Chapter 5
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Studies have been reported in
various publications that 84% of
a graduating class from Yale (or
Harvard) had no goals; but the
3% with written goals earned 510 times as much when studied
years later.
 This is an urban legend.
 You can often verify such
things at www.snopes.com
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A real study was conducted
at Dominican University
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What are your goals?
Write them down.
 This semester?
 This year?
 Next 3-5 years?
 Next 10 years?
What is the value of
writing them down?
 Of sharing the goals
with someone who will
hold you accountable?
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Current & prospective season ticket holders
can be segmented according to four broad
categories that influence likely ticket
purchases:
 Demographics
 Media-related behaviors
 Barriers to attendance
 Incentives to attend
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We will use role-plays as a means to understand and apply the concepts.
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For each of the chapter sections, a team of students will devise a role play
wherein one team member plays the part of a fan who may or may not be
interested in buying some form of season tickets (mini-plans, partial season
ticket plans, or complete season ticket plans).
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Student teams will be given 15 minutes to devise the role play.
 Give careful thought as to how an actual buyer might respond to the power questions
provided. Have fun in creating your fictional fan for the role play, but also be realistic.
 Feel free to adapt the questions and add questions to fit the conversation.
 After learning the fan’s responses, the sales rep should attempt to close the sale by
offering tickets (single tickets, mini-plans, group, partial season, full-season, game
experience) that best fits the fan’s needs. (You may use the ticket options on the
following slide.)
 The buyer can decide to buy or not, dependent upon how well the seller does in
listening & adapting the ticket offer to the buyer.
Full Season - Dedicated Account Executive (AE)
•Exclusive Season Ticket Customer Communication Services
•Priority for tickets to NBA Playoff Games
•Discount (15%) on Mavs Merchandise at American Airlines Center Fan Shops and NorthPark Center
Store
•Prepaid Parking Option
•Guaranteed seats for EVERY home game
•Priority for your seat during ALL NBA Playoff games
•Complimentary Media Guide
•Premium seating areas reserved for full season plans only
Half Season Plans – Dedicated Account Executive
Exclusive Season Ticket Customer Communication Services
•Priority for tickets to NBA Playoff Games
•Discount (15%) on Mavs Merchandise at American Airlines Center Fan Shops and NorthPark Center
Store
•Prepaid Parking Option
Mini Season Plan--iDedicated Account Executive
•Exclusive Season Ticket Customer Communication Services
•Discount (15%) on Mavs Merchandise at American Airlines Center Fan Shops and NorthPark Center
Store
Role Play Category
Demographics
Media-related behaviors
Psychic costs & venue
convenience
Popularity with family & friends
& hometown acclimation
Perceived ticket value &
availability
Involvement, loyalty,
identification & similarity
Students Assigned
Demographics
1.
2.
3.
How many times each month do you go out
for entertainment ? What kind of places do
you go? (Try to discern spending levels)
Tell me about your family living at home with
you. (Listen for marital status and kids.)
Where do you live? How far is that from the
stadium/arena?
Media-Related Behaviors
1.
2.
3.
4.
How often do you listen to our games on the
radio?
Do you find yourself talking with others about
the team/game?
Did you see any of the games on TV last week?
Did you read the article in the paper about
_____ this week?
To overcome entertainment inertia, barriers to
attendance must be addressed:
1. Psychic costs
2. Venue convenience
3. Popularity with friends & family
4. Acclimation to hometown
5. Perceived Ticket Value
What is entertainment inertia?
Psychic costs are high until the fan becomes familiar with the game experience.
Step
Buy ticket
Psychic Effort Required
Fan:
Knows the best way to go about buying tickets for events.
Drive
Is familiar with the traffic routes around the venue.
Park
Is familiar with the parking options around the venue.
Find seat
Knows way in and around the venue.
Watch game
Knows what you’re supposed to do at an event at the venue.
Drive home
Knows the best traffic routes out of the venue.
Overall Comfort
Going to the Game
Feels very comfortable about going to a game at the venue.
Psychic Costs & Venue Convenience
How many events have you attended here
before? (dependent upon response, follow-up
with questions 2-5)
If you were to come to an event:
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…how would you get here?
…where would you probably park?
….which side of the [venue] would you be likely to
enter?
…do you know where to pick up tickets at willcall?
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Direct: Is there anything about going to the
game itself that makes it inconvenient for you?
Indirect: If someone gave you tickets to the
game, would there be any chance that you
might stay home to watch the game on TV
instead?
Popularity with Friends/Family & Hometown Acclimation
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Who else of your family or friends would like to go to the game
with you?
This is also a useful time to consider the possibility that the
prospect might not be able or willing to buy season tickets
alone, but might be willing to share season tickets with
others. In that case, ask these two questions:
Is there someone you know that might like to share season
tickets with you?
If there is someone, follow up with:
Would you mind if I contacted them to see if they are
interested?
What % of the
population are likely
to be transplants in
these age groups
(p.95):

20-34

35-44

45-54
How long have you
lived here?
 Where do you call
home?

What % of the
population are likely
to be transplants in
these age groups

20-34 75%

35-44 30%

45-54 20%
How long have you
lived here?
 Where do you call
home?
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Perceived Ticket Value & Availability
Have you ever bought season tickets for any sport?
1.


2.
3.
Follow-up if yes: Tell me about it. For what you paid for the tickets,
was it a good value? What did you like or dislike in the package?
Follow-up if no: When was the last time you bought tickets to a
game? For what you paid for the tickets, was it a good value? What
did you like or dislike?
If you were to buy (season) tickets here, what price range per
game interests you?
Have you ever attempted to buy a ticket to the game and
couldn’t find what you wanted?
Perceived Ticket Value
Most sports fans perceive higher value for higher priced tickets….and
the more they attend the more they prefer the higher priced tickets.
Some teams are tempted to cut prices to compensate for poor performance on the field or court. But what
happens when the team performs well? Will fans react well to the price increases? Instead, try increasing ticket
value with added services and other benefits. Which of these would add value to your local team’s season tickets?
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Options to renew same seat or upgrade to other seats as they become available.
Guaranteed playoff seats
Invitation to special team sponsored events & other private functions
Team store discounts
Personal account executive assistance
First right to purchase tickets for all other arena events
Improved seating comfort (wider, softer, etc.)
Guaranteed promotional items
Parking passes
Access to private club lounge and other “Goldmember” privileges
In-seat wait service
Access to private club-level restrooms
Coupons for free/discounted events with team partners (ice skating, golf, movies, etc.)
Ticket Exchange Programs (unused tickets transferred or sold to others)
Assistance buying road game tickets
Exclusive email offers for various ticket or merchandise discounts
Subscriptions to team magazine or newsletters
Salespeople should determine how committed
the fan is to the team in terms of:
1. Involvement with the sport
2. Loyalty to the team
3. Identification with the team
4. Similarity with the team
Involvement, Loyalty, Identification, & Similarity
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On a scale of 1-10, how much of an (NBA) fan
are you?
Across all sports, who is your favorite sports
team?
Within this sport, who is your favorite team?
On a scale of 1-10, how loyal would you say
that you are to our team?
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Who are some of the players on the team that
you are familiar with?
What players on the team do you follow?
How do you feel about the players on this
year’s team?
1.
Radio listening
2.
Age (older more likely)
3.
Times going out per month and spending $25+ each time
4.
Household Income
5.
Perceived ticket availability
6.
Psychic Costs
7.
Involvement with sport
8.
Game-talk: Frequency of talking about the game with others
9.
Marital status (married more likely)
10.
Hometown acclimation
11.
Popularity with friends & family
12.
Perceived ticket value
In order, these are the best predictors of frequent game attendance among 5000+
NBA fans.
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Contact non-attenders
Executive communication
Focus groups
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Proactive listening
means that you seek to
maintain high levels of
communication and
interchange between
clients and sales
associates as an
ongoing process
throughout the season
after the sale.
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What’s the
difference between
proactive & reactive
listening?
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Why do you need to contact non-attending
season ticket holders?
In what ways can the team engage in
executive communication programs?
For what types of decisions should the team
make use of season-ticket focus groups?
Ways to upset season ticket
holders
Management Action
Consequence
The University of Utah moved from an open seating
policy for home soccer matches to reserved, assigned
seating for the final game of the season (which was to
determine the conference championship).
Faithful fans who had attended every other home were not
aware of the policy change and many were unable to
sit in the same seats that they had occupied all season
long.
In 2002, organizers for the FIFA World Cup in Seoul,
South Korea, designated blocks of tickets for sale to
specific global markets, so as to allow fans from all
countries to attend the matches. Unfortunately, some
markets did not respond and the tickets were not
made available to other markets.
Matches were announced as sold-out, despite the fact that
TV camera shots showed entire lower bowl sections
empty. As many as 20,000 seats went unused in the
opening round. Japanese and South Korean fans were
unable to purchase tickets to these matches.
Students who pay $135 for basketball season tickets at
Michigan State cannot miss more than two games and
must wear an “Izzone” shirt to be eligible to use their
own tickets. Students can avoid losing their seats if
they have a doctor's note, death notice of a family
member or paperwork showing a class conflict.
Students have protested to the Student Alumni
Association, written letters to the school newspaper
and started a Web site to oppose the policy.
When the Cincinnati Reds moved to the new Great
American Ball Park, fans were only allowed to buy
opening day tickets via phone or the internet. No
tickets were sold at the Reds’ box office.
Phone and internet sales allowed non-Reds’ fans
(including people from Great Britain) to buy up
tickets online and resell on eBay and ticket outlets at
multiples of face value, leaving many locals out of
luck.
There is no such thing as a worthless conversation, provided
you know what to listen for. Questions are the breath of life for
a conversation. ~ James Nathan Miller