What EXACTLY to Say to Sell the Positive
We posted a blog last week talking about the idea of 'leaning in to good news.' Last night, as a new wave of states positively discussed playing without sports, a #sportsbiz rep who read the article sent me this question:
I'm really excited by all the positive news, and I get your article, but what, exactly, am I supposed to say to potential customers?
There is some nuance to this. You can't promise that we'll play with fans...we won't right away. You can't promise when we'll play with fans...that hasn't even been broached yet. You can't even promise, despite the good news, if we'll play games this year...no league has made that announcement. So as positive as this is...what can you actually say?
I'll take a crack at it:
I'm so excited to be able to reach out to you today. We've been waiting a long time for real, positive news, and it looks like the states are finally aligning with the leagues to get something done to play games and play games with fans. Our office and social media have had a TON of inquiries about when fans will be back...and I wanted to see just how interested you would be in TALKING ABOUT OUR TICKET PLANS/PUTTING A DEPOSIT DOWN/BUYING OUR FLEX PACKAGE/TALKING MORE DETAILS ABOUT YOUR GROUP/DISCUSSING OUR PREMIUM SEATING OPTIONS. The last thing I'd want is for you to miss our first few games back...the emotion for sports is incredible, and those will not be games to miss. Know it may not be perfect timing, but ok to have that conversation?
Few things I did there:
Established excitement from the jump.
Created common ground about being excited for good news.
Created FOMO through office and social media inquiries.
Created FOMO AND urgency about the games when they're back.
Showed empathy that timing still may not work.
Asked permission to move forward in converation.
That was all done in about 20 seconds. Today's a big day to get back in front of fans. There's light at the end of the tunnel. SEIZE IT!