by Troy Kirby
*****
5-SPORTS TERRITORY
V.I.P. events are territorial exclusivity.
They are low-cost, high-powered ways to establish barriers between those who truly support the club and those who claim to support those playing on the field and their efforts. V.I.P. exclusivity means catering to various constituencies through ways in which there are meet and greet setups between the club’s roster and its fan base. Those at the highest financial points can foster supporter growth from the lowest tiers into the higher ones in order to gain access to the event. The duality of presenting the exclusive access on social media can also help build new ways for those outside the supporter system to decide to invest into it so they don't miss out.
Social communities exclusive to supporters can be created on the internet. Supporters on the highest tiers can communicate there and build community together. It is sometimes good to leave people out. It lets them realize what they are missing and seek out how to obtain it. That is why these closed communities become desirable, since they allow those outside the community to question how to obtain, seek and penetrate those communities by opening their wallet and giving power.
This is where the sales culture translates for the club. It becomes a conduit for the fan’s belief in the franchise. Instead of instituting a 100 phone call telesystem for the franchise front office, the focus is on how to develop the fan as an advocate of the brand to sell the product for the franchise. That only happens when the franchise is committed to presenting an experience well-beyond that of the normal match environment. While the normal match environment remains one of the most convenient to the club, it does not allow the fan to feel specialized and important within the system’s machinations. If the fan does not feel duly recognized by the club or organization, he will not yield further support or feel that his support is necessary to the overall function of the club as a whole.
This is where your roster stars become conduits for the brand as a whole. You can use your roster stars as initiators in these actions. Each roster star should know that he is a key component to growing the brand and that his involvement helps build lifetime memories for the organization’s top fans. Interactions through meet and greets should be engaging, and they should also be social media share opportunities through the various channels that the roster star possesses. This is a way for a roster star to show concern for the community, engagement with the fan base, and ability to provide community outreach to those who seek attention.
This is about presentation in how each territory and experience is formed. Showing the fans that they are the top priority of the club will allow them to feel that their support, as much as it grows, builds a further, deeper tie to the relationship between the club and its fan base. This means that each usher, ticket taker or brand ambassador serving in a role throughout the stadium should be presented in a way that is welcoming, yet professional to any fan who sees them. This means that each presentation must be carefully orchestrated to ensure that no fissures in the brand can exist for very long once they are detected.
Each day, the club’s executives should seeking to understand the customer's wants, needs and desires. They should present a fully-realized plan for how the customer feels amid the club’s organization. Are they valued in a way which separates each in category? Each fan should feel singular in the appreciation that the club feels for their support. This goes beyond a simple thank you, but extends to the various experiences in which the fan can truly say that her support matters. Showing is believing, not only for the fan base, but for that individual fan who spends the additional amount per month in fan support of the club over the year prior.
From the standpoint of the club, the sales culture needs to be implemented by each executive with a simple mindset: Each day, the club is committed to the fan, committed to the action of developing each fan into a unique supporter. This is a key portion of the entire process, making certain that each fan feels unique enough in support. This will allow them to go up the financial support escalator because they want to increase that feeling, not decrease or leave it flat compared to the last experience.
Summation
Fan membership has the opportunity to grow and thrive in U.S. professional sports. It is starting to take hold in various versions for some of the teams around the United States and has been widely successful in the what international sport model over the last 100 years. Success in the U.S. depends on whether sports executives can spot the change, or even initiate it, for revenue success. This is about fundamentally changing the revenue model for professional sports in the United States, from an organization that generates thousands of outbound phone calls to get tickets sold, to a membership model in which sports sales culture provides for a lifetime commitment between the fan and its team.
*****
BUILDING SPORT SOCIETIES
COPYRIGHT 2014
WHO IS TROY KIRBY?
Troy Kirby is an experienced sports industry veteran and revenue analytics professional. He has interviewed over 350 sports industry leaders for The Tao of Sports Podcast, ranging from MiLB, MLB, NBA, NBADL, NHL, AHL, ECHL, NFL, Arena Football, as well as every size of college athletic department throughout the country, along with episodes focused on international sports. The goal is to build revenue, and Kirby does this as a frequent contributor to www.ticketingtoday.com as well as SEAT Magazine (Association of Luxury Suite Directors).
Kirby has been a keynote speaker at several industry conferences, and has continued to work professional in the sports field as the director of ticket sales and operation for three different university athletic departments. He has been a consultant to several professional teams, leagues and organizations, along being available to speak on various subjects surrounding sports business at upcoming conferences. Kirby can be reached at [email protected] or by his website, Tao of Sports: www.sportstao.com.
TAO OF SPORTS - SPORTS REVENUE BUILDING
CONSULTING * SPEAKING * TRAINING
© Kirby Publishing, 2014 - All Rights Reserved
ISBN - 978-0-9835184-7-1
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Troy Kirby - Tao of Sports
www.sportstao.com
[email protected]
Printed in the United States of America
