A Beginners Guide to Sports Sales

Its common knowledge that the easiest way to get into sports is through entry level sales jobs.  However, this easy path is not an easy task.  Sales in any field is a challenge and in sports its no different.  Although you may be selling a great product – a professional sporting event – it’s not easy to get people to give you their credit card. You’ll deal with a lot of objections, excuses, and hang ups.  On top of this, you’ll have high revenue goals and low pay with the bonus of commissions.  You’ll learn that selling will be a part of your livelihood.  If you don’t sell, you don’t get money and if you don’t get money, you’re not selling and well …. you may lose your job!

Is Sports Sales For You?

Don’t led the introduction scare you.  Sports sales may not be as frightening to you as it may be for others.  Here are some things to think about when considering a career in sports sales:

1. Are you an aggressive person? The key to getting a sale is being aggressive.  You can’t take no as as an answer but only as further reason to convince the client why they need this product.
2. Can you handle rejection? Imagine breaking up with your significant other every 5 minutes when working in sports sales.  You’ll spill out your best pitch only to get an “I’m not interested, please stop calling.” Then you’ll hang up and make another call.  Can you handle that for an 8 hour shift everyday?
3.  Are you confident?  Sports sales is not for those who are shy.  You will be in an office making calls for everyone to hear.  You will make mistakes and stutter and everyone will hear you.
4. Do you have a competitive nature?  You’ll succeed more in sports if you’re competitive. You will be surrounded by co-workers who are making sales.  Although you’ll be happy for them, their success is supposed to drive you to want to make sales and beat them. Nobody wants to be at the bottom of the sales lists.
5. Are you a self-starter?  You will receive a call list to start off, but if you really want to be successful, you will have to prospect on your own.  Are you the type of person who will branch out and find leads without someone assisting you?

If you answered yes to all of the above, then you may be ready for a career in sports sales.  Now lets get down to business.

Key Sports Sales Ideas to be Successful

Don’t sell a sale, but a solution

Think about when you first upgraded from the standard flip phone to a smart phone.  What were your reasons in doing so? Most people would say they did it to have the convenience of having the web and their emails at their hand.  So their purchase of a smart phone was a solution to a problem they were having.

That is how you should look at sports sales.  When speaking to your clients you should find out what problems they are having in relation to spending time with family or friends, gaining new clients, or getting acclimated to a new city. Then sell them the solution of a professional sporting event to bring their family and friends out for a great night of entertainment, or as a way to impress clients and develop relationships, or as an opportunity to get out and meet new people.  When you position the sale as a solution, your client may be more receptive and think of the purchase differently as well as you as their representative.  Even if they don’t buy at that moment, they will consider it. That’s always a good start.

Don’t Spill the Goods too Soon!

When watching an infomercial have you noticed they never tell you the price until the end? You should be doing the same thing in your sales pitch.  Get your client excited about what you’re offering, get them involved in the conversation, and then tell them the price.  Imagine if you were watching that infomercial and they told you upfront what the price was. How open would you be to the rest of the ad? Not as much because you’ve already determined that you cant afford it.  But because you saw everything about the product first and gained an interest in it, you’re now asking yourself is it worth it.  Keeping pricing details to yourself until the very end is always a good strategy to remember when initially interacting with your client.

Build Rapport

It’s hard to tell someone you like no, and when you do you’re usually nice about it.  By building a rapport with your client, you’re making their decision a lot harder because now they’re considering your feelings and that’s what you want! Build rapport by learning about your client. Asking questions like where are they from, what brought them to the area, what do they do for fun, etc are good questions to start with.  You may find similarities between you two which is always a win!

Capitalize on Opportunities

By building rapport with your client you’ll learn a lot about them. Remember these things, because you can capitalize on them later.  If they say they have kids, pitch a birthday party  on a game night.  If they own their own business, ask how they reward their staff.  Read the newspaper. Did a local high school team in a similar sport just win a big game? Contact their coach and pitch them a celebratory night at a game.  Taking advantage of these things can create larger opportunities in the future.

Good Luck!

If you can grasp these concepts, you will make your experience in sports sales a lot better.   Remember sports sales isn’t a race, it’s a marathon! Develop your client relationships and you will see the fruits of your labor!

Tags: sports jobs