By Ben Jacobs ('11)
For the students of the Center for Sports Administration the most rewarding aspect of Symposium each year is the opportunity to hear a few of the extremely successful alumni of the program speak on Saturday morning. This most recent Symposium was no different as Chad Estis (’94), Senior Vice President of Sales and Booking for the Dallas Cowboys came back to Athens on Saturday, May 1 to talk to the students about the challenges and great successes of his most recent role: having the responsibility for selling out the team’s new $1.2 billion home, Cowboys Stadium.
When one hears “Dallas Cowboys” and “new stadium” the first instinctual thought is often “How hard can that be to sell out?” It is only when one starts to actually look at the statistics of the building that the scope of Chad’s responsibility starts to take shape. The building has a potential capacity of over 100,000 fans. Among those seats are 12 separate club areas, 15,000 club seats, and over 300 suites. Even with those numbers in mind, it seems logical that a team with the history and cache of the Cowboys would still have little problem filling all those seats. It is when pricing comes into the equation that the challenge becomes apparent. How do you sell a seat that costs $100,000?
What Chad and the Cowboys have done is to completely rethink both the way a team prices its seating, but more importantly in the long run, how a team sells those seats. When the Cowboys played at Texas Stadium, the most expensive ticket price was $129 and they had never had a waiting list. Now they were moving into a new building and all anybody was hearing was that the seats cost $100,000. As a result, one of the greatest roadblocks the team faced was combating a negative word-of-mouth that the tickets were far too expensive and no one could afford them. That much challenge would normally be all a sales team could ask for, but the Cowboys also faced selling these “way too expensive” seats in the greatest economic downturn in 80 years.
In order to meet this challenge Chad’s team immersed themselves in the project, using both traditional and modern sales techniques, hiring over 50 new sales people in a 6 week stretch, while incorporating technology in the form of CRM and other applications. As Chad stated, one of the most important strategies for his group was to never waver as they worked to sell out the building. Instead of apologizing for the cost of seats, the sales group focused on showing prospective buyers the value of owning a premium ticket. By not being afraid to let previous workers leave if they weren’t a good fit, hiring the right people to replace them, training them extensively, and giving them the tools they needed to do the job, Chad and the Cowboys sales team were able to sell the seats with a great deal of success.
Though learning more about the size and scope of a project like selling out Cowboys Stadium was a great opportunity for the students, the greatest value came from the opportunity to learn about the process and art of selling from an industry leader like Chad Estis. When asked about building your sales skills early in your career, Estis described himself as a “student of the game,” someone who had not had a lot of formal sales training but learned by doing and through a commitment to self-improvement that he continues today. Another question for Chad centered on the frequently discussed topic of “work-life balance.” For Chad the key is to find the right fit for yourself and find what works for your family.
Having the opportunity to learn from Chad Estis was a great opportunity for the students of the Center for Sports Administration. The classes of 2010 and 2011 would like to thank Chad Estis for coming back to Athens to speak at Symposium this year, and for being a dedicated alumnus and friend to the Center.
