Has it really been one month since I constructively criticized the PGA Championship for not allowing fans to bring their cell phones into its 2010 event at Whistling Straits?
It should not have been that long, because it was quickly after that blog was posted that I received a phone call from Ken Lovell, Vice President of Media Development for the PGA Tour.
With the Ryder Cup on the docket for this weekend and people thinking golf during an already predictable media-heavy football season, I decided that today was the “better late than never” time to share what Lovell told me about how the PGA is in tune with its fans’ desire to shoot photos and react to what’s going while they attend a professional golf tournament.
While I fully expected a defensive rant about what I wrote, I was wrong, not just about the PGA’s reaction, but by writing that it wasn’t in tune with a fan base that wants to share their tournament experiences via social media networks. [click to continue…]
Twenty years of public relations experience, including 10 in NCAA Division I sports information during which she received national awards for her work, have helped Gail Sideman emerge as a nationally-respected publicity professional in sports, social media and publishing. She is also a veteran support staffer of sports television crews for events that include the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA regular and postseason and others. You may learn more information about Sideman's business at www.publiside.com or follow her at www.twitter.com/PUBLISIDE and www.facebook.com/gail.sideman.
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With cell phones, call forwarding, and the death of the land-line in the home, most often we have no idea where our prospects might be when we’re calling them about our sports ticket opportunities. They could be in the car, the supermarket, out on a date, or anywhere else you could imagine.
Wherever your prospect happens to be, chances are they’re near a piece of paper and a writing instrument of some kind. It’s your chance to engage them in your conversation – IF you’re good enough with using information that can lead to a sale.
While you have someone engaged on the phone, try this: ask them if they’re near a pen and paper, and ask them to write down a few things you’re going to dictate to them. This subconsciously gets them to begin thinking creatively and positively in your direction, because they’re writing down something about you, keeping an informal “record” of your conversation, and they have a pen in their hand… which is a close cousin to signing a deal. (Many people also think better when they have a pen in hand and are writing!)
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Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a dynamic sales training and consulting company whose list of blue-chip clients includes the ticket sales departments of dozens of teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer. He is the author of the Gold Medal-award-winning book Reality Sells, and The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market. Subscribe to his Sports Ticket Sales Newsletter at www.The800PoundGorilla.com, or follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/800poundgorilla.
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What’s the strangest thing someone has said to you as they’ve answered a call from you on their cell phone?
Sports ticket sales professionals call thousands of prospects a day, and many times we catch people in strange, awkward, or questionable situations. Here are some of the best examples of responses from sales prospects during actual calls that sports ticket sales reps have made to people on their cell phones:
• “I’m on a treadmill right now.” (out of breath)
• “I’m going into a CATscan.” (Aren’t you supposed to leave those cell phones outside?) [click to continue…]
Bill Guertin is CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of The 800-Pound Gorilla, a dynamic sales training and consulting company whose list of blue-chip clients includes the ticket sales departments of dozens of teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL, Major League Baseball, and Major League Soccer. He is the author of the Gold Medal-award-winning book Reality Sells, and The 800-Pound Gorilla of Sales: How to Dominate Your Market. Subscribe to his Sports Ticket Sales Newsletter at www.The800PoundGorilla.com, or follow Bill on Twitter at www.twitter.com/800poundgorilla.
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Has it really been one month since I constructively criticized the PGA Championship for not allowing fans to bring their cell phones into its 2010 event at Whistling Straits?
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