THE SOLUTION

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5 IMG LEARFIELD TICKET SOLUTIONS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2013

STARTING THE YEAR OFF RIGHT

by AJ Arem

Regional Manager (Southeast)

Many companies and employees

tend to suffer from a holiday

hangover when starting back up

after the New Year. Often times

an “easing in” period follows that

can last through the month of

January and even into February,

before everyone is functioning on

all cylinders. This common prac-

tice is detrimental to success and

can lead to playing catch up on

sales goals the rest of the year.

How do we combat this?

Personal Accountability: Control

what you can control both per-

sonally and professionally. Get-

ting a good night sleep, eating

right and exercising regularly can

really make a big difference on

your attitude at work. We are all

very fortunate to work for a great

company. Bring your “A” game to

the office everyday and the re-

sults will speak for themselves.

Strive to Learn More: Challenge

yourself to read sales and leader-

ship articles weekly. Pick up

some good books (i.e. DRIVE by

Daniel Pink) and set a goal to

complete one every other month.

Share your reads with colleagues

(make others around you better).

The more you put into your craft,

the more you will get out of it.

Lead by Example: As GMs and Ac-

count Executives we have the op-

portunity to positively impact our

staffs, peers, administrators and

customers every day by working

hard and working smart. Work

ethic (Call Volume, Pitches, Refer-

rals), while not taught, can be in-

fectious. Set the standard for

those you work with and assuredly

others will follow.

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 3)

IMG LEARFIELD TICKET SOLUTIONS IN ACTION!

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5 THE SOLUTION PAGE 2

DECEMBER NUMBERS ARE IN!

$1,104,951

NEW TICKET REVENUE

$2,989,920

TOTAL REVENUE (NEW SALES + RENEWALS)

OUTBOUND CALLS

57,785

San Jose player high fives youth basketball team! Wyoming player excites the crowd with a dunk!

Penn State staff honoring military personnel! Half-time group performance at Auburn! Bud Walton Arena packed for game against Gators!

UNI tipping off against Drake! Oklahoma knocks off Iowa State! Youth Dance Team performs at USC game!

Have Fun Achieving Goals: While we

all work in a high impact, no non-

sense industry, selling the “College

Sports Experience” should be very

rewarding and enjoyable. Have fun

competing for the top spot on the

sales board with your colleagues

(establish creative sales contests).

Have fun building relationships and

selling season tickets to your cus-

tomers (invite them to events).

Have fun selling ticket packages on

game days (thousands of people to

talk to). Have fun achieving your

short term (daily, weekly, monthly)

and long term sales and career

goals. The more you sell, the more

FUN you will have. Utilize your MVP

Sales Training to maximize these

opportunities.

Be proactive, don’t wait for some-

one else. Now is the time to set the

tone for the rest of the year.

How are you starting the New Year?

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5 IMG LEARFIELD TICKET SOLUTIONS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER PAGE 3

STARTING THE YEAR OFF RIGHT

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1)

Eric Vasquez

January 25th

General Manager

Air Force

Jeff Kaminski

January 27th

General Manager

UNlV

“Our partnership with IMG

Learfield has moved the

ticketing needle at Northern

Iowa from passive to ac-

tive. We have been able to

take ticketing beyond a

simple transaction and now

can treat ticketholders with

the same value we place

upon our do-

nors. Additionally, we con-

tinue to gain valuable in-

sight into improving the

game day experience for

those ticket purchasers.

The expertise IMG Learfield

brings to our campus puts

us in a position to succeed

at our highest

level. Ultimately, that

measure defines the value

of any partnership. We look

forward to the future with

our IMG Learfield partners.”

Troy Dannen

Director of Athletics

UNI

“Setting NCAA inaugu-

ral game and inaugural

season football atten-

dance records would

have been impossible

without IMG Collge. We

have just two ticket

managers on staff, and

IMG provides the man-

power to run an effec-

tive telemarketing op-

eration, providing ex-

perienced managers

who know the athletics

ticket business. Had we

tried to hire, train, and

manage our own sales

force, it would have

been virtually impossi-

ble to attract the quan-

tity and quality of sales

people provided by IMG

in our first year of foot-

ball."

Brad Parrott

Senior Associate AD

UTSA

Benjamin Coburn

1/13/14

Account Executive

USF

Curtis Walker

1/13/14

Account Executive

USF

Erin Hellen

1/6/14

Account Executive

Penn State

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5 THE SOLUTION PAGE 4

Research shows that the average

salesperson, after asking a ques-

tion, waits no more than 2-3 sec-

onds before rephrasing the ques-

tion, answering it themselves or

moving on to another topic.

If you're like most sellers, silence

drives you crazy. When you're talk-

ing with a prospective customer

and there's a brief lull in the dis-

cussion, I bet you jump right in to

fill it.

Am I right? Research shows that

the average salesperson, after ask-

ing a question, waits no more than

2-3 seconds before rephrasing the

question, answering it themselves

or moving on to another topic.

And my experience shows that nor-

mal sellers have NO idea that

they're doing this.

Let me ask you a question: What is

the one single thing that you or

your company could do in the up-

coming 12 months that would dra-

matically impact your sales?

(one thousand one ... one thousand

two .. one thousand three)

I mean, if you really thought about

it, what's causing you the most

trouble in your sales efforts?

(one thousand one ... one thousand

two ... one thousand three)

I've been studying a lot about the

challenges that salespeople are

struggling with these days. They're

really having trouble getting their

foot in the door of big companies.

Once they're in, it's really difficult

to get people to change from the

status quo. And, because of today's

business climate, corporate deci-

sion makers are so risk averse.

Are you finding that to be the case?

Which of those issues are causing

you the most frustration?

(one thousand one ... one thousand

two ... one thousand three)

Have you thought about how you

could make it easier for you? I

mean, like what kinds of marketing

initiatives you could undertake?

(one thousand one ... one thousand

two ... one thousand three)

Okay. I'll stop now. Hopefully you

got my point about the continual

rephrasing and butting in that sell-

ers do after they ask a question.

(For those of you who aren't famil-

iar with "one thousand one ..."

phrases, that's how we in America

are taught to count off a second of

time. Each one thousand is another

second.)

What I really wanted to point out is

what was lost because of the lack

of silence.

Here's the 1st question again:

"What is the one single thing that

you or your company could do in

the upcoming 12 months that

would dramatically impact your

sales?"

That's a provocative question. Deci-

sion makers can't answer it with a

simple pat answer.

It makes them stop and think,

"Hmmmm. What would that one

thing be? New offerings? More

calls? Additional money in our

marketing budget? Which would

have the most impact?"

That's what you want them to do.

Then when they answer you'll learn

a whole lot about what's going on in

their organization, what the big

challenges are, the decision

maker's perspective on the issues

and solutions and so much more.

But they can't think of all that in

just two or three seconds.

They need much longer to ponder

the question, to play around with it

in their mind and to sort through

their options.

THE POWER OF SILENCE

by Jill Konrath

Article found on Sales Gravy

Jill Konrath, a leading-edge sales

strategist and business advisor, is a

popular speaker at national sales

meetings and association events.

www.jillkonrath.com

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 5)

VOLUME 1, ISSUE 5 IMG LEARFIELD TICKET SOLUTIONS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER PAGE 5

In fact, research shows they need 8

-10 seconds to formulate the start

of their answer. And once they get

talking, they think of more ideas.

When you cut them off at only 2-3

seconds, you lose in more ways

than you can imagine.

You don't get the benefit of your

good question. You never learn

all the good stuff they could be

telling you if you'd just kept

your mouth shut a little longer.

When you don't learn all this

info, it's so much harder to sell

anything because you don't

know how your offering can

make the biggest difference to

your customer.

Besides that, your customer

thinks that you're self-serving

and only interested in achieving

your own objectives. (Isn't that

what you think when people

keep cutting you off?)

You don't establish a positive

relationship with the person, so

they really don't want to meet

with you again. And all this

happens because you don't

know how to count beyond

three.

The value of silence in selling is

rarely talked about. Mostly people

focus on what they're going to say.

Instead, I suggest that you try a bit

more silence. Ask a question, lean

back and start counting to yourself.

Start at one thousand one and keep

right on going.

If you hit one thousand ten and still

don't have a response, then you can

rephrase or interject something.

But not before.

At first you'll be absolutely miser-

able doing this. (This is the voice of

experience talking!) Nothing will

seem harder. You'll be squirming

and dying to jump in.

Don't do it! Keep counting silently

to yourself.

Your prospective customers will

start talking. You'll learn a whole

lot more. You'll strengthen your

relationships. They'll think you're

smarter, more credible and more

caring.

Silence is truly golden. Give it a try!

THE POWER OF SILENCE

(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4)

Patrick Nowlin started his career

with IMG Learfield Ticket Solutions

at Auburn University as an Account

Executive in August 2012.

In May 2013, his sales accomplish-

ments afforded him a promotion to

Sr. Account Executive . Patrick has

generated $678,879 in total ticket

revenue and $197,280 in total do-

nations.

Wes England, General Manager of

Auburn, says, “Whenever Patrick is

challenged, he always figures out a

way to get the job done, especially

if it involves one of his clients.”

Prior to joining IMG Learfield Ticket

Solutions, Patrick was an Associate

Account Executive for the Nashville

Predators, a professional ice

hockey team. He is a proud gradu-

ate of Middle Tennessee State Uni-

versity where he received a Mas-

ter’s degree in Sports Manage-

ment.

AJ Arem, Regional Manager of the

Southeast describes Patrick as

“our top revenue producer in the

Southeast region. He does a tre-

mendous job utilizing his MVP

sales training to maximize every

revenue-generating opportunity,

whether it be on the phone or dur-

ing an in-person meeting.”

Those who know Patrick will be the

first to tell you he is a huge Auburn

fan. He was named after Auburn’s

former Heisman Trophy Winner,

the great Patrick Sullivan. Appro-

priately, Patrick’s favorite phrase is

and will always be “War Eagle!”

EMPLOYEE SPOTLIGHT!

Patrick Nowlin

Auburn University