how to leverage sporting events to grow your business
TRANSCRIPT
How To Leverage
Sporting Events To Grow Your Business:
A Step-By-Step Guide to
Engaging Employees and Clients
The purpose of this guide is to provide
you with industry-proven best practices
for using live events as a business tool.
Please use this as a resource to help you
maximize your return on investment
from your Illinois State University athletic
tickets. Examples provided may not
apply to all businesses and is
dependent upon the intent of your ticket
purchase.
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Introduction
Table of Contents
Introduction ………………….......... p. 2
Intent of Ticket Purchase……….... p. 3
Benefits from Ticket Programs…... p. 4
Best Practice Plans………………... p. 5
New Business Development…….. p. 6-7
Client Retention/Relations………. p. 8
Employee Engagement…………. p. 9-10
Community Appeal………………. p. 11
Company Incentives/Initiatives... p. 12
Maximizing Your Utilization............ p. 13
Sports entertainment can be a valuable
resource to help you grow your business.
Company seats can help set your business
apart from your competition.
When considering tickets to Redbird athletic
events, take a moment to examine the
following factors to see if a ticket investment is
right for your company:
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How do you differentiate
your business
from your
competition?
Identify Intent
• What are the primary goals and initiatives for your
company?
• What trends have you noticed within your industry, market, and competition that set businesses up for success?
• How are you adapting to keep up with the competition or to stay ahead of the market?
• How have you gone about improving your business
objectives and what results have you seen from these efforts?
• What have you done differently this year that you didn’t do last year?
After reviewing these objectives, you can narrow down a program to help you grow your business and receive maximum return on your investment.
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How do you
determine
priorities for
your
business?
Outcome Driven
The success of your ticket purchase
should be measured against specific
outcomes. Most companies build their
ticket program around their clients,
employees or both. Before you can
develop a plan on how to use your
tickets, consider the importance of the
following:
• Client retention
• Employee satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction
• Sales contests
• Safety incentives
• Employee recognition
• Talent acquisition & retention
• Maintaining key clients
• Vendor relations
• Customer relationships
• New business development
• Revenue growth from existing customers
When putting together a plan on the best use of your seats, consider all of your options. After you establish intent and a plan, you can measure the effectiveness of your ticket purchase by reviewing results.
This next section provides you with
action plans to put your tickets to
use. You’ll find action plans to help with:
• New Business Development
• Client Retention
• Employee Engagement
• Community Appeal
• Company Incentives
These approaches are not the only ways to
utilize your seats, but rather a collection of
best practices used by businesses across the country.
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Action Plans
The following is a proven plan on how to utilize your seats for new business
development. Customize this plan to provide the best opportunity for you to
enhance relationships with your customers.
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Athletic
events offer
your sales
team the
opportunity
to spend 2-3
hours with
key clients in
a relaxed
and
memorable
setting.
New Business Development
Step 1
Have your sales team identify in writing key
accounts for new business.
Step 2
Allocate your tickets amongst your sales staff. Ask each member of your sales team to attend at least one game with a key prospect. Remember, relationship sales is a process. Giving away tickets is a less effective relationship builder than attending with a client. You wouldn’t ask your sales team to invite clients to lunch or golf without them attending , too, would you?
Step 3
Have your sales team invite the prospect to
attend – using “the [President’s/CEO’s/Bosses’]
seats!” Season seats are the only way to sit in a
premium location. Pointing this out will only add
to your company prestige. If it is a really
important client, consider attending yourself.
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Position your
company or
services to
close the
deal.
New Business Development
Step 4
Keep the conversations casual. This is a time to allow you to develop a relationship with your customer and build trust. Bring up business in small doses while at the event. When discussing business, use this time to ask questions and learn more about your customers. 2-3 hours at a live event is an exceptional way to learn from your customers in a relaxed environment.
Step 6
Position your product or services to close the
sale. Continue to build relationships after the
deal is done – see retention strategies
Step 5
Follow up. Perhaps you learned something from your client about your competitors or more about their needs. Use the information you learned from the client to create an effective sales pitch.
Consider Alternatives -
• Keep your engagement strategy fresh. Consider all
alternatives, but make sure that your customer
feels important. By now, you should have a much
better understanding of the customer’s interests.
The most effective companies utilize multiple
engagement strategies that include more than
live events or lunches.
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There’s a
great chance
your
competitors
are also trying
to gain an
edge.
Client Retention
Customer Appreciation Events –
• If your customers belong to a similar network, you
might consider a customer appreciation or
hospitality event. This provides you with a way to
engage your clients while reaching a larger
audience. You offer networking opportunities
that position your company as a leader.
Consider enhancing the event with
promotional materials from your company.
Expanded use of Company Seats -
• For games that you are not utilizing your company
seats for other purposes, consider offering them to
clients. Encourage them to invite a client of theirs.
Now that you have a plan for generating
new business, you must also consider
strategies for retaining your customers. If
you’re aggressively pursuing new business,
there’s a great chance your competitors
are also following suit. Continue to engage
customers to ensure their loyalty. Consider
the following strategies.
Ask yourself the following questions to see if your company is lagging in employee satisfaction:
• Are your employees routinely arriving late or taking long lunches?
• Do your employees appear to simply be going through the motions?
• Is turnover higher than expected?
• Are you missing out on top candidates?
• Has participation declined in non-mandatory activities?
• Do your employees appear tired or disinterested?
If you answered no to these questions, congratulations! You’re probably already taking steps to engage your employees. You might already be a leader in company involvement. If so, consider tickets as part of your engagement strategy.
If you find yourself repeatedly answering yes to these questions, it may be too late. You need to start an action plan now to change your company culture. Tickets can help, but are not a magic wand to instantly improve your culture. 9
Employee Engagement
Customers aren’t the only important part of your business. You need to have the
right people to ensure your business is run smoothly and effectively.
Taking steps to build your relations with
employees will help to:
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Your best
employees
would also
be a great
asset to your
competitors.
Employee Engagement
• Improve loyalty. Your top employees are
coveted by your competitors and possibly
your clients. Take necessary steps to retain
your top employees.
• Recruit to new talent by staying ahead of
your competitors . Non-traditional perks such
as ticket availability provides you with an
affordable way to set your business apart.
• Motivate your workforce by creating a
supportive environment. Employees that
feel appreciated and taken care of are
more willing to go the extra mile.
• Provide opportunities for a better work-life
balance.
Tickets are another resource to help support
these initiatives. Employees that feel supported
will continue to embrace new challenges.
Company outings and season ticket availability
use different approaches, but both work to
boost employee morale and help you attract
top talent.
• Include your seats with raffle prizes for community events.
• Offer your seats to the winners of your company-sponsored initiatives. Include your seats as prizes for: – Highest participation for volunteer programs
– Health initiatives
– Educational outreach programs
– Employee recognition programs
– Community nominee programs
• Offer seats to not-for-profit organizations that your company supports to help them achieve their goals
• Provide tickets to youth sports programs which your company supports
Community appeal is not a result of being a ticket holder, but rather a result of your company culture. Corporate ticket holders simply have more opportunity to leverage their tickets to help with their existing community outreach initiatives.
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Corporate
ticket holders
tend to be
leaders within
the
community.
Community Appeal
Corporate ticket holders tend to be more
involved in the community. If public
appeal is important to your company, you
likely have programs in place to support
your community. Tickets are a perfect
compliment to your existing programs. Here
are some examples on how to utilize your
tickets to boost your community appeal:
An added benefit to intra-personal
initiatives is cost savings that your
company receives from other areas. Your
company tickets make a great incentive
for the following initiatives.
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Utilize your
tickets to help reduce costs
to save your
company
money.
Incentives
Offer your seats to the winners of your existing company-sponsored initiatives. Include your seats as prizes for:
• Highest participation for volunteer programs
• Health initiatives
• Educational outreach programs
• Employee recognition programs
• Community nominee programs
• Safety initiatives
By utilizing your seats
as incentives, you are
investing in an
innovative culture for
your company. These
ideas also help you to
reduce costs in other
areas of your operations.
If you feel tickets are a good resource for
your company, identify a strategy to
maximize your return. Wasted tickets in
your desk drawer do not do any good.
Now that you have identified the reasons
for your ticket purchase, consider a plan
to ensure that your tickets are used for
their intended purpose.
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Identify the right staff
members to coordinate your ticket program
to maximize your return.
Ticket Utilization
If necessary, delegate a representative to
coordinate ticket distribution. Make sure this
person is enthusiastic about the ticket opportunity
and the intent of your ticket purchase. Consider
the following to oversee your ticket program
based on the intent of your purchase:
• Sales Manager
• Human Resources Manager
• Account Managers
• Office Manager
• Personal Assistant
If you wish to be more accessible to your staff,
you might consider distributing tickets yourself.
This would allow more accountability if the ticket
intent is for business development. If tickets are
for employee morale, they can help make you
more approachable to your employees.
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For More Information
For more suggestions
on how your company
can use seats, contact the
Illinois State University
Athletics Department today.
Call us at (309) 438-1626.