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Dear Faithful Readers,
Sales representatives with three years' experience generate five times the ticket revenue of first year hires. So how can you accelerate the process of experience to make your sales staff more efficient and effective? Major League Soccer seems to have found the answer to this question with their League wide initiative - the National Sales Center. Their motivation behind this program is to eliminate the learning curve associated with new hires, decrease the time needed for recruiting new sales staff and increase sales League wide. Continue reading to find out more about this innovative program and the unique aspects that have been essential to its success!
Enjoy the Feature,
Chantelle Neep
[email protected]
P.S. We would love to hear your feedback! If you have a great idea/program your organization has recently done out in the industry, Email Me and i'll feature it in an upcoming issue!
PROGRAM TITLE
MLS: "National Sales Center"
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OBJECTIVES
When developing a strong sales staff each organization must account for the learning curve associated with a new hire. While many professional sports teams have a custom in-house approach to training their sales staff, Major League Soccer sought to take it a step further by creating an academy that provided advanced education in the craft of ticket sales. They have aimed to create a talent development program that would train and recruit future ticket sales executives so they can accelerate trainee’s learning curves and make a quick impact as front office staffers.
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
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In order to develop super charged sales executives that can hit the ground running, MLS created the National Sales Center, a 35-120 day sales training curriculum, located in Blaine, MN, geared towards college graduates seeking to break into the business of sports via MLS. “In addition to developing talent for our clubs we're also developing a library of sales culture and training reinforcement exercise enhancements to help the management at each of our clubs,” said Bryant Pfeiffer, Vice President of Club Services for Major League Soccer.
There are three core components in the National Sales Center’s program. It begins by learning a selling foundation that exposes trainees to different selling environments they will face as account executives, ranging from phone sales to face-to-face meetings to game nights. The program utilizes recording and play back technology as a real time feedback vehicle for trainees as they make calls on behalf of MLS clubs to real life MLS prospect lists throughout the program.
The second area of the program is what Pfeiffer affectionately refers to as the Sales Center’s “secret sauce”, building confidence through the teachings of improvisational comedy. “We partnered with a local improv company to teach our students the importance of being able to adapt quickly,” states Pfeiffer. “We believe the fundamentals of improv overlaps with those of ticket sales and further exposes our students to real world selling environments. Not to mention it keeps them laughing.”
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The final component of the National Sales Center is learning about sales and career paths from professionals within the League and the industry. Trainees get access to guest webinars and regular calls from senior executives at the clubs in the League office. Mike Ernst, a contributor in this aspect of the NSC and VP of Ticket Sales and Services for the Chicago Fire adds, “This is truly the only league driven sales program that drives a team’s revenue up after hiring a graduate from the program. The NSC puts students ahead of the game. When professionals in MLS are looking for a ticket sales position to fill the NSC is one of the first places they look.”
Click the image above to hear what MLS executives and NSC graduates have to say about the National Sales Center
MEDIA
The National Sales Center is promoted via their personal website (Click Here to learn more). “Applicants have come primarily from sports management programs and many are former soccer players." We have had trainees in the program from 33 different states and five countries. All of the alumni help promote the NSC and direct people back to our website,” says Pfeiffer. Applicants submit a youtube video answering two questions, "Why soccer and why sales?"
Click the video above to watch Melanie Seiser's elevator pitch
PARTNER
As of right now the National Sales Center is not sponsored, but MLS is currently in discussion with potential partners for the future.
RESULTS
The National Sales Center has succeeded all expectations. “The key to the success of the NSC is a combination of classroom instruction and real life experience. As a result the National Sales Center alumni are outperforming their local colleagues hired during the same time period by a 70% clip,” states Pfeiffer. It is also receiving close to 150 applicants per session. "We are receiving a great deal of interest in the program and therefore it is getting tougher to select each class."
Over the past 4 years the MLS has seen an increase in paid attendance and has grown 7.3% CAGR. “While the success of expansion clubs and the opening of new stadiums have certainly been key drivers for growth, we feel that our league wide approach, including accelerating the growth curve of our sales talents, has also contributed and will be an even bigger factor moving forward,” expresses Pfeiffer. Not only has Pfeiffer seen these results but so has Ernst, who has hired seven NSC alumni, “We have seen our season ticket numbers double over the last two years and believe our NSC alumni have been a big contributing factor to our now 6,500 season ticket holders."
There have been 78 people hired straight out of the NSC, with a 96% success rate. Pfeiffer adds, “We continue to get great feedback from industry experts that are involved with the program and from teams that have been hiring our graduates.” Ernst has noticed that the NSC alumni have a higher productivity rate than normal hires. In fact, he says, “one of our recent hires, Jacob Hanselman, is a top ranked performer in the League sales rankings. He has only been with us for a little over a year and has far surpassed a normal hire by completely skipping the learning curve time frame.”
On top of the program being a League asset and receiving national attention, the NSC has also received world wide recognition. They were presented with the “Sponsorship, Sales & Marketing Award” at the Stadium Business Awards 2012 in Turin, Italy. This award recognizes a stadium-related sales, marketing or sponsorship campaign, deal or activity that delivered outstanding results for a venue, team or major event.
LOOKING AHEAD
The National Sales Center has recently expanded the number of participants and curriculum. It is also looking into new content that would potentially include premium seating and sponsorship training. Additionally, they are looking into taking versions of the training program on the road to specific teams and markets.
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