True Passion in Sports Sales: Believe In What You Represent.
I love what I represent.
A sports talk radio station. My own marketing company. I’m not a die hard “super fan” of the station that I sell for. But I do love the competition of sports, the teamwork and team building aspect, and the levels it can make you push yourself physically that sometimes you don’t know you can get to. That is my true passion for sports.
Taking a pic in front of your product with a hot dog in your mouth shows true passion
It’s hard to find a product to represent with a more passionate customer base than sports fans.
Sports fans believe in their teams and associating themselves with business who align with those times in their community. That true passion that they have plus my love for sports from a competition standpoint make it an easy fit to represent what I do. And I am very passionate about it and every single day I wake up with a smile on my face and an excitement for what I am going to speak to my clients and prospects about.
If I worked at a Top 40 station with music that I didn’t believe in, I don’t think that would be the case.
How do you get there and find that true passion for what you represent?
It starts with my Hot Dog Stand Marketing Version of Sales. It is my own creation, my mission statement that I use each and every day. Ten Building Blocks for sales success no matter what decade/age we are in.
It is explained in much more detail in my book or at a speaking engagement or workshop (see below to make that happen), but over the coming weeks here at Sports Networker I will delve into each of my 10 traits and steps to ensure that we thrive and don’t just survive in the sports sales world for the coming decades.
Number Two: True Passion For What You Represent
A lot of times I hear that you don’t need to believe in what you sell. Only that you need to know who can benefit from what you sell and what you represent.
I believe it is much more beneficial – and you are more likely to thrive in your career – if you represent a product or work for a company that you have true passion for. The Ted Talk in the video above offers some guidance on how to find and do work you love
What is true passion? You get excited when you talk about it, you like to talk about outside of your 9-5 day, you enjoy reading about it on your own, so on and so forth. You might even consider doing some work from home or on a weekend should it benefit your career or what you are doing! Crazy idea I know.
Love sports sales like I love hot dog stands
The way to find true passion
Find something that gets you excited. In sports sales it may be working for a team that you already enjoy rooting for, or it may be selling a team that you truly believe has a mindset to do the right thing every day when they get on the field, or it may be working for a sports team or company that has a sales strategy that aligns with your beliefs as a human being.
There are multiple ways to tap into true passion for your sports sales career. It’s not just selling for the team you grew up rooting for. It’s about finding that mix of a product that you enjoy, with a company that aligns with your values and a customer base that you are proud to try to target and help.
If you have true passion people will see it in your eyes. You will be more inclined to make that extra phone call, to put together that one last proposal for the day, and to attend your team or company’s weekend sporting event to support the product that you believe in.
If we study a product hard enough we can all sell it and figure out who will benefit from it. But to truly thrive, and not just survive, for a long term period in this business I believe the more passion you have for what you represent the further you will go in your career!
Find Your True Passion!
Working at a hot dog stand in college taught me to stand up and have this true passion and to never let it go. Since then over the past decade I have worked at three radio stations, all of which I have this same level of passion for.
My own marketing company Marketing Fun With Mike also taps right into it and so does my role here at Sports Networker as a Featured Columnist. It makes me excited to do what I do and I can never foresee a day where I would trade that in just to “sell something.”
Don’t let it happen to you either. Make a list of places that align with who you are, teams or companies that you would be proud to represent, and go after working for one of them instead of waiting for someone to call you with an offer you may or may not even want!
True Passion in Sports Sales is key. But there’s much more you need…coming soon…hot dog stand marketing sports sales volume three!
