What is the Job of a #Sportsbiz Sales Rep?

One of the more interesting questions I asked in my survey was how a rep saw their job. Was their job to get buyers to like them because people buy from people they like? Was their job just to make sure buyers get information on their products because ticket buyers are generally unaware of our products? Or was their job to truly learn about the buyer and make sure they gave a personalized recommendation to them?

While I believe in my heart that sales is an art, I do believe that analytics can inform art. And the analytics on what a #sportsbiz sales reps job are critically important here. For anyone that's seen my sales trainings, I believe your role is to give a recommendation. And 52% of #sportsbiz sales reps agree with me. The problem is that 48% didn't. And you don't have to be a well-paid analyst to see that that's one out of every two.

And why do I believe that that's correct? I started my sales career at a company called CEB, who, in 2011, wrote a book called The Challenger Sale, which fundamentally changed the way that everyone from progressive Fortune 500 companies, to progressive mom-and-pop shops saw the role of a sales rep.

As the chart on the right will show (from The Challenger Sale & repeatablesuccess.com), as long as it is a low complexity sale, the hard-working sales rep (Hard Worker) or the independent results-focused rep (Lone Wolf) will be most successful. The problem is that we do not sell a low complexity product. A low complexity product is something businesses or people absolutely can't do without. Tickets, no matter how much value we think they have, are not that. People live every day lives without going to games. Businesses have succeeded for years without utilizing tickets.

We are a high complexity product. Businesses and people can benefit from our product, but they don't need our product. And that is why it is critical that we look at our job as making recommendations. Or, in other words, challenge the way that people think traditionally (secondary market or individual tickets) about them. We live in an age when people have access to information. They don't need MORE information. They need information to be condensed, personalized, and recommended.

We also sell an emotional product. That emotion needs to be a consistent part of the process. When you aim to get someone to like you, you tend to downplay the product and emotion towards the product. When you aim to get someone information, you have literally divorced emotion from process entirely. Learning about what their favorite memories are, how they brought out to games and why, talking about their favorite part of the games, etc. all give you critical information...but they also put the buyer back in the stadium. And one thing we know is that people love being in our stadium...it's all the other bulls**t that keeps them from coming back.

'So, Brett, get to it. What is the job of a #sportsbiz sales rep?'

It's to learn enough about the prospect so you can make a personalized recommendation, all while playing up the emotion of the product. You do that and you'll maximize your success selling this highly complex product. BOOM!