote this article for salespeople that aspire to one day take the step to sales management. I’ve provided a few tips that helped me along the way.

Management vs. Sales

We hear that the best athletes do not always make the best coaches. The same principle exists in sales. Yet, organizations continue to take top salespeople and rush them into management even if they are not fit to lead. Make sure you step into a management position for the right reasons. There is nothing wrong with being a lifelong salesperson. There are great opportunities to make a lot of money in premium and corporate sales. Very successful salespeople will actually take a pay cut when stepping into their first management opportunity. I have friends in the industry that tell me they enjoy only having to manage themselves day to day opposed to an entire department.

Good Bucket/Bad Bucket

Jason Howard, Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales & Marketing for the Houston Astros, gave me great advice early in my sales career. You will see bosses do a lot of things you agree with and not agree with. As you observe different management styles and actions, put these items into a good bucket and a bad bucket. The good bucket would consist of the things I liked and wanted to make sure I did when I became a manager and the bad bucket would be the opposite. To make sure I did not forget what was going into each bucket I started keeping a journal as new ideas would come to me.

What’s Your Game Plan?

How will you recruit the best talent for your team? What do you want your team to look like? What are your methods to keep your staff motivated? What are your non-negotiables? These questions along with a list of many others are questions you should be thinking about now. Start preparing your business plan now and get feedback from those you respect in the industry. The first time you think through your plan should not be when you are asked to put together a 30-60-90 day business plan as part of your interview.

Hire Tough

The most important thing you can do as a leader is hiring the right people or what the book Good To Great calls “getting the right people on the bus.” Know exactly what it is you’re looking for and never settle on a candidate. During an interview is the very best you will ever see a candidate; they will not all of a sudden be better once they are hired. If there are any doubts on a candidate it is better to pass, as you may regret it down the road if you lower your standards.

What, How, and Why

As a manager it is important to set clear expectations for your team of WHAT you expect them to do, train and coach them on HOW to best do it, and clearly explain WHY you want them to do it. Senior Director of Group & Inside Sales for the Houston Astros, PJ Keene, says,

“Be prepared. The best salespeople want to know why you make the decisions you make. Since they value their own career development, understanding your decision making process is important to them. In order to help progress their careers, think through ahead of time what is really most important to you and be able to explain why you made a decision or why you think a particular direction is the best way to go. Be prepared to answer those questions before your best salespeople ask them.”

When your team knows what is expected, how to do it and why they are doing it they are more motivated and you will see greater results.

Patience is Key

Ralph Waldo Emerson has a great quote: “Big jobs usually go to the men who prove their ability to outgrow small ones.”

Be patient and don’t lose sight of the task at hand. As a salesperson, your number one priority is to generate revenue. Developing leadership skills should come secondary. Don’t jump at the first opportunity. Make sure the values of who you work for align with your values. The bosses you work for and your personal and professional development should be more important than your title, compensation, and the organization. If you are a great leader the right opportunity will present itself. The money will follow. It is okay to be more than prepared for your next step.

Three things I’ve learned in starting a new collegiate ticket sales center

kirk_wakefield 2014, Sell, Tickets August 1, 2014November 1, 2018college, CRM, hiring, new, sales center, sales management, starting, ticket sales, university 0 Comment

by Chase Jolesch – August 2014

In the last five years, colleges have started outbound ticket sales centers modeled after professional sports. After spending nearly three and a half years working with the San Francisco 49ers and Legends Premium Sales, I received the opportunity to go back to my alma mater and start an outbound ticket sales center at Baylor University.

I’ve been working the past eight months to develop Baylor’s program. The three important things I have learned so far are (1) create a positive relationship with the ticket office, athletics foundation and marketing department, (2) implement a CRM system to help manage fans more efficiently and (3) hire and lead the right employees.

Create Positive Relationships with Other Departments

The ticket office, athletics foundation and marketing department all work with tickets in a variety of supporting roles. I connected with each department to learn how they work and be able to implement productive changes.

Creating these positive relationships between departments is built on communication. As Matt Rousso, Director of Ticket Sales & Service at the University of Southern California, shares,

“At USC we work closely with our ticket office on all ticketed athletic events leaning on their expertise to help improve overall processes as well as the fan experience. There is no doubt that we will continue to improve our synergies in this respect as our tenure together increases.”

Each department has a variety of objectives, but the overlapping goal is to provide a great customer experience to each fan.

Implement an Effective CRM System

We recently implemented a CRM system that our ticket sales center, ticket office and athletics foundation all access. This helps internal communication so we know what is going on with our fans as we document calls, sync e-mail lists and make notes in the system. The ticket sales center uses CRM to prospect leads and turn them into specific sales opportunities.

Rich Wang, Associate Director of Analytics & Fan Engagement at the Minnesota Vikings, has over eight years of experience in the database world, believes

“having the right information is key in today’s world. CRM provides the level of detail and insights a sales center can act on in real time. Further, CRM can provide data that allows an sales organization to form tangible relationships between existing clients and prospective targets.”

For a CRM system to be a productive tool, every department needs to be involved, and for that to happen you need the right employees.

Build the Right Team

We have taken a methodical approach to building the Baylor ticket sales center. The culture we want to create is one that cultivates talent, but also challenges and pushes. Finding the right candidate can be difficult, so we look for candidates eager to learn, work well in teams and want to be challenged.

Jared Kozinn, Director of Business Development-Premium Seating at the Detroit Lions, has experience building sales teams in the NHL, MLB, & NFL. Jared says he likes to, “look to hire passionate candidates with positive attitudes that want to learn and are open to constructive criticism.”

While finding talent through a variety of sports networks, including the Baylor S3 program and referrals, our sales center is beginning to take shape.

It has and will continue to take some patience to get things where they need to be to make it an overall success. Through positive internal relationships, CRM collaborations with fan experiences, and training the right employees the Baylor Ticket Sales Center is well on its way.

Sales Management: Why Process Trumps Talent

kirk_wakefield 2014, Lead, Sales Management, Sell, Tickets June 1, 2014November 1, 2018ability, hiring, retention, sales management, sales training, salespeople, skills, talent, ticket sales 0 Comment

by Flavil Hampsten – June 2014

Which matters more: Process or Talent? That’s an easy one. Process always trumps talent.

Before you get upset and start defending how talented your staff is and that you couldn’t generate the numbers that you do without them, imagine how much more productive they would be if you gave them leads that close at four times the normal rate? Or if you have sales events for them that routinely lead to $100,000 days?

I’m not going to completely define what process should be in place, but I will say that as a sales manager, process always trumps talent. Here is why.

#1 Talented Individuals Are Simply Not Enough

Sales managers need to hit a departmental goal. There needs to be method to maximize revenue from each individual on the team. Therefore, a process should be devised to assist everyone in order for the department to achieve goal.

I’ve never spoken to a sales manager who claims to have all A+ sales talent on staff. Most have a mix of A+, A, B, and C sellers. However, most have an A+ revenue budget to achieve. Having a great process can bump the level of each seller and give the department a better chance to achieve goal.

#2 Talent Comes and Goes, Process Stays Forever

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Having the right process in place has been an important element to the success of the teams I have managed throughout my career. The hiring process, sales process, lead-gen process….even convincing sales people to fall in love with the process of becoming great. They might not believe it right now, and I don’t think I did when I started my first job in sports, but process and persistence almost always trumps talent. ~Brent Stehlik, EVP/CRO Cleveland Browns[/dropshadowbox]With the ambitious nature of today’s sales executives, the average life of a sales executive is approximately two years. With no guarantee to keep top talent, the only method to ensure that you keep results is to have a process that maximizes each opportunity, regardless of which salesperson in assigned to it.

Why only two years? Generally speaking, the A+ sellers are the ones who can leave first, simply because other teams recruit them away with money and titles. Most times, sales managers hands are bound with budgets and departmental structure making it difficult to match the offer and the salesperson leaves. However, the departmental goal does not change. If a superior process is in place, the current salespeople will continue to deliver at a high rate, a new top salesperson will emerge, and the new salesperson will generate top numbers quicker.

#3 Talent Pool is More Like a Talent Puddle

Hard fact, but with the amount of positions to fill, the low pay, and extremely long hours in sports, it’s nearly impossible to hire all A+ sales talent. Therefore, by default, to keep your positions full you must hire a mix of talent levels in order to achieve sales results. A process is the only way to make this happen.

Even if you have one of the best recruiting and inside sales programs in sports there will be times where positions are empty or when talent is lagging. As a sales manager, you owe it to your company and your career to protect yourself from these times. The most foolproof way to do this is to engineer and implement a superior process that maximizes revenue regardless.

With work and deliberate practice talent can be created. However, superior talent cannot be created without hard work and deliberate practice while in a superior process. More importantly to a sales manager, you cannot have a successful sales department without a process to make everyone better. The talented individuals are simply not enough; you need to create and train talent to optimize performance.

Want more on good processes? Read Flavil’s, No More Cold Calls

Cover photo courtesy of Rosemary Demirkok

Outbound ticket sales: How to create a sales playbook to maximize sales

kirk_wakefield 2014, Marketing, Sell, Tickets April 1, 2014November 1, 2018collegiate, commitment, departments, NCAA, new, planning, process, sales management, sales reps, start, steps, strategy, ticket sales 0 Comment

by Mark Washo – April 2014

As NCAA programs continue to adopt more revenue-generating practices, activating an outbound ticket sales program appears simple. Hire entry level sports management grads, provide a desk, phone, and email address, pull past buyer lists and watch the ticket sales role in. While most understand ticket sales is more complex, how many take ALL key aspects of successful sales into consideration? [dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]“Game day name capture initiatives are one of the best ways for us to connect with fans that have formed a habit of waiting to make a ‘game time decision’ and show them the benefits of reserving their seats in advance as opposed to walking up and buying a ticket at the game. We also find that database collection efforts at community events and local sports bars are a key component in creating new relationships with local businesses and organizations.” – Jamie Levitt, Manager of Ticket Sales at Western Kentucky University[/dropshadowbox]

The first step to a successful program is commitment

To maximize revenue, the organization must commit to outbound sales over a full calendar year, not month to month or short term (3 to 5 months). After committing to a 12 months sales staffing plan, with a year round sales focus, you are ready to make your ticket sales plan, your playbook for success.

Create a sales plan or “Playbook” that includes:

The past: Review past season ticket sales reports to look for strengths to build on and opportunities to improve.
The future: Goals setting; annual, monthly, sales rep goals and quotas. Set realistic yet aggressive minimum expectations for your sales professionals, including minimum sales activity expectations and sales targets. Continually track progress towards the goals.
Develop a 12 month ticket sales timeline: The timeline should include “early bird new and renewal campaigns” while existing playing seasons are happening to capitalize on fan excitement and interest while they are still engaged. Waiting until after the playing seasons are over to begin new sales & renewals for that sport is not as effective at maximizing ticket sales revenue as renewing and selling new tickets during the season.
Recruit top talent: Don’t cut corners during the recruiting process. Activate a multiple step process, including a sales role-play interview step to help recruit the strongest candidates.
Hire enough talent: Hire the appropriate number of sales staff based on revenue goals; creating realistic revenue expectations will help you draw conclusions on appropriate # of ticket sales executives to hire.
Create motivating compensation plans with commission and bonus opportunities: Compensation models should provide incentives to sell, which aid in recruiting and retaining top talent.[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”250px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]Failure to prepare is preparing to fail ~John Wooden “It is vital to have a game plan for your sales approach just like a coach has a game plan to execute on the field. The key is to have an attack plan for sales prepared once a schedule is made available. Often certain groups dictate the time of year they can attend an outing. For example school base programs, scouts, and ROTC’s need a two month leeway into a school year to plan an activity. An outline will help a sales person know exactly where they stand and what needs to be accomplished at any point of the year. Also, it is a quick and easy way to keep superiors up to date on what a sales representative is currently working on and how they are planning to make the next event a success. — Tom Phelps, Naval Academy[/dropshadowbox]
Commit to data base building: Invest in CRM to cultivate leads and grow your data base. Newer web based models provide 24 hour remote access.
Analyze your pricing strategy: Based on analytics that consider situational factors, increase the average ticket price with price integrity for single game pricing. Add incentives to encourage season ticket and advance purchase. Analyze your ticket sales customers buying habits and patterns to guide pricing.
Create season ticket benefits: Find creative low cost ways to provide season ticket benefits (e.g., with corporate partners) to provide added value beyond discounts (i.e., experiences).
Create flexible ticketing packages: Explore options such as vouchers or “pick me plans.”
Develop a group sales pricing strategy: Reward groups with appropriate benefits that include group leader incentives to motivate purchase.
Commit to consistent ticket sales training: Just like in well-run corporations, sales training must be consistent and on-going.
Promote the promotion: Encourage cross-departmental integration that support ticket sales initiatives with “buy in” from other departments; gain support from marketing/PR/social media and operations.
Create a positive sales culture: Create visible team-wide goals where everyone is committed to revenue generation. Include motivating reps through sales incentives and contests.
Develop a renewal and retention strategy: Explore ways to activate proactive retention efforts and develop strong customer service, with multiple “touch points” throughout the season.
Ticket Operations: Don’t forget to recruit professional and dedicated ticket operations talent. Sound ticket operations is needed to support any proactive sales effort.

It’s important to take as comprehensive as an approach as possible to selling tickets. Find ways to activate all of the key elements, you will be in a great position to maximize ticket sales revenue! [dropshadowbox align=”left” effect=”lifted-both” width=”550px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

“It’s always interesting to me, that all of us who work in professional or collegiate sports are exposed to elite athletes who we see practice & train every day, in order to stay at the top of their game. Therefore, it’s surprising that most ticket sales teams don’t commit to consistent sales and role play training. The most successful sales teams in sports (pro or college), have a dedicated commitment to consistent sales training, which includes sales role play, bringing in outside sales trainers and taking advantage of free sales content on social media such as this Baylor sportsbiz article.” ~ Brett Zalaski[/dropshadowbox]

Digital CRM is the New Ticket Sales

kirk_wakefield 2014, CRM, Digital Strategy, Marketing, Relate, Sell, Social Media April 1, 2014November 1, 2018CRM, customer relationship management, digital, digital ticket campaign, innovation, Property Consulting Group, revenue, social media, ticket sales 0 Comment

by Neil Horowitz – April 2014

The most eye-popping statistic shared at this year’s National Sports Forum (February 9-11, Dallas) came from Associate Athletic Director and Chief Marketing Officer at the University of South Carolina, Eric Nichols (@ericnichols):

A $38,000 digital media budget realized $922,000 in track-able ticket sales.

That number is astounding to be sure, but the point isn’t so much the level of success, but that taking shots in the dark in digital should be a thing of the past. Data is the new & reigning king in making marketing, sales, and activation as efficient and effective as possible. Companies like the Property Consulting Group who executed the digital CRM campaign for South Carolina are the wave of the future and the now.

Where do you start?

Before investing in some expensive data mining software or hiring an agency, the first thing to do is commit to integrating social, digital, partnerships, & sales. This means insights and ideas are shared across channels and inform best practices:

Is the sales staff ready for a new marketing campaign and the messaging coming from the team to its fans?
Does the marketing team know what questions, concerns, and suggestions are coming from sales leads and fans?
Are sales and leads acquired tracked by source so the value of digital dollars spent can be assessed?
Are analytics from social media content used to optimize messaging, campaigns, and calls?
Social CRM with Microsoft Dynamics

Integration = Sharing

“We’ve gotten better at incubating ideas for web and social media that sales can use in the future,” said Ali Towle, San Francisco 49ers Director of Marketing. A similar sentiment came from Jeff Meyer, Senior Vice President of Event Marketing and Sales for Feld Entertainment. “Our marketing and sales people are one and the same in our organization.”

That sounds all well and good, in an abstract kind of way. But, as is the common refrain in sports, it all comes down to execution. And execution begins with one simple concept: sharing. Sharing data, that is. We may be tired of hearing it, but as long as it’s true we must keep reminding ourselves to eliminate “silos” within our departments.

Understanding what drives sales, what works in marketing, what could be useful for partnerships – all of this data, and the insights drawn from it, should be consistently shared.

Start small and build

We can easily be overwhelmed with the amount of data available. Start with those on your team with the talent and willingness to share and collaborate to reach a common goal. Then begin to utilize big data to get more nuanced with:

specific marketing campaigns
targeted sales programs
sales lead scoring
customer relationship management
web and email marketing analytics
equipping partnerships with data to sell and renew clients

Every action a fan takes to interact with the team is a signal of intent, an insight about their personality, desires, lifestyle, activities, or opinions. The interaction with the customer is where it all starts.

You have a choice: lead or lose

Leaders in the field of sports recognize that mass marketing campaigns and ticket reps pounding out calls to single-game buyers lists from 2009 are old-school.

As David Peart, Senior Vice President of the Pittsburgh Penguins, shared, “There will be a digital transformation. In the next five years, we see marketing as primarily digital and social media and ticket sales relying more heavily upon CRM and analytics, as we interact with fans on a 1-to-1 basis where they are and in the way they want to be reached.”

Those clinging to the status quo will be left hanging by a thread. Those who see the future of digital and big data have already begun the transformation. Where will you be?

Cover photo courtesy of the Digital Traffic Squad.

Is integrity in sports sales a problem?

kirk_wakefield Careers, Integrity, Sell, Tickets, Work ethic February 1, 2013November 2, 2018cheating, integrity, promotions, Sales, stealing, Texas Rangers, ticket sales, work ethic 0 Comment

by Wade Graf – February 2013

Hundreds, even thousands, apply for any ticket sales position opening, flooding LinkedIn, PBEO and Teamwork Online with resumes and contacts trying anything to break in.

Some fly to the Baseball Winter Meetings or various sports sales combines in hopes of speaking to any hiring manager willing to listen. If fortunate enough to grab entry-level positions in inside sales, they soon realize they have a very short time period to prove worthy ticket sellers.

[dropshadowbox align=”right” effect=”lifted-both” width=”350px” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”.5″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]

Three Takeaways:
• Form good habits and practices early in your career.
• Never compromise morals or integrity in order to get ahead.
• Promotions aren’t always awarded to the top revenue generator. Integrity, teamwork and work ethic are other key components in taking the next step in your career.[/dropshadowbox]

Entry level sales positions are often part-time or limited periods (6-12 months) before the next batch of recruits invade the cubicles. Reps compete in revenue generation to earn a full time position with the team. In this pressurized competitive situation, inexperienced reps may look for any way possible to succeed.

Habits learned early in your career not only stay with you; they grow and intensify on a daily basis. It is incredibly important new ticket salespeople understand there is more to their jobs than just generating the most revenue possible. Sure, managers want and need to fill the seats through season tickets and nightly suites, but that’s not all that matters.

Does integrity count?

Outstanding sales reps don’t compromise integrity trying to make sales or earn promotions. Being a standout sales representative is not:

taking a 16-digit credit card number or check, then ignoring the client over the entire course of the season.
achieved by holding a great seat location from your co-workers until you find just the right individual or company who will buy them from you.
earned by trying to sell to a company your teammate has been talking to for months or by hiding a sale in the client’s brother’s ticket account.

Just one episode of taking another representative’s sale can tarnish that representative’s image. Months or even years of great work can come crashing down over one moral compromise.

Jason Fortune, Season Ticket Manager with the Texas Rangers, explains,

“As long as you maintain your integrity and make the right decisions, you will always have a chance to earn a promotion. Always remember that sales reps who cut corners and ‘cheat’ the system will not last long with any organization. The recipe for success is simple: Come in, work hard every day surpassing expectations, never compromise your integrity, and eventually your hard work will pay off.”

Katie Morgan, CRM and Database Manager with the Texas Rangers, notes the effects acting with integrity has on potential promotions:

“Gaining the respect of your peers is one of the most beneficial things within the sports industry and also one of the most critical. Maintaining working relationships with those around you will help with day to day tasks. But, more importantly, those who earn respect and work well with others catch a manager’s eye when looking to potentially promote.”

Are you a great teammate?

Being a great teammate and helping the person you are competing with to earn the promotion is just as important as being on top of the sales board. Giving great customer service and showing customers around for an hour in the stadium means just as much to the organization as making ten more calls in order to earn the next sale.

When looking to promote from within the organization, season ticket or suite managers don’t always pick the leader on the sales board. They want those who can sell, but also those who provide superior customer service, have great moral standards, and represent the organization well each and every day. Remember it’s a team sport, both on the field and in the office.