Building Sport Societies

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  2-SPORTS SALES CULTURE

  Presenting the word “sales” in the lexicon of international sports business can be divisive. Telemarketing in the U.S. and its potential use overseas can have unpleasant connotations. But there can be a customer sales culture regardless of whether a sports organization wants to direct message contact each of its constituents. That means building an environment of acceptance, as well as fostering the potential for revenue growth, because of the fan experience. That is the essence of customer sales culture.

  Consider the club revenue operations as an ecosystem. Each component works in conjunction with the other. The parking ancillary is fed by the number of cars in the lot, based on a statistical average based on tickets sold. The concessionaire and merchandise counters are fed by the same ticket component which derives specific attendance numbers. Each is based on the fact that the attendee is in a buying mood, because they have purchased their right to enter the building to be sold on other facets of the sports business.

  This is where sports business tends to fail. The imagery on the field and the pageantry of winning only have so much relevance in whether the venture is successful, if the other ancillaries inside the stadium are not fed. If every fan merely purchased a ticket to enter the building, then sat on her hands and refused to spend any money on further ancillaries, especially concessions, the business would collapse. This is why building a customer sales culture is imperative to the survival of the club.

  Every club should have a sales department. This is a necessary component to grow the sports business ecosystem. Customer service should rise in importance above all else. This means that the sports business understands that they exist to help the customer understand their options. They allow the customer to engage further with the product and to achieve further financial transactions through sales. Every customer should feel that he can arrive at the stadium, have his needs attended to within reason, and be catered to with the belief that he is heavily important to the entire sports business ecosystem of the club.

  The notion that 3,000 outbound sales calls will generate 300 good leads, which will create 30 sales, which will create 3 season ticket sales, is a cyclic issue. Sports business should be more than that. It should be about the growth of overall revenue, building customer value, beyond the telemarketing outbound sales effort. At the end of it all, after those 30 sales from 300 good leads from 3,000 outbound sales calls overall, there needs to be a renewal factor involved. It doesn’t matter whether there are 30 or 300 sales on an initial purchase, they have to end up renewing for the groundwork to be laid.

  Therein lies the ultimate issue with an outbound sales effort. It may work on the short term to get buyers involved, but if they are not kept beyond one cycle, they are not growing the business, but merely creating measurement bumps. Instead, this should be about helping every customer with seating options that feed the stadium ancillaries. If the growth model of sports business is not to funnel revenue into all ancillary components (tickets, parking, concessions, merchandise, etc), then it is failing on a remarkably large scale.

  Each customer wants to discover a specialized option for their entertainment dollar. Even within the larger scope of a standard entertainment venue, the customer wants specific, core experiences that are tailored to wants, needs and desires. This is where sports business often fails its customers, causing the majority to not receive what they believe they are paying for. Every sports franchise wants to increase revenue, not decrease it. The best option is to create specific packaging toward each individual customer experience in order to sell as much of the product as possible.

  Several venues attempt sell tickets to a general admission portion of the stadium. This counteracts the specifically-tailored experience model of a customer sales culture. By creating more expansive reserved sections within the stadium, the sports marketer is able to allow customer access to specific sections viewing the field. This about the idea of territory being used to specifically design the customized experience for the fan.

  By moving to a reserved section mode, the stadium and franchise are allowing the authority of a customer’s spend to dictate the seating choice. This is about defining territory within the stadium, as well as conditioning the surroundings to a customer’s liking. This is important as it enhances the fan experience by allowing sections with like-minded appeal. A fan who does not drink can sit in a section designed specifically alcohol-free. A fan who wants to cheer and shout can be surrounded next to other fans who want to do so as well.

  Territory is about establishing the rights of the individual within a certain amount of space. The focus is on the loyalty aspect of a sport’s fan allegiance to team as well as the ability to claim affiliation in certain areas. Certain supporters consider themselves to be more firm supporters than others, because of the amount of money they are willing to spend to financially boost the club. This is an important distinction within the fan membership model: the idea of separation between the fans who are perceived to care by putting more monetary financial support behind their team’s operations and those who are not perceived to care as much because of their lack of financial support.

  By creating territories, the club establishes a line of demarcation. Those fans who wish to foster the perception of their importance of financial support to the club will buy in further to gain territory as well as access. This provides these supporters with the right to show off their allegiance and proclaim their intrinsic value within the organization. But this is also about creating a conversation within various organization stakeholder groups. The fan membership model goal should be pushing each fan toward purchasing a larger membership package, in order to display their perceived allegiance of club to their surrounding supporters, and affiliating with the colors and brand of the organization.

  Sales culture in sport has an unpleasant connotation. It has affiliated itself with an abhorrent nature and negative imagery of what a sale is to the sports fan. This is a perception both untrue, and also ill-willed by the sport laymen who may be sitting in the club’s executive offices. Sales culture is about establishing various touch points throughout the stadia and city, where the customer has the ability to be given a deciding factor whether to initiate a well-informed purchase of the product or its ancillaries. This is less about the persuasive nature of a few smooth-talkers or branding messages from an advertising slogan. This is about providing an experience which sells the fan on the environment around them.