Season Ticket Holders Attracting & Keeping Them

1. Chapter 5 Season Ticket HoldersAttracting & Keeping Them

2. Goal Setting • 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 5-10 times as much when studied years later. • This is an urban legend. • You can often verify such things at www.snopes.com • A real study was conducted at Dominican University

3. Goal Setting • 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?

4. Segmentation 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

5. For this chapter… • We will use role-plays as a means to understand and apply the concepts. • 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). • 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.

6. Mavericks Ticket Plans • 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 

7. Develop a realistic buyer-seller role play using the power questions from Chapter 5.

8. Demographics Role Play #1

9. Demographics • 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?

10. Media-Related Behaviors Role Play #2

11. Media-Related Behaviors • 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?

12. Barriers to Attendance To overcome entertainment inertia, barriers to attendance must be addressed: • Psychic costs • Venue convenience • Popularity with friends & family • Acclimation to hometown • Perceived Ticket Value

13. Scripts What is entertainment inertia? Psychic costs are high until the fan becomes familiar with the game experience.

14. Psychic Costs & Venue Convenience Role Play #3

15. Psychic costs • 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: • …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 will-call?

16. Venue Convenience • 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?

17. Popularity with Friends/Family & Hometown Acclimation Role Play #4

18. Popularity with friends & family • 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?

19. Acclimation to Hometown 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?

20. Acclimation to Hometown 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?

21. Perceived Ticket Value & Availability Role Play #5

22. Perceived Ticket Value & Availability • Have you ever bought season tickets for any sport? • 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?

23. Perceived ticket value in sports Low High 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.

24. Ways to increase perceived ticket value 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? • 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

25. INCENTIVES TO ATTEND Salespeople should determine how committed the fan is to the team in terms of: • Involvement with the sport • Loyalty to the team • Identification with the team • Similarity with the team

26. Levels of fan commitment

27. Involvement, Loyalty, Identification, & Similarity Role Play #6

28. Involvement & Loyalty • 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?

29. Identification & Similarity • 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?

30. Scorecard In order, these are the best predictors of frequent game attendance among 5000+ NBA fans.

31. Reducing Churn • Contact non-attenders • Executive communication • Focus groups

32. Reducing churn • 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. • What’s the difference between proactive & reactive listening?

33. Reducing churn • 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?

34. Ways to upset season ticket holders

35. 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 Listening