It certainly seems like we have started to turn the corner with the NFL Playoffs marching forward, the NBA playing (fingers crossed with the recent Covid cancellations), and the NHL underway. Sports sales departments seem to be hiring staff members again but many seem to be doing so the same way they did before the pandemic. Things are not going to be just like they were before.
A number of teams are rebuilding their inside sales departments bringing in a fresh crop of impressionable salespeople to develop. The problem is, the sales that need to be made are more challenging than they have been in quite some time. Also, as I have looked deeper into it, it certainly appears that the number of sales an average inside salesperson makes that would not already happen without their efforts is minimal. Does it really make sense to put the least capable people (simply based on their life experience to date) in charge of the sales that are so hard to come by? This is not a shot at the people in those programs, just the reality of the situation we are in.
Rather than offer something new, it seemed better to share something I wrote over the summer that really dug in on the value of inside sales. For those of you who have not yet made the decision on what to do with your team, I urge you to take a look at what fits right now rather than what made sense when you were starting your sports career.
From June 17th, 2020:
It is nearly impossible to find something that we do today in the same way we did 20 years ago. Phone calls, watching TV, and selling people- all these things happen in a vastly different way than they did 20 years ago (and for good reason). Technology has made those things better and it would feel preposterous to go back to the way it used to be. Yet somehow, in ticket sales, we continue to piece together inside sales teams every year in the same manner we did 20 years ago. Why?
Before jumping any further, let me clarify. Sports teams historically have not used the term "inside sales" to mean Inside Sales as it is known in the business world. Clubs have used it as a placeholder for entry-level sales programs whose members oftentimes spend a good chunk of time inside the office but also are urged to set meetings/tours. Over the past few years, many teams have renamed their inside sales programs- business development, sales associate program, sales development to name a few - to make them more marketable to candidates and, they hope, to potential buyers who those people talk to. For ease, you will see me use the term inside sales moving forward. If you happen to work for a team that uses a different vernacular, please understand the following mantra also applies to you.
I started my career in 2001 on a team of Inside Sales interns with the Philadelphia Eagles. My job was to call as many people as I could on any given day to try to sell them season tickets between the two scoreboards in the infamous 700 level of Veteran Stadium. You could not see a replay but you were in the building!
I did not get the best leads (my favorites were the business cards collected at various networking events attended by the more senior sellers) or the best inventory to sell but still played a role in the overall success of the sales department. Sales were closed over the phone, occasionally through a meeting at the stadium, and less frequently through email. The team existed to find a few team members to play a larger role in the sales department moving forward.
Fast forward to today, Inside Sales teams, in most cases, still go after lesser leads and try to sell smaller packages or cheaper seats to fans. They still make lots of touchpoints - the modern term for phone calls, emails, and stadium tours- in hopes of closing deals. The key driver behind maintaining an inside sales program remains to put butts in seats and to find people to help fill out a team's sales department.
I wonder, for two very specific reasons, why this trend continues and actually has grown. My Inside Sales program in 2001 consisted of 6 people. Today, it is normal to see an Inside Sales group with upwards of 30 people. Look at the resources it takes to build out a team of 30 individuals- many of whom we expect to fail. It goes well beyond the salary, commission, and benefits we pay. It includes office space, added infrastructure we need to build, the drain on our recruitment staff (which could very well be you and your immediate subordinates), travel, and hiring and firing costs.
I understand that Inside Sales is where we normally identify talent to build out our sales team. But what is our success rate? Ten Percent? I am the only member of my Inside Sales "class" who still works in the sports industry. Even if other classes produce a higher success rate, do we even have space for all the "good" people to join our sales teams? I find it hard to show that it is worth the investment.
So what should a sales leader do with those budget dollars?
So what should a sales leader do with those budget dollars?
Invest in technology -Consumers have been flocking to online experiences to make purchases for years, and that was before the pandemic gave everyone a new level of confidence. Much of the cheaper ticket inventory can be sold through online channels with the support of virtual seating, marketing platforms that mimic the proper sales cadence, and even bots that can answer the vast majority of customer questions. Many other industries have been taking advantage of this technology for years, this seems like a convenient time to remind my fellow sports executives that we are seldom as cutting edge as we think we are.
Outsource - Have we not learned over the past few months that salespeople can be pretty productive outside of the office? We do not need people in the office to make sales, so, rather than putting the burden on our internal team, why not outsource to a company that can benefit from the economies of scale of working with several different teams? Put the onus to recruit, manage, and teach on the shoulders of someone else (that you can hold accountable) and free up time for your sales leaders to think strategically. As for the developing the people you need to fill out your sales organization, let the outsourcing company handle that for you too. The best part is you can skip spending time and energy with the 80% of people who do not meet the mark and only reap the rewards of working with the top performers.
Throw some money towards analytics - The wiser we become in lead targeting, the less sales energy we need to close deals. The growth of analytics over the past decade or so in sports has been tremendous, but many teams still struggle to put enough support behind the people that identify trends, revenue opportunities, and ideal lead sources. The best analytics operations we have seen go well beyond divvying out leads to your salespeople- they conquer projects to make sure you "fish where the fish are".
Many of the sports executives I speak with are fresh off rounds of furloughs and layoffs as their teams try to survive until people are allowed, or comfortable, back in buildings. With these staff changes the opportunity to reshape our sales departments, to make them more fiscally sound, is right in front of us. Let's use all the resources available to us to make a stronger business for ourselves and our fan bases. And let's make sure we are not operating the same way in 2040.
It is a tough decision to make to turn your back on your future sales prospects. It may seem short sighted but we still have quite some time to go until buildings are full of passionate fans. Maybe hedge you bet? We have previously talked about the challenging spot that premium salespeople are in selling to the corporate market right now. Perhaps you could redirect some of the efforts of those people to help make the sales we need right now?
It is a tough spot and we at the Strategic Sports Group are happy to talk through things to help.
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Evan Gitomer is a contributor to The Strategic Sports Group newsletter.