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The Telios Group
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More Sports Teams Renew Earlier

April 13th 2007

Q. More sports teams are beginning its season ticket renewal campaigns before their season concludes. There must be benefits to teams by doing this; what are the benefits to this strategy?

A. Quite simply, an earlier start assists sports teams with securing a higher renewal percentage. (more…)

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Baseball Early Bird Renewals

March 1st 2007

Q. Could you share a couple examples of how baseball teams have successfully conducted a season ticket early bird campaign?

A. Here are links to two earlier bird campaigns – one for minor league baseball and another for major league baseball:

Mahoney Valley Scrappers Early Bird Renewal

Philadelphia Phillies Early Bird Renewal 

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Ron Goch,
The Telios Group
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Start Season Ticket Renewal Process Earlier

February 27th 2007

Q. We’d like to start a season ticket renewal process for football earlier this year and wondering if there are any drawbacks to this?

A. Starting your season ticket holder (STH) renewal process earlier has many benefits to the customer as well as your organization. Your STHs, when informed well in advance of your earlier renewal process, will appreciate the opportunity to pay over a longer period of time, or have payments spread out over more months than previous years.

Additionally, you will be able to identify much earlier the STHs who may be contemplating not returning next season and be able to address their concerns so you can convert them into a renewed season ticket.

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Ron Goch,
The Telios Group
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The Loss of Season Ticket Holders

November 14th 2006

Q. Over the years, we’ve lost a lot of season ticket holders and each year have to work extra hard to not only replace our lost accounts, but also sell additional season tickets to increase our season ticket base. Is this a trend in sports?

A. Many times in sports, the high turnover of season ticket holders is due to the lack of year-round customer service or touches by staff members throughout the year. If there’s a trend in sports, it’s simply sending a renewal invoice versus reaching out to season ticket holders on a consistent year-round basis to develop a relationship and address your shareholders needs.

You may be interested in the words found on a sign in a gas station which read:

Why Customers Quit

1 percent die.

3 percent move.

5 percent leave because of location.

7 percent quit because of product dissatisfaction.

84 percent of customers quit because of an attitude of indifference shown to them by one of the employees.

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Ron Goch,
The Telios Group
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Best Time for Season Ticket Renewals

October 20th 2006

Q. We’ve struggled each year with our basketball season ticket renewals, and this year we’ve again lost a significant percentage of our season ticket holders. When is the best time to start renewing basketball season tickets in an effort to renew at a high percentage?
 

A. Many sports teams renew their season ticket holders by sending an annual invoice on a certain date each year, usually a month or two from the date payment is due. I recommend you consider developing a year-round touch-point program where you’re consistently keeping in touch with your season ticket holders each month, and therefore, essentially renewing your season ticket holders year-round. This strategy will give you an opportunity to better service your customers, answer questions and/or address challenges they may be experiencing, and it’s a great opportunity to net referrals and increase your season ticket holder base.
 

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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Downward Trend of Season Ticket Sales

September 8th 2006

Q. We have been on a downward trend with overall season tickets the last few years and I’m curious to know what sports teams who are losing are doing to maintain a majority of its season ticket holders, or is it common to have a low percentage of renewals when teams are losing?

A. One trend I see in college and professional sports teams that renew at a low percentage is most simply send an annual renewal invoice and “hope” its season ticket holders renew at a high percentage.

Many of these sports organizations send a letter to its season ticket holders that open with “Dear Season Ticket Holder” and don’t personalize the letter by using the season ticket holder’s name.

Most sports organizations experiencing low renewal percentages do not have a plan for having its account executives maintain regularly contact with its season ticket holders. Not during the season, nor during the off-season.

Whether you’re winning or losing, you’ll be in a much better position to renew at a high percentage if your account executives and/or customer service representatives maintain consistent year-round communication with your season ticket holders.

It’s awfully difficult to provide excellent customer service and address your season ticket holders needs if the only contact they have with you and your organization is a renewal invoice and no human contact.

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Ron Goch, The Telios Group 

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Touch-points: The New Buzzword in Sports

August 3rd 2006

Q. Touch-point is the new buzzword in sports. What are your thoughts on touch-points and what’s an appropriate number of touch-points with season ticket holders during a 12-month calendar year?
 

A. Touch-points is critical to any sports organization maintaining a high season ticket holder and group leader retention year-after-year. At a minimum, you should make contact with your season ticket holders at least once per quarter in calendar year.  You can build upon these touch-points each year until your customer service executives are in regular contact with your shareholders.
 

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Ron Goch, The Telios Group
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Who’s Your Mentor?

July 7th 2006

Q. Who’s your mentor?

A. Wow, as someone who believes we should all have at least one mentor, I can’t think of one person who I look at as a mentor to me at this time.

But, I’ve been fortunate over the years to have so many people in my life – teachers, coaches, colleagues, my wife and even my kids – who have taught me so much.

I enjoy learning and look at everyone as someone who I can learn from and who can teach me something.

Who’s your mentor?

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Ron Goch, The Telios Group 

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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.

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Ron Goch, The Telios Group 

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Sales Resources: First Year Sales Executive

May 1st 2006

Q. What sales quotes, books, tips and resources do you recommend for a first-year sales executive who’s eager to learn and practice sales skills each day?

A. There are many resources available to you and I’ll dedicate each of this week’s five columns to providing you with book recommendations, sales quotes and thoughts resources, sales tips and strategies, and other resources you may find helpful.

Let’s start this week with five sales book recommendations:

Your 1st Year in Sales, Tim Connor

Little Red Book of Selling, Jeffrey Gitomer

Little Red Book of Sales Answers, Jeffrey Gitomer

Be a Sales Superstar, Brian Tracy

The Certifiable Salesperson, Tom Hopkins & Laura Laaman

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Ron Goch, The Telios Group 

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Community Relations Ticket Sales Programs

March 4th 2006

Q. How can my school increase ticket sales with the attendance of youth?
 

A. Sports organizations may want to consider taking a closer look at their community relations programs targeted to youth and ask a similar question as the one above: “How can this program help us increase ticket sales with the attendance of youth at our events?”
 

For example, you may be hosting an annual youth essay contest with different age categories, covering multiple school districts, and hundreds (or even thousands) of youth in your area.  You may offer a prize for each age group in each school district, and honor those kids at one of your home sporting events.
 

This is a great educational program and has the potential – with a few additions – to be a great educational program that substantially increases your “ticket sales with the attendance of youth.”
 

You could implement a variety of different strategies to generate sizable ticket sales and one strategy may be partnering with a company (or companies) in your area to be a corporate partner of this program or the presenting sponsor.
 

The corporate partner (or multiple partners) you identify could underwrite the program (including the tickets), and each child who participates in the program could receive one ticket to your sporting event, courtesy of the corporate partner (or partners).  Depending on how many school districts and age categories you include in this program, this youth community relations/ticket program potentially represents a lot of youth…and a lot of ticket sales.
 

There are a number of other strategies to target the youth’s families, friends, etc., and we’ll visit about those strategies in the days and months ahead.
 

Your turn to take a swing…
 

What community relations programs are you presently implementing that you could modify or make adjustments – similar to the above- and sell more youth tickets?
 

All the best,
 

Ron Goch
The Telios Group

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Season Ticket Holder Retention

February 24th 2006

Q. How can I improve retention of our football season ticket holders?
 

A. This is a great question and I’d be curious to learn how many of you maintain relationships with your season tickets holders.  Do you have a plan for servicing your existing season ticket holders?  What kind of season ticket holder benefits do you offer?  How do you communicate those benefits to your season ticket holders?  Many times we’re more focused on our next season ticket holder that we forget to take care of our current season ticket holders.
 

If you don’t already have a year-round season ticket holder touch-point strategy in place to manage and service your existing season ticket holders, invest the time now to improve your touch-points and the relationships with your season ticket holders.  You’ll be amazed what you’ll learn from your season ticket holders and how much they will appreciate your sincere efforts to stay connected with them to ensure their customer experience is excellent.
 

Here are two simple touch-point ideas you can implement with your season ticket holders:
 

1. Host a thank-a-thon with your coaches and student-athletes this off-season and have them call each of your season ticket holders to thank them for their support of your program.
 

2. Send a one-page (front and back) survey (or e-mail a link to a one-page survey) to each season ticket holder and ask how their event experiences were this past season, what they liked, what they’d like to see change, and any ideas they have for improving their overall experience.  If you’re wondering what renewal gift would help ensure a higher percentage of renewals, the season ticket holder survey is a great opportunity to ask your season ticket holders what gift they’d like to receive.
 

Your turn to take a swing…
 

What are some of the touch-points you implement with your season ticket holders?
 

All the best,
 

Ron Goch
The Telios Group
 

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