Question of the Week » 2006 » June

Ron Goch
The Telios Group
Email Ron

Most Challenging Sporting Event to Sell

June 30th 2006

Q. What is the most challenging sporting event or sport to sell, and why?

A. I’d have to say that girls and women’s sports – and this depends on the market – are the most challenging to sell. I’d quickly add, though, I personally believe girls and women’s sporting events are also the most rewarding to sell, especially when you’re a part of an athletics department or business operations team that has successfully sold an event or season.

I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing and being a part of some incredible women’s sporting events over the years – the NCAA Women’s Final Four, the NCAA Women’s Swimming and Diving Championships, the WNBA Championship, and the always electric Tennessee-Connecticut women’s basketball games in front of 24,000-plus people packed in the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tenn.

Girls and women’s sports don’t always receive the same recognition, exposure and respect that boys and men’s sports do. Over the years, I’ve enjoyed providing recognition and exposure to women’s sports whenever I’ve been in a position to market, promote and sell women’s sports events, and I have a utmost respect for so many people across the country who have dedicated their life to marketing, promoting and selling girls and women’s sports.

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Who Comes First: Employees or Customers?

June 29th 2006

Q. I’ve heard some people and organizations say customers need to be No. 1 and others say employees need to be No. 1. What do you feel is best for a sports organization, or any business?

A. Both employees and customers are important to any business. I’ve always felt that if an organization sincerely takes care of its employees on a daily and consistent basis, your employees will take care of your customers.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Attracting More People to Web site

June 28th 2006

Q. What are some ways we can increase visitors to our web site?

A. Some strategies to consider are fan polls; consistently updating your site content; including your web site address in all advertising, marketing, PR, and media relations material; and include enter to win contests prominently on your web site.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Sporting Events I’d Like to Experience

June 27th 2006

Q. Over the years, you’ve no doubt have traveled to a lot of places to watch sporting events. I’m sure you have your favorites, but I won’t ask you to name those. Instead, what sporting events or places haven’t you experienced that you would like to over the next few years?

A. First – and I never thought I’d say this while growing up – but I’d have to go with a NASCAR event. I’ve never been to a NASCAR race. I’m fascinated by the fan access to drivers just before they climb in their cars to race (can you imagine the same access in other major sporting events?) and impressed by the innovative marketing NASCAR has maintained over the years.

The second sporting event I’d like to experience in the next few years would be a Cubs ballgame at Wrigley Field with my family one weekday mid-afternoon during the summer.

And finally a third event I’d like to experience, although I’m not sure it’s going to happen during the “next few years” would be watching the Cubs play for Major League Baseball’s World Series. Thanks to the Red Sox, I still hope it happens in my lifetime. If not, hopefully one of my kids has the opportunity to witness the event…or maybe one of my grandkids…better yet, all of us together!

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Selling College Student Tickets Online

June 26th 2006

Q. I’ve heard of a few colleges moving its student ticket sales online. What are your thoughts on selling college students tickets to football games online?

A. I think it’s a terrific idea and more and more colleges are likely to follow this strategy. Online sports and entertainment ticket sales in recent years have increased substantially, and the transitioning college student ticket sales for college sports teams online is a great convenience for all involved, especially during the summer sales months when students are typically not on campus.

Check out the story “Student Football Season Tickets Sell Out in Record Time”, which tells how Penn State sold out its allotment of 21,000 student season tickets online in 13 days.

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Interns: Paid and Non-Paid Positions

June 23rd 2006

Q. You shared earlier this week your thoughts on what to offer non-paid interns. Do you feel interns should be paid or non-paid positions?

A. Whenever a budget exists to pay interns, you’re likely to attract a larger pool of intern candidates with paid interns. This doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll attract a larger pool of “qualified” intern candidates, but simply more people applying for your paid intern positions.

Some people subscribe to the thinking that you must pay interns to get quality intern candidates. I don’t believe this to be true based on my experiences over the years with some outstanding interns who were not paid, and who are doing very well in sports business today.

It’s a bonus to the interns if you can create a budget that includes paid internships, because most interns could use the money towards their school expenses and won’t have to take on an additional job to earn money to pay for tuition, books, fees, housing and food.

However, what’s most important is the experience you offer students. It won’t matter if you pay students if they don’t receive a quality intern experience that prepares them well for work in the sports business following college.

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Books I’m Presently Reading

June 22nd 2006

Q. What book are you presently reading?

A. I’m actually reading two books this week. One is “Revved!” by Harry Paul and Ross Reck, and the second is “It’s Not About Me,” by Max Lucado.

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Questions, Questions and More Questions

June 21st 2006

Q. I’m the kind of person that asks a lot of questions. I’ve always been curious about how things work, why things are done a certain way, and without hesitation, I find myself asking a question. Some people are okay with my questions and some seem genuinely annoyed. Should I keep asking questions or break myself of the habit of asking so many questions?

A. A great question and I’m glad you asked! I’m cut from the same (ask a lot of questions) mold, and encourage others to be a “curious learner” by asking questions.

I’d encourage you to continue being the curious learner you are and feel comfortable asking questions. As our teachers often said, “No question is a stupid question.”

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Not So Obvious Promotions Strategies

June 20th 2006

Q. What are some not so obvious promotions strategies that cost little or no money that we could easily implement in an effort to increase our visibility and awareness?

A. Here are five strategies you could consider using to increase your visibility and awareness by promoting your weekly events: Fax cover sheets, e-mail signatures, vendor invoices, snipe on soft drink vending machines, and business reader boards around town.

Each of the above suggested areas could be used each week to promote your sporting events, or to promote a special ticket offer.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

What to Offer Non-Paid Interns

June 19th 2006

Q. What can college athletics offer non-paid interns to keep them motivated throughout a semester?

A. First and foremost, an excellent hands-on experience to prepare them for a full-time job when they graduate. A well planned and executed internship program will benefit the intern as well as the sports team or athletics department, so it’s well worth your investment to formalize your internship so all involved benefit.

In addition, any time you can involve other senior staff members in your meetings to share what they do in their respective departments, this increases the value of your internship and the intern’s overall experience.

Next, some programs have developed intern of the month awards, recognizing interns with their picture and name engraved on a plaque that features each of the 12 interns for the year.

Additionally, any time you can provide interns with clothing, merchandise and/or certificates from apparel and corporate partners, it’s a nice surprise to unpaid interns.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Sales Contests to Motivate Sales Team

June 16th 2006

Q. Do you recommend a sales manager use sales contests and other incentives to motivate a sales team from time to time?

A. Sales contests can be fun for all involved and have proven over the years to be effective ways to motivate sales executives to increase their sales. Cash is king when it comes to prizes, so any time you can use cash as an incentive, you likely will achieve a spike in your sales numbers.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Addressing Shrinking Season Ticket Sales

June 15th 2006

Q. Season ticket sales seem to be decreasing among sports teams, arts and entertainment. What could we do immediately to address the shrinking percentage of season ticket renewals?

A. One of the most important and effective strategies you can implement is a year-round customer touch-point program. You can check out the Telios Tips blog here to get five touch-point ideas, as well as two other posts I made in this blog – one earlier this month (June 6) and the second last May. You can access those two posts here.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

List to Start With When Selling Tickets

June 14th 2006

Q. What is the best list to start with when selling sporting event tickets?

A. The best places to start for ticket sales are with your cancelled season ticket accounts and single event buyers.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Online Resource to Learn About Branding

June 13th 2006

Q. What online resource would you recommend for learning more about branding?

A. I recommend you check out the Brand Autopsy blog, which you can access here.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Encouraging Fans to Arrive Early

June 12th 2006

Q. For most of our athletic events, our season ticket holders and fans arrive just before or immediately following the start of a game. What strategy would you recommend to entice or encourage our fans to arrive earlier?

A. The Miami University Athletics Department has done a great job of creating a Game Day Experience prior to its home football games and offers free parking to fans that arrive at least three hours prior to kickoff. This has proven to be an effective strategy for encouraging RedHawks fans to arrive early.

You can read more about the Miami’s Game Day Experience, which includes the Family Fun Fest and Miami Gardens here.

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

One Change for Business of College Athletics

June 9th 2006

Q. If you had the opportunity to change one strategy about the business of college athletics what would that one strategy be?

A. If I could assist college athletic programs with one major change in how they do business, without hesitation, I‘d work in collaboration with colleges to transition each from being primarily focused on “ticket operations” to a “ticket sales and services” operation.

We have the pleasure of working with college and professional sports teams on a daily basis, and not a day goes by that we’re not assisting college athletic programs in some way with successfully implementing ticket sales strategies.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Seeking and Receiving Feedback from Fans

June 8th 2006

Q. We haven’t done a good job of seeking and receiving feedback from our season ticket holders and fans. When is the best time to solicit and receive feedback from our season ticket holders, as well as our general fans?

A. Immediately following each sports season, it’s an ideal time to seek and receive feedback from your season ticket holders while their season experience is still fresh in their minds. Additionally, placing feedback cards at each of your home games to solicit feedback from game attendees throughout the season should yield some good feedback from your fans.

***********************
Ron Goch, The Telios Group
Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

I Enjoyed My First Marathon Experience

June 7th 2006

Q. How did you do in the marathon last week?

A. I’m happy to report I enjoyed finishing my first marathon this past weekend. I’m still sore, but I’ll take soreness and pain over disappointment any time.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Offer Year-Round Customer Interaction

June 6th 2006

Q. Customer service has become an old and over-used term for taking care of our fans. What’s new in the way of delivering excellent experiences for our customers?

A. Although certainly not new, customer “touch-points” has been the hot topic among sports organizations for delivering excellent customer experiences. If you do not have a year-round, 12-month touch-point program to provide an interactive relationship with your fans, I encourage you to invest the time today to create a year-round touch-point program with all your fans and stakeholders.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

AMA Offers Free Demographic Information

June 5th 2006

Q. Where can I find demographic information besides doing a general online search?

A. The American Marketing Association provides free, unlimited access to U.S. Census data including summary comparison and ranking reports. You can access this free service at marketingpower.com.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Where to Search for Sports Jobs

June 2nd 2006

Q. Where can I get started in my search for a job in sports?

A. If you’re interested in a job in collegiate sports, I’d start with ncaasports.org. If professional sports are where you’d like to find a job, teamworkonline.com is a terrific online resource.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink

Changing Things While You’re Still No. 1

June 1st 2006

Q. You’ve undoubtedly have heard the saying, “Winning is your best marketing.” Well, we’ve won a lot and as a result, have always sold a lot of tickets. We continue to win, but not as often as we used to and the fans are not coming out as they used to. We keep doing the same thing year after year because it’s worked over the years. “Why change what works?” I think we need to change things up and try new marketing and promotions strategies. What do you think?

A. One of the hardest things to do for many companies and sports organizations who are No. 1 is continuously improve and innovate its business operations. Many feel “Why change if what we’re doing works?”

It’s easy to become obsessed with attendance figures and ticket sales when you’re leading the league and everyone’s talking about your success on and off the field. What’s not so easy is having a fresh perspective and understanding circumstances change and we need to keep innovating if we want to stay on top.

Anticipating change and staying ahead of the game by being a creator and innovator is important if you want to remain No. 1 and offer your fans a unique experience each and every year versus – for example – the same event presentation year after year. Listen to the market. Your fans will tell you what they want if you ask them.

Review, evaluate, and ask for feedback, ideas and continue to improve what you’re doing. Offer your fans a unique experience each and every year no matter if you’re No. 1 or if you’re No. 2. Change is good.

*********************************

Ron Goch, The Telios Group

Sign up for our free eNewsletter, the Telios Telegram

Comment | Permalink