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The students POV on interviews for internships & careers

kirk_wakefield 2021, Analytics, Learn, Recruiting, Research, S3, Sales Management, Sales Training, Sponsorships, Tickets , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comment
The students POV on interviews for internships & careers

After the first round of the Baylor S3 Pro Day of virtual recruiting with 30 interviewers, 54 of the students rated each of the interviewers, selected their favorite two interviewers, and commented on one that didn’t go as well as hoped. After the second round of S3 Pro Days on March 5 (click here for more info), we will distribute information to interviewers (who also get the chance to rate the students on their interviewing skills). The S3 Best Interviewer Awards for S3 Sales and S3 Analytics will be announced for the S3 Awards Banquet on April 14.

These evaluations are much like teaching evaluations. We certainly prefer students enjoy the experience. Admittedly, sometimes learning experiences can cause user discomfort. So, good on you as professor or recruiter if you can do both: Supply enjoyable learning experiences that serve the welfare of all parties for both the short and long term. To that end, we offer 45 comments about what students liked best about interviewers, which thankfully outweigh the 24 comments on areas of improvement. Learn as you will from these.

Student POV

Interviews for Sports Sales & Analytics Internships & Careers

45 Areas of Excellence

1.       Intentionally listened and asked good questions.
2.       Asked very thoughtful questions and really answered my questions well.
3.       Most enthusiastic and didn’t make it feel like there was a power difference between him and me.
4.       Most willing to show me things like what they do in Tableau.
5.       Just fun to talk to.
6.       Really easy going and easy to talk to.
7.       They stood out above the rest for their openness while discussing their roles and the company culture at their respective teams. They came across as completely genuine, giving me their unfiltered opinions on their workplace instead of telling me any kind of pitch.
8.       Made me feel instantly comfortable during both conversations I had.
9.       Super genuine and friendly; They were not intimidating at all and very helpful in explaining their role and answering my questions.
10.   Very easy to talk to and did a great job answering any questions I had. I very much enjoyed talking and felt at ease and was disappointed when our time was up.
11.   Asked unique and challenging questions that kept me on my toes.
12.   Was genuine and kind while also getting down to business without any unnecessary conversation.
13.   Very personable and made a hectic time feel relaxed, calm and helpful. Made the conversation feel mutually beneficial which was great. Super informative and helpful.
14.   We had a really great conversation about just life. We shared a lot of similarities; was informational, and I got to walk through my resume.
15.   Took an interest in me beyond my job qualifications and wanted to get to know me better on a personal level. They made me feel like they wanted to speak with me and told me I could reach out any time in the future.
16.   Asked great questions and directed good conversation! Awesome at engaging and made me feel really comfortable.
17.   I was able to see how well they enjoyed not only working in their field but with each other too.  I also felt relaxed in the interview and it was one of the ones that I actually had fun being interviewed.
18.   They were the two most enthusiastic people I talked to.  I made really good connections with both of them. They also were very interested in making it clear that if I were hired that they would invest in my career to the fullest extent.
19.   Was very specific and had the 30 min interview laid out in sections of what to accomplish. I got to do a mock phone sale and a 45sec pitch.
20.   Genuine and engaging during our talk.
21.   Very open to answer any and all questions and truly share passion for the job and role as a manger. Provided an open and transparent look at goals for those new to the organization and what managers seek to get out of them.
22.   They made the conversations really smooth and easy and showed a genuine interest in me.
23.   Was very open and had great energy. Seemed very invested in our interview and even joked around a little bit. Overall a great interview and I was incredibly impressed with the organization.
24.   They gave great insights on what their companies did and gave in-depth analysis of the field of analytics, especially CRM and BI. Also, they made the effort to personally connect with me.
25.   Asked challenging questions and, in the interview, pushed me to do better. Charismatic and has good leadership.
26.   It felt like they were actually interested in getting to know me.
27.   They had amazing humor and personality and seemed really interested in talking to me! They acknowledge all of what I said and asked follow-up questions accordingly. They made the speed dating a lot of fun because it may have been an interview, but it seemed more like catching up with an old friend!
28.   Seemed very interested throughout our entire call and even asked for a second interview to better our connection in order to be a future reference for myself.
29.   Discussed the many ways they took care of employees during the ongoing pandemic, both with their mental health and with their paychecks. Detailed how the team handles the social issues that have become as prevalent as ever in recent times.
30.   Open, friendly, and honest. Made me feel more comfortable.
31.   Extremely genuine and excited to hear about why I want to get into sports. They asked very good questions and went into detail when answering questions that I asked about their organizations. Both came across as wanting to help me in my journey in any way they could.
32.   Very interested in me and my future goals, very engaging.
33.   Super high energy and gave me an awesome description of time with the team. Super helpful and seemed genuinely interested in my career growth.
34.   Asked questions about my personality and we were able to chat and have a great conversation!
35.   Gave me a whole lot of advice on how I could answer interview questions better. Offered to connect me with other people within the organization, which was awesome.
36.   Truly took the time to know me and understand what I was looking for in a future job opportunity.
37.   Very encouraging.
38.   Let us know that no matter what happens they were here to help us. Even if that means we go for a decision and it does not include their organization. That is admirable.
39.   Took the time to know me knowing that I am only a sophomore yet was intrigued when looking at my LinkedIn profile. So kind and just wanting to help.
40.   Extremely kind, was prepared with knowledge about me, insightful answers to my questions, willing to help, relatable.
41.   Very interested in what I had to say and gave me great advice.
42.   Very kind and helpful.
43.   Gave great advice, flowing conversation, tremendous insight into job and analytics in sports. Willing to help.
44.   Seemed very genuine in wanting to get to know us. Gave me some valuable advice and perspective.
45.   We had a fantastic conversation about the importance of mental health in the workplace (and in general) and the emphasis put on it.

24 Areas of Improvement

1.       Really didn’t have much of an interview experience. It was too casual.
2.       Questions were very vanilla. Couldn’t get a good read off them.
3.       Didn’t really seem like they wanted to be there.
4.       Wasn’t easy to talk to.
5.       I sort of felt like I had to lead the conversation, where with the other recruiters, they were the ones guiding it.
6.       Seemed not to take our 10-minute call seriously. Never made eye contact and was constantly looking around the room. Gave cookie-cutter monologue and nothing more.
7.       Asked very structured concrete questions. I heard from others that they kept people over time and shorted others. Didn’t appear open.
8.       Informational but it was very cold. It wasn’t a natural conversation like the rest of my 10 min talks.
9.       Rapid fire questions, less conversational interview (granted, we only had 10 minutes).
10.   Asked a lot of questions that didn’t pertain to anything important and also not related to S3 or internships.
11.   Did not feel a connection with the organization or interviewer specifically.  Nothing against, is a great person.  I just did not find myself enjoying the interview or the chemistry.
12.   A stand-in for my interview didn’t seem too ecstatic to be there. Seemed very dry.
13.   Not very engaging and didn’t show a lot of emotion.
14.   Had one short interview where I was asked very off-topic and slightly offensive questions.
15.   I was confused on the style of the interview. Seemed harsh.
16.   Seemed very distracted; like the focus was elsewhere from the start. It threw me off a little bit and it felt like we never really got into the interview at all.
17.   Didn’t have a lot of emotion and didn’t seem that interested in talking to me. It felt like more they were just doing this to put a check mark on their calendar.
18.   Felt more like an actual interview and less of a conversation. It was intense, which is fine, but I enjoyed some other conversations more since they were more chilled.
19.   Conversation was not engaging and was not very interested in me or what I was saying.
20.   Didn’t really seem very interested in being at the event. Wasn’t super open about time with organization, which made the interview pretty difficult to stay engaged with.
21.   Not all that open to talking much about the organization and the conversation was hard to get through.
22.   Impersonal and mechanical conversation. Improved in the second round of interviews but felt like they were checking boxes rather than trying to make a connection or be a resource.
23.   Typing the entire time.
24.   It was so awkward; I was given short answers to questions that I asked.

Best Ticket Campaign Ideas

kirk_wakefield 2017, Sell, Tickets , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Best Ticket Campaign Ideas
by Darryl Lehnus – June 2017

Kicking off the S3 StubHub Ticket Campaign Competition

Learning best practices is one of the most valuable elements of the meetings, conventions, and seminars we all attend. To that end, with partnered with StubHub to launch the annual S3 StubHub Ticket Campaign Competition at the 2017 S3 Board Meetings this past January. We’d love to have more great submissions for this year’s (January 16-17, 2018) meetings. Click here to learn more.

Finalists for the 2017 competition were Joe Schiavi, Detroit Pistons; Evans Adonis, Charlotte Hornets; Stephen Gray, Austin Spurs; and Adam Martelli and Chase Kanaly,  Houston Astros.

Shoot for your Seat

Joe Schiavi, Detroit Pistons

The Shoot for your Seat campaign was an interactive initiative to generate leads through invites from sales staff and marketing communications. Held during an off-season time frame (September), prospective clients were invited to the Palace for a fun four hours of activities. The attendees went through a series of station interactions with Piston personalities, introduction to new stadium food, a photo booth, behind the scenes staff-guided tours and the ultimate opportunity to take a shot from half court to win free season tickets. Phone follow-ups to everyone occurred within three days after the event. The results were dynamic as $100,000 in new sales were generated with an ROI of the event at 8-to-1.

Holiday Pack Mini Plans

Evans Adonis, Charlotte Hornets

The Hornets shared a “Holiday Mini-Pack” campaign that offered great flexibility and a nice Christmas present. The target audience was past holiday pack buyers and potential buyers who connected with Hornets via the email sent or linked the Hornets’ website. Leads were distributed to all sales reps with a window of November 7th thru December 30th to close the 5-game mini pack. Buyers could pick any 5 games for their packages (excluding Golden State). To motivate quick closes the first 300 buyers received a Mitchell and Ness Buzz City hoodie as a gift. The hoodie was a good gift for a friend or family member for Christmas. The campaign created an increase in holiday pack buyers averaging 30 packs a week for the duration of the campaign.

The Ballpark Pass

Adam Martelli and Chase Kanaly, Houston Astros

Some of the hardest MLB tickets to sell are the Monday-Thursday games early in the season. The Ballpark Pass focused on the 10 Monday through Thursday games in May. The primary target audience was millennials seeking a social experience. The value package of $49 includes all 10 games with tickets delivered digitally to smartphones with day of game seat assignment. The rationale behind the digital approach and seat location was that millennials place less emphasis on location and more on social experience. Sending tickets digitally is a common experience for this audience. The success of this campaign was to increase the database in this merging demographic and to increase attendance at low demand games without undercutting season ticket sales efforts. The Astros created 967 passes for almost $50K in new revenue and created an overwhelmingly positive digital experience for the target audience.

College & Career Readiness Game

Stephen Gray, Austin Spurs

The Austin Spurs took a single game approach to focus on middle and high school students. The College & Career Readiness event took a low attendance weekday game and converted it into a new revenue generator. They recruited over 40 colleges and companies to have a presence (booths) on the concourse to interact with the students. The game promotions and halftime encouraged healthy study, eating and living habits. Halftime included the Spurs iconic George “Iceman” Gervin challenging students to stay in school, lead a drug-free lifestyle, and to support anti-bullying.  The game sold 2480 group tickets in 2016 and doubled its numbers for 2017. A key to its success is the organizational buy-in at all levels with a complete focus on high school aged demographics and their educational careers.

2017 S3 StubHub Ticket Campaign Winner

Based on a vote of the 65 managers and executives attending the S3 Board Meeting Advisory meeting, the winner was Stephen Gray and the Austin Spurs “College & Career Readiness Game.”  Congratulations to the Austin Spurs and their staff for truly creating such a successful event!

Campaigns at a Glance

Below are the overview slides of each campaign. We look forward to your entry at the 2018 January 16-17 S3 Board Meeting! Click here to register.

StubHub Ticket Insights: Changes in Who, How & When People Buy

kirk_wakefield 2017, Digital Strategy, Experiences, Relate, Tickets , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
StubHub Ticket Insights: Changes in Who, How & When People Buy
by Kirk Wakefield – May 2017

In a league of its own

StubHub sells a ticket at least once every second. Over 21 million unique highly qualified buyers visit StubHub every month. Last year (2016), StubHub sold over $4.2 billion in tickets. That total essentially places StubHub in a league by itself, comparable to the NBA or Premiere League and more than the total revenues of the NHL, Bundesliga or La Liga.

Thanks to our S3 partnership with StubHub and Geoff Lester, our friends Charlie Rockman and Nick Rudolf presented breaking insights at our annual S3 Board Meeting in January, 2017.

In this article we present three of these insights related to demographics, search habits and mobile use in ticket purchase. Next month we will follow with insights on geo-targeting, conversion to ticket plan buyers, and inventory management given the timing of purchase behavior.

Demographics of online ticket buyers

Knowing half the females in the DFW metroplex are Dallas Cowboys fans, the Cowboys launched www.5pointsblue.com to offer content written by female staff members. The content appeals to the female fan base, but a broader audience as well, generating 350,000+ monthly visits. Other properties would do well to emulate the initiative to serve its entire fan base in a way that meets needs and preferences.

As seen below, we see a slight shift in females buying online (43%), but more importantly the Average Order Value (AOV) increased among first time female buyers versus first time male buyers. As millennials overtook baby boomers as the largest generation this past year, so has the percentage of younger buyers. These young buyers may see concerts and other events as viable entertainment options to sports. Commensurately, we see more lower-income first-time buyers–who will be tomorrow’s potential season ticket holders. The question is: How are teams serving the buying needs of this younger segment that will translate into future ticket buying fans?

 

Ticket Search: Event, Team or Date?

Knowing how people search is one of the keys to successful Google AdWords campaigns. Which of these is most likely to show up in a relevant search?

  • Event (Cavs vs. Rockets)
  • Team (e.g., Cleveland Cavaliers) or artist (Justin Timberlake)
  • Date (Friday, December 1, 2017)

We might think new buyers typically want to see a specific event on a certain date. We would be wrong. Instead, buyers increasingly and foremost search for the team or artist, rather than having a specific event or date in mind. Furthermore, last minute purchases (33%) and on-the-go (not at home/office) are the major reasons for purchasing via mobile. So, if we want to reach people where they are–with phones in hand–we best be mobile and search-engine optimized for quick access.

 

Mobile First Strategy

In 2014, 41% of traffic and 20% of sales came via mobile for StubHub. Just two years later, 60% of traffic and 42% of sales came via mobile. In general, revenue from 2015 to 2016 is increasing via online purchases, but disproportionately via mobile in terms of tickets sold (+25%) and total sales (+44%) compared to tickets sold via desktop (-3%) and total sales (+10%). (See graphic at the top of this article.)

Expect the trend toward mobile to continue. In the past the majority of time spent on mobile was searching, but most purchases of goods and services were made on desktops. But, as StubHub and others with native apps improve the mobile experience, more will shift to mobile purchases.  As seen below, the majority of purchases are still on desktops, but more bought via mobile devices and native apps in 2016 than 2015. The most mobile-friendly buyers are football (NCAA & NFL) fans, but the growth in mobile purchases will extend across leagues.

 

Conclusion

In short, the takeaway insights are:

  1. Target females the way they consume content and make purchases.
  2. Manage search engine campaigns aimed at team/artist searches, more so than event or date.
  3. Optimize for mobile ticket purchases. If your mobile sales are not growing at the same rate as the market, you are not mobile optimized.

When do people buy? And what happens to average ticket price over time? We know over one-third now wait until the last 72 hours to purchase. To learn more, come back for next month’s release.

How Academic & Professional Partnerships Work: Baylor S3 Pro Day

kirk_wakefield 2016, Lead, Learn, Networking, The S3 Program , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
How Academic & Professional Partnerships Work: Baylor S3 Pro Day
by Kirk Wakefield – November 2016

If we, will you?

In 2003, the Baylor Sports Sponsorship & Sales (S3) program began the day we walked into the San Antonio Spurs offices and asked Russ Bookbinder, “If we did this, would you help?”

Darryl Lehnus and I then set out to every other team in Texas asking the same question, getting feedback, making adjustments and gaining support to launch the program in 2004 with the first graduating class in 2006. Students will get a kick out of watching the original S3 promo video. The keys, then and now, to make academic and professional partnerships work are simple:

Steps to Build Partnerships Ask/Offer
Identify the unique need. What is your biggest need?
Identify competition. How is this need addressed now?
Ask for commitment. If we, will you?
Ask for referrals. Who else might be interested?
Develop relationships. How can we improve?

We keep asking these questions to maintain position and relevance. In the beginning, and in adding the CRM & Analytics track (2011) to the major, we did not accept more students than industry commitments to help with placement.

Today, with over 210 S3 Alumni, many reaching management and executive levels, our vision is the same: to instill integrity in the business of sports & entertainment. Integrity starts with delivering on what we promise to students and employers. And listening. And learning. A lot.

Listen. Learn. Launch.

Board members began asking for more recruits. Board members moved to new teams, which usually means adding another team to the board. We saw the opportunity to grow, but at the same time maintain Baylor’s goal to keep classes under 20 students. So, in the past three years, the number of qualified students admitted to the S3 major doubled from the original 19 to 38 as we increased the number of sections for each class. We launch a new Sports Sales Management course Spring 2017, with board member Bill Glenn, leading the class. More changes are in the works for the CRM & Analytics graduate program, as we launch a global partnership in the United Kingdom.

For the first 12 years (2004-2016), recruitment was combined with the S3 Board Meeting. The S3 Pro Day was launched based on feedback from board members Alan Aldwell (Pittsburgh Pirates) and Rob Erwin (Dallas Mavericks), among others. After asking others for input, with the support of Patrick Ryan & Eventellect, we launched the first ever S3 event dedicated entirely to recruitment. We moved the S3 Board Meeting to a different date (January 17-18, click here for more information), focused on best practices and developing mentor relationships for career-long impact. We will keep listening and learning.

In the process, we also developed an interview scorecard to help both students and recruiters focus on the values and skills important to us. Feel free to edit and adjust for your own use in developing or recruiting talent. Click here to review and download.

Eventellect S3 Pro Day in Pictures

Thanks to the recruiters from the teams, companies, and leagues that participated in the Eventellect S3 Pro Day!

pro-day-attendees

Here are the S3 Senior Pro Days in pictures.

Night at Vitek’s

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Ticket Sales Interviews

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 Partnerships and CRM & Analytics Interviews

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4 Keys to Effective Ticket Pricing

kirk_wakefield 2016, Sales Management, Sell, Tickets , , , , , , , , ,
4 Keys to Effective Ticket Pricing
by Kirk Wakefield – November 2016

Leave Emotion at the Door

In a scene from the movie Ocean’s Eleven, Rusty (Brad Pitt) is teaching Hollywood actors how to play poker. During his lesson on “how to draw out the bluff,” he asks a player what the first lesson of poker is. The answer: “Leave emotion at the door!”

Does that lesson sound familiar?

One of the greatest mistakes a sports organization can make is pricing from a sense of pride–Charging what we want or need instead of setting our prices based on fan and market intelligence.

Considering these four key questions will help make good pricing decisions.

Are we pricing to move inventory or leverage revenue?

Ticket pricing isn’t only about numbers. It’s a strategic puzzle. The answer to this question provides you strategic direction and synergy for the season, games, packages, sections and seats. Pricing synergy maximizes value, retention and new sales.

What does the fan & market intelligence tell us?

Decisions based on your intuition and experience alone is basing your plans more on the past than present circumstances. Include in your decision making:

  1. sales reports & forecasts
  2. current industry trends
  3. fan surveys
  4. social media conversations (consider scraping and social listening software)
  5. gatekeeper feedback (ticket office, ticket sales, development staffs)
  6. direct conversations with fans

What is the unique value of each game?

Whether you’re using advance pricing software or a traditional method of pen and paper, recognize each game has unique value. Variable pricing (different price levels for differently valued games) and dynamic pricing maximizes value, revenue and sales. Analyzing what makes each game different from the others helps you set realistic price and attendance targets and also identify segments and groups to target.

What is our inventory analysis telling us?

Using past data and forecasts, ask these 7 inventory questions to maximize revenue for each game.

  1. Which sections do we need to sell each game?
  2. How many seats do we need to sell each game?
  3. Which groups are we targeting for each game?
  4. Which promotions are we scheduling for each game?
  5. What is our plan for distressed inventory should advance sales fall short?
  6. How do game day variables (time, date, opponent, fan experience, etc.) affect each game?
  7. Did we objectively project sales for each group or promotion?

Have these conversations a year in advance to capitalize on year-round sales opportunities and for a runway that is long enough for your external relations team to realize success!

“Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
Proverbs 16:18

 

 

 

The Online Ticket Buyer: By the Numbers

kirk_wakefield 2016, Digital Strategy, Learn, Relate, Research , , , , , , , ,
The Online Ticket Buyer: By the Numbers
by Kirk Wakefield -October 2016

Nationwide Study of Recent Online Ticket Buyers

Efficient and effective salespeople convert ticket buyers into season ticket holders and serve their needs. However, the secondary market is the primary market for many fans who do not differentiate between buying from StubHub, TicketMaster or the team’s website. What do these buyers look like? How do they buy? Where do they buy? What is important to them?

The Online Ticket Buyer Profile infographic offers an overview of our initial findings from a wide-ranging study of 688 recent online ticket buyers of tickets. Given the time of year and panel source, we draw primarily from NFL, MLB, and NBA ticket buyers, but also have representation from NHL and a few MLS buyers. All bought tickets within the past 12 months.

We will present more in-depth results and insights at the Baylor S3 Annual Board meeting, January 17-18, 2017. Students will present analysis & insights to the industry on December 5, 1-4pm. Guest judges are welcomed.

Selling Experiences Online: Announcing the BAV-S3 4V® Brand Index

kirk_wakefield 2016, Experiences, Sell, Tickets , , , , , , , ,
Selling Experiences Online: Announcing the BAV-S3 4V® Brand Index
by Kirk Wakefield – June 2016

Juniper Research classifies ticketing as one of the primary commerce applications driving eCommerce, estimating over one-fourth of ticket purchases will go mobile in the U.S. by 2020, and over half of ticket purchases outside of the US and Europe to be mobile-based by 2020. Teams like the Portland Trail Blazers renew season tickets via mobile devices and continue to see fans more comfortable in making both small and large transactions on mobile apps.

While we in the U.S. may think life moves at the speed of digital, we move at a snail’s pace compared to the growth in China, where the average consumer spends 45 hours online a week (10+ over global average). B2C e-commerce in China is expected to grow at a 30% clip from 2016-2020. As sports-related brands seek a global presence (like Barcelona and Real Madrid), teams and vendor partners must focus on engaging fans in the ways fans desire, rather than only what is expedient or profitable in the near term.

The quality of the consumer experience with the brand in online ticketing will determine the winners and losers as the world turns increasingly mobile. How do we know who’s winning? Who’s winning so far?

The BAV-S3 4V® Brand Index

The BrandAsset Valuator (BAV®) database is the largest and leading quantitative, empirical study of brands and consumers. Spanning 16 years, 51 countries, and over 680,000 respondents, BAV is the world’s largest database of brand perceptions; containing ratings on over 43,000 brands on 72 dimensions.

In collaboration with BAV, we developed the S3 4V ® Brand Index that evaluates online brands in terms of three positive dimensions of value, vision, and social vibe and one negative dimension of vanity. Customers favor online brands that demonstrate:

  1. Value: The leader, the best brand online characterized as (having)
    1. good value and worth more,
    2. trustworthy and reliable,
    3. simple and straightforward,
    4. high quality and high performance,
    5. original, authentic, down to earth and traditional
  2. Vision: The progressive, innovative, up-to-date, intelligent, visionary brand that is gaining in online popularity.
  3. Social Vibe: The brand that represents a fun, social, friendly, and charming online persona.

Customers discount or disfavor brands trying to score style-points without substance. Online visitors pick up on signs of Vanity, characterized as attempts to appeal to the upper class on the basis of glamour, style, prestige, sensuality, and trendiness. We find this has a negative effect on regular brand usage.

Together, these four dimensions explain over 50% of consumer usage of the brand. That amount of variance is another important V to consider as brand compete to win customers to their online real estate.

The Winners

The 4V Brand Index covers 278 brands that offer some form of online experience across a dozen sectors. Our index places weights on each of the four Vs in an equation that best predicts brand usage. Scores range from Amazon on the high end (29.02) to ISIS (-7.24) on the low end. Sectors include mobile phones, with iPhone and Samsung Galaxy outclassing all other comers by large margins. More interesting is competition among mobile payment vendors (Amazon Local Register vs. Apple Pay vs. Square), internet tools and services (Google Maps vs. MapQuest), or social media (how is Snapchat doing against Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn?).

But, since we’re all about sports first, that’s where we will begin. The table may be sorted based on the overall index score or each of the 4Vs.

[table id=4 /]

Ticket sellers

Although tickets are only a part of their businesses, eBay and Groupon lead the way in offering online experiences that customers perceive as offering value, vision, and vibe that outweigh attempts to appeal to the vanity of buyers. Given shopper motives for buying online, the strongest predictor of brand usage in our equation is value, followed by brand vision.

Between the two leaders in ticket sales online, eBay’s subsidiary, StubHub (8.56) performs better than Ticketmaster (7.13), primarily due to vision (13.29 vs. 10.52) and social vibe (12.61 vs. 10.54) customers get when they visit their websites or use their mobile apps.

In the future, we will add SeatGeek and VividSeats to the index, two ticket sellers with significant investments in online and mobile ticket distribution.

The Losers

Fan Duel and Draft Kings suffer from high vanity scores and low value scores. Being new and on the cutting edge (vision) helps attract customers, but a brand’s longevity is in question if it cannot deliver value.

On a broader scale, sports teams must be mindful of partnering with online brands with negative personas. The two lowest rated online brands (ISIS and Al Jazerra) clearly aren’t potential partners, but not far behind are Foursquare (4V = .13) and Tinder (4V = .18). Granted, these might target specific fan segments, but the signal sent to all customers may not bode well for the team and its other brand partners. Brands with relatively low 4V scores may be due to overall low market strength and penetration. Customers don’t necessarily hold negative perceptions, but may hold no perceptions at all about the brand.

Looking forward

In future analyses, we will take a closer look at ticket sellers to examine the specific features and drivers of customer online experiences.

What’s new in S3 for 2016-17?

kirk_wakefield 2016, Learn, S3, The S3 Program , , , , , , , , ,
What’s new in S3 for 2016-17?
by Kirk Wakefield – April 2016

April 2016 Newsletter

We have big plans for the 2016-17 academic year. Here’s some of what’s in store!

Friday, November 4, 2016

S3 Senior Pro Day

  • Texas BBQ on Thursday Night:  S3 Advisory Board members meet the students & network with managers the night before interviews.
  • S3 Senior Interviews All-Day Friday: Managers meet each senior for 10 minutes in the morning, speed-dating style; then call back your top draft picks for afternoon interviews.
  • Stay over for the TCU-BU game on Saturday, November 5, 2016.
  • All S3 Advisory board teams and companies are invited to interview our 40 seniors for 2016-17! Board members should feel free to invite HR personnel to join us for the Senior Pro Day!
  • Virtual interviews may also be set-up for those who cannot make the physical trip to Waco.
  • Mark your calendars now. Official invites will arrive via email.

Tuesday & Wednesday, January 17 & 18, 2017

S3 Board Meeting

Based on insights provided by the S3 Executive Council and input from board members, we recognize that focusing on recruiting seniors in November and juniors in January better fits the schedules of many teams and companies. Hiring managers will get to meet every senior at the fall Pro Day and can still interview seniors at the January meetings. An additional benefit is that juniors will have a semester completed in the S3 program and be better prepared to meet board members and interview for internships.

Held right after Martin Luther King Day (1-16-17), the S3 Board meetings will include:

  • Junior Internship Recruitment & Senior Follow-up Interviews:
  • Phillips 66 Banquet & Corporate-Property Networking: Focused time to develop relationships with other S3 Board members.
  • Mentorship Hour: Share career advice with your mentorship group of S3 students. Board members will have the opportunity to volunteer as mentors and role models as a way of giving back to students as they begin their careers.
  • Ticket Insights: Roundtable discussion on pricing analytics presented by new S3 partners Eventellect & Stubhub.
  • Campaign Management: Roundtable discussion on best practices in strategy. Stay tuned, board members, for the opportunity to submit your best campaign strategy to present at the meetings.
  • S3 Brand-Building Brain & Barnstorming: Board members will discuss ways to strengthen and spread the good word about S3, as we continue to grow on a national and international basis.

We thank the S3 Board Members who recruit seniors for full-time positions and juniors for summer internships, as well as provide financial support for the program. We especially thank our anchor (1) corporate partners at Phillips 66, Eventellect, Schlotzsky’s, and La Quinta Inns & Suites, and (2) team partners at the Dallas Cowboys, Houston Texans and Dallas Mavericks. These organizations have gone above and beyond!

Welcome to New Board Members!

Dan Fleetwood, Vice President, Global Sponsorships, SAP

Patrick Ryan, Co-Founder of Eventellect

Geoff Lester, Head of Partnerships & Business Development, StubHub

Katie Scallan, Senior Manager, Engagement Marketing, Gulf States Toyota

Chris Talley, Vice President, Corporate Communications, USAA

Garrett Smith, Manager, National Soccer HOF Club Sales, FC Dallas

Doug McNamee, Senior Associate AD, Baylor

Katy Young, Director of Recruiting, Learfield

We also welcome, Christine Stoffel, CEO, SEAT Consortium, who will share some exciting news with us next month!

This month in the S3 Report we begin features on the culture, values and practices of some of our great team partners. This month, read about the San Antonio Spurs Sports & Entertainment:

Cover Photo: April S3 Club Meeting with San Antonio Spurs Brooke Gaddie (S3 2014) and Lindsay Beale (S3 2010) sharing insights with S3 students.

 

CRM Made Easy: How to Track Account Renewals

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CRM Made Easy: How to Track Account Renewals
by Michael Hurley – September 2015

Are you using your CRM system to project final renewal numbers? Are you able to identify accounts that might be harder to renew?

The Way We Were

In 2012, during my first renewal campaign  with the Houston Astros working with then Director of Season Ticket Services, Alan Latkovic, our “CRM system” was an Excel spreadsheet with every single account listed as a line item and the columns  laid out to reflect “touch points” or times of contact with Season Ticket Holders (example below).

hurley tpm

This method of touch point management worked in lieu of an actual CRM system. But, there isn’t much tracking and it’s not easy to project renewals. When we rolled out Microsoft Dynamics CRM before the 2013 renewal campaign, our eyes were opened to the benefits of tracking renewals. Today, after years of tracking accounts and tendencies, we can project renewal numbers to the percentage point even before we receive the first response.

Using renewal scores we have real-time information on which accounts require a little more “love.” We quickly see which accounts have not responded at all. We strategically plan an offsite visit with them and maybe even take Orbit along.

orbit

Using CRM to Track Renewals

Alan Latkovic (@AlanLatkovic), Senior Director of Season Ticket Services and Operations with the Astros, accentuates the importance of using  CRM to track renewals and project the final renewal numbers.

“With the tools of CRM we are able to score accounts who respond to the initial renewal call daily, monthly, and annually.  Providing this data to our analytics team, we are then able to project renewals and carry the information over each season to create new renewal benchmarks.”

Tracking every conversation and response for each account ultimately makes the big picture become more clear. The Astros use a very simple but effective renewal tracking method throughout the renewal campaign. We categorize accounts based on an initial indication of renewal.  If an account’s initial response to us when they receive their invoice is that they are not renewing, we mark them as “unlikely to renew” in CRM, at the same time if an account lets us know they are planning on renewing and processing the invoice, or “the check is in the mail” we mark them as “likely to renew” in CRM.  Using renewal scores, we can project what an account will do, and by tracking the data of renewal scores over time, we then have an idea of what percentage of accounts in each score grouping will ultimately renew.

The Importance of Tracking Renewals

When it comes down to it, we simply cannot overlook the importance of tracking renewals and building renewal campaigns around the tools of CRM. Katherine Tran, Manager of Membership Services with FC Dallas, stresses the importance of being able to forecast future renewal cycles by using CRM:

“The importance of tracking renewals is second to none.  It allows teams to pinpoint customer trends over the seasons and helps forecast future renewal cycles.  Teams can plan their renewal efforts and campaigns based on data from previous years.”

When following trends in renewals over the years, and knowing which accounts renew and when, a much clearer picture emerges when forecasting renewal numbers.  While using Excel will get the job done, it’s no comparison to the benefits a true CRM system provides.

Cover photo courtesy of Ezhil Ramalingam, India.

 

5 Characteristics of the Best Salespeople in Sports

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5 Characteristics of the Best Salespeople in Sports
by Andre Luck – September 2015

As an Inside Sales Manager I am often asked what the best salespeople do to be the best.  Fortunately, I’ve had the opportunity to manage or mentor over 100 salespeople so far in my career. I have seen many times what the top performing salespeople have done to separate themselves from their peers.  What makes these salespeople great?

Attitude

One of the most important characteristics of a successful salesperson is the attitude you bring to the office every single day.  Although, being positive and having a smile on your face is important, bringing the right attitude to the office is more than just that.  As a salesperson it means fully embracing your role as a salesperson that is tasked with generating revenue for your organization.  It means having a confidence and assertiveness that will help you close sales and overcome tough objections from customers.  And most importantly it means being in total control of how you react to all situations. One of my favorite quotes that I share with every one of my new hires is from Charles Swindoll that says “Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” I tell my salespeople that no one else is in control of your attitude but you.

Work Ethic

When I was a sales rep I took great pride in my work ethic. I look to hire salespeople with a strong work ethic as well.  Sales is a numbers game. More times than not, the people who put in the most work are at or near the top of the sales board.  Come early, stay late, make five more phone calls, set one more face to face appointment, do whatever is needed to put yourself in the best situation to succeed. Hard work is not the only recipe to success, but long term success is impossible without it.

Consistency

It seems simple: Be consistent. Do the little things right every single day.  But, it’s tough to do. Consistency requires great discipline. It’s easy to fall into bad habits.

Travis Baker
Travis Baker

Travis Baker, Inside Sales Manager for the Arizona Diamondbacks says, “There isn’t much that separates the good reps from the great reps on our staff.  Because of our hiring process everyone is talented and everyone works hard.  So it comes down to day in and day out consistency, as well as a refusal to lose.”

Make a conscious effort to stick to the fundamentals. Do the little things right every day that others do not have the discipline to do. It adds up after a full sales campaign.  I always feel more confident in a salesperson’s long term success if s/he produces revenue consistently instead of making a big sale every now and again.

Discomfort

Some of the best advice I ever received: If you are not stepping out of your comfort zone, then you are not challenging yourself to grow.

For most new salespeople, it’s uncomfortable to strike up a conversation with a random stranger. It’s uncomfortable to ask someone you just met (and then tells you no multiple times) to spend thousands of dollars.  But, you are tasked with doing this as a salesperson.  The fear of the unknown is too much of a risk for some. They play it safe. They stick with comfortable.  The best salespeople understand that if they do not take risks–do not get out of their comfort zones–then they will not reach their full potential.

Initiative

All sales reps typically have the same resources at their disposal.  They receive the same training, same types of leads to call, and the same products to sell.

Success comes down to what you do with the opportunity.  Look at inside sales as more than just another job. The best reps see it as the start to their careers.  They are all-in. They give 100% commitment to whatever it takes to be the best.  Losing is never an option.  When things don’t go their way they don’t make excuses. The best reps proactively seek help from a boss, a mentor, or peers. Even when there’s little overall sales momentum, they find ways to create momentum for themselves and their sales team.  During training with new hires I always share a quote from Will Rogers, “Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”