How To Leverage

Sporting Events To Grow Your Business:

A Step-By-Step Guide to

Engaging Employees and Clients

The purpose of this guide is to provide

you with industry-proven best practices

for using live events as a business tool.

Please use this as a resource to help you

maximize your return on investment

from your Illinois State University athletic

tickets. Examples provided may not

apply to all businesses and is

dependent upon the intent of your ticket

purchase.

2

Introduction

Table of Contents

Introduction ………………….......... p. 2

Intent of Ticket Purchase……….... p. 3

Benefits from Ticket Programs…... p. 4

Best Practice Plans………………... p. 5

New Business Development…….. p. 6-7

Client Retention/Relations………. p. 8

Employee Engagement…………. p. 9-10

Community Appeal………………. p. 11

Company Incentives/Initiatives... p. 12

Maximizing Your Utilization............ p. 13

Sports entertainment can be a valuable

resource to help you grow your business.

Company seats can help set your business

apart from your competition.

When considering tickets to Redbird athletic

events, take a moment to examine the

following factors to see if a ticket investment is

right for your company:

3

How do you differentiate

your business

from your

competition?

Identify Intent

• What are the primary goals and initiatives for your

company?

• What trends have you noticed within your industry, market, and competition that set businesses up for success?

• How are you adapting to keep up with the competition or to stay ahead of the market?

• How have you gone about improving your business

objectives and what results have you seen from these efforts?

• What have you done differently this year that you didn’t do last year?

After reviewing these objectives, you can narrow down a program to help you grow your business and receive maximum return on your investment.

4

How do you

determine

priorities for

your

business?

Outcome Driven

The success of your ticket purchase

should be measured against specific

outcomes. Most companies build their

ticket program around their clients,

employees or both. Before you can

develop a plan on how to use your

tickets, consider the importance of the

following:

• Client retention

• Employee satisfaction

• Customer satisfaction

• Sales contests

• Safety incentives

• Employee recognition

• Talent acquisition & retention

• Maintaining key clients

• Vendor relations

• Customer relationships

• New business development

• Revenue growth from existing customers

When putting together a plan on the best use of your seats, consider all of your options. After you establish intent and a plan, you can measure the effectiveness of your ticket purchase by reviewing results.

This next section provides you with

action plans to put your tickets to

use. You’ll find action plans to help with:

• New Business Development

• Client Retention

• Employee Engagement

• Community Appeal

• Company Incentives

These approaches are not the only ways to

utilize your seats, but rather a collection of

best practices used by businesses across the country.

5

Action Plans

The following is a proven plan on how to utilize your seats for new business

development. Customize this plan to provide the best opportunity for you to

enhance relationships with your customers.

6

Athletic

events offer

your sales

team the

opportunity

to spend 2-3

hours with

key clients in

a relaxed

and

memorable

setting.

New Business Development

Step 1

Have your sales team identify in writing key

accounts for new business.

Step 2

Allocate your tickets amongst your sales staff. Ask each member of your sales team to attend at least one game with a key prospect. Remember, relationship sales is a process. Giving away tickets is a less effective relationship builder than attending with a client. You wouldn’t ask your sales team to invite clients to lunch or golf without them attending , too, would you?

Step 3

Have your sales team invite the prospect to

attend – using “the [President’s/CEO’s/Bosses’]

seats!” Season seats are the only way to sit in a

premium location. Pointing this out will only add

to your company prestige. If it is a really

important client, consider attending yourself.

7

Position your

company or

services to

close the

deal.

New Business Development

Step 4

Keep the conversations casual. This is a time to allow you to develop a relationship with your customer and build trust. Bring up business in small doses while at the event. When discussing business, use this time to ask questions and learn more about your customers. 2-3 hours at a live event is an exceptional way to learn from your customers in a relaxed environment.

Step 6

Position your product or services to close the

sale. Continue to build relationships after the

deal is done – see retention strategies

Step 5

Follow up. Perhaps you learned something from your client about your competitors or more about their needs. Use the information you learned from the client to create an effective sales pitch.

Consider Alternatives -

• Keep your engagement strategy fresh. Consider all

alternatives, but make sure that your customer

feels important. By now, you should have a much

better understanding of the customer’s interests.

The most effective companies utilize multiple

engagement strategies that include more than

live events or lunches.

8

There’s a

great chance

your

competitors

are also trying

to gain an

edge.

Client Retention

Customer Appreciation Events –

• If your customers belong to a similar network, you

might consider a customer appreciation or

hospitality event. This provides you with a way to

engage your clients while reaching a larger

audience. You offer networking opportunities

that position your company as a leader.

Consider enhancing the event with

promotional materials from your company.

Expanded use of Company Seats -

• For games that you are not utilizing your company

seats for other purposes, consider offering them to

clients. Encourage them to invite a client of theirs.

Now that you have a plan for generating

new business, you must also consider

strategies for retaining your customers. If

you’re aggressively pursuing new business,

there’s a great chance your competitors

are also following suit. Continue to engage

customers to ensure their loyalty. Consider

the following strategies.

Ask yourself the following questions to see if your company is lagging in employee satisfaction:

• Are your employees routinely arriving late or taking long lunches?

• Do your employees appear to simply be going through the motions?

• Is turnover higher than expected?

• Are you missing out on top candidates?

• Has participation declined in non-mandatory activities?

• Do your employees appear tired or disinterested?

If you answered no to these questions, congratulations! You’re probably already taking steps to engage your employees. You might already be a leader in company involvement. If so, consider tickets as part of your engagement strategy.

If you find yourself repeatedly answering yes to these questions, it may be too late. You need to start an action plan now to change your company culture. Tickets can help, but are not a magic wand to instantly improve your culture. 9

Employee Engagement

Customers aren’t the only important part of your business. You need to have the

right people to ensure your business is run smoothly and effectively.

Taking steps to build your relations with

employees will help to:

10

Your best

employees

would also

be a great

asset to your

competitors.

Employee Engagement

• Improve loyalty. Your top employees are

coveted by your competitors and possibly

your clients. Take necessary steps to retain

your top employees.

• Recruit to new talent by staying ahead of

your competitors . Non-traditional perks such

as ticket availability provides you with an

affordable way to set your business apart.

• Motivate your workforce by creating a

supportive environment. Employees that

feel appreciated and taken care of are

more willing to go the extra mile.

• Provide opportunities for a better work-life

balance.

Tickets are another resource to help support

these initiatives. Employees that feel supported

will continue to embrace new challenges.

Company outings and season ticket availability

use different approaches, but both work to

boost employee morale and help you attract

top talent.

• Include your seats with raffle prizes for community events.

• Offer your seats to the winners of your company-sponsored initiatives. Include your seats as prizes for: – Highest participation for volunteer programs

– Health initiatives

– Educational outreach programs

– Employee recognition programs

– Community nominee programs

• Offer seats to not-for-profit organizations that your company supports to help them achieve their goals

• Provide tickets to youth sports programs which your company supports

Community appeal is not a result of being a ticket holder, but rather a result of your company culture. Corporate ticket holders simply have more opportunity to leverage their tickets to help with their existing community outreach initiatives.

11

Corporate

ticket holders

tend to be

leaders within

the

community.

Community Appeal

Corporate ticket holders tend to be more

involved in the community. If public

appeal is important to your company, you

likely have programs in place to support

your community. Tickets are a perfect

compliment to your existing programs. Here

are some examples on how to utilize your

tickets to boost your community appeal:

An added benefit to intra-personal

initiatives is cost savings that your

company receives from other areas. Your

company tickets make a great incentive

for the following initiatives.

12

Utilize your

tickets to help reduce costs

to save your

company

money.

Incentives

Offer your seats to the winners of your existing company-sponsored initiatives. Include your seats as prizes for:

• Highest participation for volunteer programs

• Health initiatives

• Educational outreach programs

• Employee recognition programs

• Community nominee programs

• Safety initiatives

By utilizing your seats

as incentives, you are

investing in an

innovative culture for

your company. These

ideas also help you to

reduce costs in other

areas of your operations.

If you feel tickets are a good resource for

your company, identify a strategy to

maximize your return. Wasted tickets in

your desk drawer do not do any good.

Now that you have identified the reasons

for your ticket purchase, consider a plan

to ensure that your tickets are used for

their intended purpose.

13

Identify the right staff

members to coordinate your ticket program

to maximize your return.

Ticket Utilization

If necessary, delegate a representative to

coordinate ticket distribution. Make sure this

person is enthusiastic about the ticket opportunity

and the intent of your ticket purchase. Consider

the following to oversee your ticket program

based on the intent of your purchase:

• Sales Manager

• Human Resources Manager

• Account Managers

• Office Manager

• Personal Assistant

If you wish to be more accessible to your staff,

you might consider distributing tickets yourself.

This would allow more accountability if the ticket

intent is for business development. If tickets are

for employee morale, they can help make you

more approachable to your employees.

14

For More Information

For more suggestions

on how your company

can use seats, contact the

Illinois State University

Athletics Department today.

Call us at (309) 438-1626.