Direct Sales Techniques

1. Direct Sales Techniques Chapter 5

2. Media, Sponsors & Fans Explain the “water tower” concept with respect to media, sponsors & fans. When the water tower is full, water pressure is high—pressure on fans to buy tickets while they are available. This places pressure on media to provide coverage. Media coverage pressures sponsors into making the media buy to reach those fans. If the water tower isn’t full, no pressure to get your tickets, for media to cover the event, or sponsors to buy.

3. The text discusses five factors that “cause” customers to perform or fail to perform (buy). One of these is really the result of the other four. Which one is it? Using the Rangers’ sales materials, explain the effect of the other four factors on customer performance (viz., purchases). Quality: 70-88, .433 (2003) Time: How much time would a person have to have to make the different packages worthwhile? Cost: Who can afford to pay the costs associated with the different packages? Fit: How do the game packages fit with different customer lifestyles? These four factors determine the quantity purchased by customers. Defining Sales

4. Every customer is unique Rapport & trust-building Ask questions Listening View as asset with a lifetime value Customize, personalize Empathetic Find mutually beneficial solutions Aftermarketing All customers are the same Misrepresent to make sale Tell them what they want Talking Sell today, gone tomorrow. One presentation fits all Ignorant Win the sale. “We’ve got your money.” Customer-focused SellingWhat are the opposites of a customer-focus?When did you last experience someone with a product-focus?

5. EDuselling • Suppose you work for the Rangers. What are the key components of Eduselling in this context? • Define it • How long does it go on? • What do you need to monitor? • What does eduselling ensure? p.104

6. What do the Rangers have to sell? If you could have primary sales responsibility for a certain product category, which would you choose? Why? (remember that you get paid on base + commission) Naming rights Electronic (TV, radio, web) Signage (boards, marquees, field, concourse, turnstiles, virtually any open space) Print (programs, media guides, newsletters, ticket backs & envelopes, scorecards, faxes, emails?) Tickets/hospitality (parking, club areas, season tkts, club seats, suites, PSLs, groups, parties/special events) Promotions (premium items, on-field promos, video scoreboard ads, pre-/post-game entertainment) Community programs (schools, camps/clinics, banquets/luncheons/ dinners, golf tourneys, etc.) Miscellaneous (fantasy camps, cruises, road trips, etc.) Components of a Sale

7. sAle • What’s wrong with this phone sales person? • How well do you think he does in his job?

8. If you worked in sales for the Rangers’ in the tickets & hospitality area, where would you get your leads? Groups with baseball interests (little league, etc.) Past ticket buyers (online, phone, credit card) Contest cards Coupon, etc. redemption General inquiries Referrals Lists (attorneys, dr.’s, etc.) saLe

9. salE • What is your assessment of the “equity” offered by the different products the Rangers have to sell? • Which offer the best opportunity for a win-win situation? Which don’t?

10. Effective Salespeople Like You Which of these can you personally choose to improve? Trustworthy Empathy Persistence Competitiveness Accountability Responsibility Integrity Optimism Understand mission Understand prospects Teachable Asks & listens Knows product benefits Able to illustrate product benefits Able to persuade prospects to agree on benefits Asks for sale Reinforces sale Overcomes rejection Make buyers feel like they chose Are salespeople born or made?

11. Effective Salespeople Like You Which of these can you personally choose to improve? Trustworthy Empathy Persistence Competitiveness Accountability Responsibility Integrity Optimism Understand mission Understand prospects Teachable Asks & listens Knows product benefits Able to illustrate product benefits Able to persuade prospects to agree on benefits Asks for sale Reinforces sale Overcomes rejection Make buyers feel like they chose Are salespeople born or made?

12. Who are your most valuable customers? How would you use the frequency escalator idea in prioritizing your sales calls in your job with the Rangers? Why are potential customers not current customers? Current customers Target low/med/high users and try to convert them into the next higher level (increase frequency) Inadequate Interest Comprehension Access Resources Loyalty/satisfaction The Customer

13. Butterfly customers • What are they? • Do these customers really “replace the loyal customers of the past?” • What risks do you see in trying to attract the butterfly customer?

14. The Sales Presentation • What does the audience expect to gain from the information? • What one thing do you want them to recall? • What materials will best convey the impression you want to make? Group Discussion: Are the Rangers properly employing full-menu marketing? Explain. You are making a phone sales call to prospects for each of the six seat-related products (p.114) for the Rangers. For each type of product, • identify the most likely target, • what information they most likely expect or need to know, and • determine what one thing (benefit) you want that target audience to remember from your sales call.

15. Direct (e)mail Individually: • Design an email (copy, graphics) that you would send to individuals who bought tickets for 5-9 games in 2003 for the Rangers. • Make sure it is self-explanatory, clear, & focused…with clear instructions. • Should be: • Targeted • Personal • Measurable • Testable • Flexible (customizable) • Permitted (how will you gain permission?)

16. Sales Materials Which of the following are most likely to be accepted (used) or rejected (trash can) by frequent vs. infrequent fans? • Full-season ticket brochure • Partial ticket plan brochure • Group brochure • Pocket schedule • Poster • Appeal letter 118-9

17. Sales Materials Which of the following are most likely to be accepted (used) or rejected (trash can) by frequent vs. infrequent fans? • Full-season ticket brochure • Partial ticket plan brochure • Group brochure • Pocket schedule • Poster • Appeal letter 118-9

18. Telemarketing • Adapt the 7-step telemarketing process example (p.121) to the Rangers situation. You are calling someone similar to Mary Stuart, with selling the Rangers’ package options (28, Fab14, BusinessPlan 14) as your goal. • Prepare your script and be prepared to make the call!

19. Unique Sports Products: Sponsorships Assume that you are attempting to get a local restaurant to sponsor a 10k race put on by the HSB marketing majors. • What rights would you attempt to offer? • Graphic display associated with event • Exclusivity? • Title sponsor? Or other “official product” sponsor? • Conduct promo activities on-site at race? • What benefits would you offer as partners in helping the sponsor market their restaurant? • Sales? • Awareness? • Image? • Enhance trade/channel relations? • Other?

20. What have we learned? • The four factors (quality, time, cost & fit) that determine the quantity purchased by fans. • Aspects of what is and what is not customer-focused selling. • Eduselling • What sports products (naming rights, electronic, signage, tickets, etc.) sports sales people sell. • What’s necessary for a SALE (sales products, attitude, leads, equity) to occur. • Being an effective salesperson is mostly a matter of individual choice, not genetics. • Who our most value customers are (current) • The risks associated with targeting butterfly customers • Full-menu marketing: including key targets for each item on the menu and its key benefit • Components of an effective direct (e)mail • Sales materials most appropriate for (in)frequent customers • The phone sales (telemarketing) process: precall planning, approach/positioning, data gathering, solution generation, solution presentation, close, wrap-up. • The rights & benefits one sells sponsors of events, venues or teams.