Ticket sales coaching innovation: a few pages from Paul Brown's playbook.

Irwin, Richard L. ; Sutton, William A.

Effective Ticket Sales Coaching: Applying the Practices of Paul Brown

The key to success in tickets sales is a focused, dedicated, well-trained, highly professional sales team approaching the market in a strategic way. According to Chad Estis, president of Legends Premium Sales, an external sales arm of the Dallas Cowboys, "That's what's going to make or break your business, not a half-price promotion or a free dog and Coke" (King, 2010, p. 10).

Historically, coaching by the sales manager has been considered to be one of his/her most important activities (Johnston & Marshall, 2005), with coaching by the sales manager cited as one of the most significant opportunities available to an organization to influence sales performance (Corcoran, Peterson, Baitch, & Barrett, 1995). Despite the importance of sales and sales coaching, limited academic or scholarly attention has been directed toward this topic in sport management, perhaps contributing to the respected sales trainer David Rubenstein's criticism that few sport franchise sales managers are capable of building an effective sales team (Irwin, Sutton, & McCarthy, 2008). While the inclusion of sales-oriented coursework within sport management curricula appears to be on the rise, limited information has been made available on teaching methods or best practices.

Similarly, while an abundance of research on training methods used to enhance performance from a business' sales force is available in the business marketing literature, almost nothing has been published on how sport enterprises, most notably teams/franchises, select, train, and maximize the performance of sales staff. In fact, only a single article has appeared within Sport Marketing Quarterly (Burton & Cornilles, 1998) on the topic of sport sales force management during the journal's 20-year existence. With this in mind, the current special issue on Sales Force Management in Sport has been compiled in hopes of fostering curriculum development as well as research aimed at enhancing performance in what many consider to be the lifeblood of sport, ticket sales.

Many sport franchise ticket sales managers need not look any further than their own team's coaching staff for guidance on developing a training program aimed at sales team performance enhancement. In many cases these training routines have been influenced by the coaching philosophies and practices of coaching legends such as Lombardi, Wooden, and Rockne. Similar to how a coach can impact the development of an athlete under his/her charge, the sport franchise sales manager is in position to directly influence the selection, motivation, and skill of the team's sales force using appropriate training methods to maximize performance (Leisen, Tippins, & Lilly, 2004).

However, if sales coaching, particularly in the context of ticket sales, is in need of revolutionary developments, as suggested by Rubenstein, then it is appropriate to consider the practices employed by Paul Brown, cited by many as inventor of modern football (Cantor, 2008) and credited with revolutionizing the profession of football coaching more than 60 years ago. As coach of the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, Brown was the first to employ a full-time, year-round coaching staff; design a college scouting system; employ a taxi squad of players; structure practice in a manner that included drills, notebooks, and classroom techniques as a means of maximizing mental as well as physical training; and employ a systematic process of performance appraisal using statistical analysis including film study to ensure high levels of player accountability (Cantor, 2008; O'Toole, 2008). Brown's unique contributions to football coaching will be discussed in the context of advancing sport franchise ticket sales performance.

Paul Brown Coaching Tactic #1: Full-Time Coaching Staff

During his tenure with the Cleveland Browns, Brown is reported to be the first professional football coach to hire a dedicated, full-time coaching staff that worked on a year-round basis. The year-round presence of the staff better enabled the team to develop a long-term, systematic training regimen that engaged players in off-season skill development (O'Toole, 2008). As professional sport franchise owners discovered that the practice of ticket sales necessitated full-time attention, teams began to approach selling as a full-time, 12-month-a-year process with a vast majority of major and minor league professional sport franchises employing a year-round sales staff working under the direction of a ticket sales manager (Burton & Cornilles, 1998).

The availability of full-time staff better positions a team in terms of scouting and recruiting talent and (perhaps most notably) sales staff development. While scouting talent was another of Coach Brown's novel coaching tactics--which will be discussed in the following section--the availability of a full-time staff to scout/recruit on a regular basis maximizes recruitment efforts. Team sales managers are encouraged to establish relationships with college sport business programs, speak to sales and marketing classes, hold career fairs, and in some cases travel to collegiate programs outside their respective markets. Likewise, engaged sales managers should participate in various performance-based, professional development "try-outs" such as the Sport Sales Workshop and Sport Sales Combine. The optimum recruiting period for basketball and hockey is January through May, taking advantage of fall, winter, and spring graduations while baseball is better suited for recruiting September through December, concentrating on summer and fall graduates.

While talent scouting and recruitment are critical to the organization's productivity, much like in athletics, good players still need proper training to maximize their skill. Regrettably, a limited number of sales managers within professional sports teams actually serve as "trainers" according to a panel of ticket sales experts representing various sports properties (SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily Ticketing Roundtable, March 15, 2010). Instead, a majority of professional sport franchises depend upon professional sales trainers to jump-start sales campaigns with training ranging between 3 days and 10 days annually. Although the immediate results may be positive, history shows that sales training and motivation without proper analysis and direction (i.e., coaching leadership) leads to frustration (Burton & Cornilles, 1998). In stark contrast, sales training programs at non-sport organizations are reported to have an average duration of four months, often lasting as long as 18 months (Krishnamoorthy, Misra, & Prasad, 2005).

According to Good (1993), most salespeople reach their full potential through continual guidance, supervision, and feedback. A staff sales trainer presents the opportunity to combine industry, organization, and sales staff familiarity necessary for effective training program design and implementation (Dubinsky, 1996).

In terms of allocating time for coaching internally and on a year-round basis, one of the best practices we have observed is the sales coaching system of the Phoenix Suns. The coaching structure provides for one manager/coach to work with the veteran sales people, another to coach and manage the rookie or newly hired sales staff, another to work with the specialty teams--the groups sales department and one for the retention/service department. Each of these units has different product knowledge needs, skills, and motivation, as well as incentivization and recognition programs. Each of these coaches is tuned into their team and meets with the sales staff both individually and collectively. Meetings are held daily so that each member has several training and coaching sessions each week. The coaches work together to recruit and fill vacancies as the need arises. The Phoenix Suns augment the recruiting process by bringing in consultants (visiting coaches) to work specifically with the new sales staff. Using a balanced approach of on-going training involving internal as well as external coaching resources has enabled the Suns to rank at or near the top of the National Basketball Association (NBA) standings in annual ticket sales revenue.

Paul Brown Coaching Tactic #2: Acquisition of Talent (Recruitment)

Brown is credited with introducing an aggressive strategy for assessing and acquiring talent for the Cleveland Browns. Coach Brown's idea to track players through their college career served as the foundation for today's complex processes for judging talent that includes sophisticated testing at Pro Days, held on campuses around the country, to the NFL Combine, held annually in Indianapolis. Professional sport team sales managers are encouraged to employ similar methods to scout and acquire sales team talent, including hosting job fairs, visiting college campuses, recruiting from reputable training programs, networking with other team sales managers, and hiring seasoned sales people from outside the sport industry. While most new positions are filled with graduates through the "college draft," savvy sport sales managers opt to explore the "free agent" market when seeking to add a seasoned veteran to the staff.

Using the College Draft

The Pittsburgh Steelers, winners of four Super Bowl Championships in the 1970s, owe much of their success during that era to the NFL draft ("NFL Videos," 2007). The Steelers are regarded as having had the greatest draft in NFL history in 1974 because it contained five future NFL Hall of Fame members and a number of other players instrumental to the team's four championships. Teams such as this are successful because "they know what they are looking for" (Gatehouse, 2007, p. 79) and used a solid systematic recruiting system to not only fill current needs but seek raw talent that can be developed to fit the system. Similar to most successful NFL franchises, building through the draft is a preferred method of establishing a successful ticket sales department among many managers.

Organizations with a favorable sales culture usually have a system and history of success in identifying, recruiting, and developing sales talent. The most common reason given for this approach to building a sales team is consistency. This consistency means that everyone receives the same training; there are no poor habits to break because this is their first experience, and they practice the same fundamentals so that all "blocking and tackling" is performed consistently (Huston, 1932, p. 162). Jeff Ianello, senior director of ticket sales for the Phoenix Suns, is an advocate of "building through the draft" as Ianello believes that a "draft and promote" philosophy further enables the organization to benefit from previous draft picks who now "lead by example" as experienced leaders (personal communication, May 10, 2010).

Veteran Free Agents

In an attempt to expedite the process of building a new sales team, fill a specific need, or change culture, professional sport team sales managers will seek seasoned, experienced sales representatives. These players are brought in to enable the franchise to build its team with veteran experience in key positions. Sales departments in transition due to expansion, relocation, or staff transformation can benefit from this "building block strategy." When the Charlotte Hornets relocated to New Orleans, sales personnel familiar with the New Orleans market were hired, but building block types with NBA or other professional sport experience were brought in as managers or senior sales staff to develop the new staff. Similarly, when the city of Charlotte received an NBA expansion franchise in the form of the Charlotte Bobcats, various senior and management level sales executives were brought in to build the sales department.

Organizations looking for a premium salesperson will likely turn to the free agent market. In 2008 the Orlando Magic, in the process of building a new arena, sought experienced salespeople to sell the abundance of premium inventory. The strategy proved successful as the Magic sold out their premium inventory in less than 18 months. The New York Yankees employed a similar approach for the new Yankee Stadium, as did the New York Knicks for their renovations to Madison Square Garden.

Several professional athletes have extended their career by being identified as an asset to the locker room/clubhouse. For example, Bo Outlaw was awarded a roster spot on both the Memphis Grizzlies and the Orlando Magic because of the leadership he had demonstrated on other teams. The influence these athletes have on team culture is often attributed to the team's performance. Similar to veteran players exhibiting such characteristics, a veteran sales representative, with an established reputation as a productive team player/mentor can provide assistance in changing the sales department's culture.

Taxi Squad

Replicating yet another practice established by Coach Brown to insure that injured players could be replaced on the roster with appropriately trained substitutes, sales managers are encouraged to set up a taxi squad of developing account executives. In many cases the seasonal/inside sales team serves in this role while in other cases interns may represent a form of "taxi squad." A relationship between the NBA's Memphis Grizzlies and University of Memphis has served in this capacity with the Grizzlies providing financial support for a two-semester sequence of sales training courses available to a select group of students. Several students have found full-time employment with the team following graduation.

Screening Candidates

As hiring managers from all industries strive to find the magic formula for employee selection, personal interviews likely serve as the most popular screening tool following resume review. While an interview may confirm a candidate's likeability or positive attitude, a trait important to a salesperson's success (Ingram, Schwepker, & Hutson, 1992), the setting often fails to reveal much about the candidate's ability to perform the job (Miller, 2009). Likewise, evidence suggests that hiring sales managers desire to place greater emphasis on the candidate's skills and characteristics that are perceived to be required for success, such as closing (Marshall, Goebel, & Moncrief, 2003) and coachability (Murphy, 2006). The limited availability of sales training/education in sport management programs limits graduates from appropriately developing or demonstrating the potential for the requisite skill set of interest to hiring sales managers.

Therefore, performance-based tryouts, similar to those used by NFL team scouts and player personnel staff, should become common in the recruitment of quality sales team candidates. Performance-based training provided by Game Face and the Sport Sales Combine afford attendees an opportunity to receive basic sales instruction, apply and test skills in a realistic setting, and to be coached, scouted, and ultimately signed by team representatives in search of entry-level ticket sales personnel (Sutton, 2009). According to Lou DePaoli, chief marketing officer for the Pittsburgh Pirates, events such as this are valuable because "we've all been fooled many times when somebody looks great in an interview and you can't figure out why that person didn't make it" ("Walking the ticketing tightrope," 2010).

Perhaps influenced by his days as head football coach at Ohio State University, Coach Brown kept meticulous records of college as well as veteran players. Team ticket sales managers are encouraged to adopt similar stances pertaining to talent acquisition through the college draft or veteran, free agent market. Mimicking a draft board listing all eligible players, every sport organization should establish its own "applicant bank" (Greenberg, Weinstein, & Sweeney, 2001, p. 136). These efforts must be on-going as no sales team is ever perfect and the search for new talent to keep the team dynamic is paramount (Lehman, 2006, p. 22).

Paul Brown Coaching Tactic #3: Structured Training

Brown introduced a novel approach to the manner in which professional football teams trained. He was insistent that practice sessions be structured and players be held accountable, physically as well as intellectually. Brown believed that games were won in the classroom as well as on the practice field. As previously mentioned, the presence of a full-time coaching staff provided opportunity to train players on a year-round basis.

Brown would likely support the belief that successful athletes, at least football players, are made and not born. Likewise, the opinion of numerous sales experts is that the naturally born salesperson is a myth (Stephens, 1997). Prospects with basic skills, keen interest, and aptitude can be trained to become successful salespersons. In fact, proper sales training trails only good/positive attitude as the single most important factor ensuring a salesperson's success, whereas those factors most closely related to lack of sales performance such as poor listening skill, lack of product knowledge, and improper planning and preparation can be remedied through a sound training program (Ingram et al., 1992).

Therefore, following the acquisition of promising sales team talent the next step toward achieving optimal selling results involves designing the proper training program (Burton & Cornilles, 1998). Disappointingly, it has been speculated that only 40% of professional sport franchises truly invest in a culture that includes structured sales training (SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily Ticketing Roundtable, March 16, 2010). This is ironic, as an athlete (at practically any level!) would not be permitted to represent his/her team on the court, field, ice, etc. until he/she demonstrated competency with the team's playbook and possessed fundamental skills demanded of the activity. A young athlete's participation in sport does not start with competition but rather evolves out of instructional training (Faigenbaum & Meadors, 2010). A new sales representative or student should encounter the same training progression.

Alarmingly, Rubenstein asserts that few sport ticket sales managers know how to build an effective sales team (Irwin et al., 2008). Several reasons for the absence of sales coaching include lack of value/support from upper management; difficulty; lack of immediate results; and, perhaps most importantly, lack of training for most sales managers (Johnson & Shaivitz, 2006).

An orientation session for an incoming class of recruits enables the coach to focus training on fundamentals, something Knute Rockne referred to as basic "blocking and tackling" (Huston, 1932, p. 162). New hires should be expected to demonstrate proficiency with the sport property's product line; observe veteran sales people on sales calls; master developmental drills; role play and practice various sales scenarios; and demonstrate competency with the entire sales process before initiating contact with existing or prospective customers (Gatehouse, 2007, p. 159).

Leisen et al. (2004) advocate that an effective sales-training program include coursework addressing issues ranging from prospecting to client-retention strategizing. Such coursework should include a product knowledge "playbook," script development materials, and relevant readings. Additional resources that should be stored in a library for sales staff include books, role play scenarios and videotapes, and/or podcasts of successful sales trainers (Miller, 2009).

Ticket Sales Playbook

Brown is the first professional football coach credited with emphasizing the academic side of football through the use of notebooks and study guides and informed players that they were expected to take meticulous notes during classroom sessions. In an effort to ensure that players understood the complete concept behind every play, notebooks were to be brought to meetings, and players were to draw up plays diagramed by coaches on the chalkboard. Playbooks were then examined by Brown and graded for neatness and accuracy. The coach was convinced that intellectual training contributed to skill development as much as physical training (O'Toole, 2008).

Pelham and Kravitz (2008) report that training programs emphasizing product knowledge positively impact the seller's customer orientation, a key attribute of relationship or consultative sales, a practice found to yield favorable marketing outcomes among professional sport franchise sales units (Irwin, Zwick, & Sutton, 1999). Research involving professional sales personnel ranked product knowledge as the second-most important sales-training topic, trailing only specific selling techniques (Chonko, Tanner, & Weeks, 1993; Dubinsky, 1996). Sport sales coaches are encouraged to quiz trainees on assigned readings and product knowledge.

One academic-based sport sales training program provided participants a product knowledge-oriented sales training manual containing ticket brochures, ticket-plan options, and associated benefits packages, as well as seating charts (Irwin, Southall, & Sutton, 2007). However, a more comprehensive "playbook" is proposed that includes a variety of call and voicemail scripts, key talking points, sample lead lists and emails, and role play scenarios. The availability of such materials represents an opportunity for self-study training, or programmed study, which is known to accelerate product knowledge (Lupton, Weiss, & Peterson, 1999). Leisen et al. (2004) advocate the sales training program include study materials relevant to a participant's skill development.

Basic Drills

Coach Brown also went so far as to instigate scripting practices, weaving fundamental exercises and repetitive drilling along with play rehearsal achieved through scrimmaging. While Good (1993) reported that traditional sales training methods have focused on the easily defined areas of the sales presentation (e.g., closing), a well-crafted sales training protocol, resembling that of an athletic training regimen, should start with basic discovery and listening drills leading to simulated dialog sessions. These sessions represent live scrimmages or pre-season games. As noted by Schiffman (2003), sales practice must be conducted separate from performance and not be something that is simply learned by doing. All too often, sales have been deemed as a "trial by error" or a "Go out there and make calls--you'll figure it out" approach (Johnson & Shaivitz, 2006) typically resulting in frustrated recruits. Sales trainers/educators are encouraged to compile a training manual consisting of drills and exercises targeting the following areas of skill development.

Questioning Drills

The ticket sales coach is encouraged to implement drills designed to enhance the trainee's ability to adopt a question-based selling philosophy. Advocated by Freese (2003), the question-based selling philosophy, ideally suited for the relationship or consultative sales philosophy embraced by most sport franchise sales units, demands a mastery of sequencing relevant, probing questions based upon prospect knowledge and feedback. Therefore, training should be comprised of practice sessions that include spontaneous questioning drills. One such drill involves sales trainees working in pairs, with one trainee continuously asking questions while the other simply provides answers until the questioning trainee runs out of steam. As the trainees gain experience, and greater emphasis is placed on developing listening skill, the relevancy of each question is expected to increase. Trainees can tally successive questions totals to instill competitiveness in the drill.

Listening Drills

The importance of good listening skills is well documented throughout the sales training literature. Their importance is accentuated in sport ticket sales where the relationship or consultative-type sales approach is most appropriate. Barber and Tietje (2006) found that listening was ranked by sales managers as the most important skill competency while Ingram et al. (1992) report poor listening skills as the primary cause of salesperson failure. Senior sales executives feel that listening skill is the single most desirable topic for sales training according to Luthy (2000) and sales force listening skills have also been directly linked to increased organizational sales outcomes (Pelham, 2006). Ramsey and Sohi (1997) propose that tests and drills for assessing and improving listening skill should be common to a sales training routine. The researchers contend that improved listening can be accomplished by incorporating exercises that demand focus and concentration while learning to use scripts and cues.

Similar to Coach Brown, Feigon (2010) is a proponent of training salespeople to be diligent note-takers and suggests using a listening map. One version of a listening map includes drawing a square in the center of a blank sheet of paper and inserting the prospect's name. For each cue that is learned (e.g., attends 10 games a year; generally attends with clients) a branch is drawn from the original square bearing the prospect's name. Another type of listening tool may take the shape of a tree whereby the prospect's name serves as the base with a long trunk and each cue as a branch. New pieces of information can be represented by limbs (e.g., tickets often serve as employee entertainment).

Role Play Exercises

Like an athlete, each sales representative must be inspired to constantly work on fundamentals. Similar to an athletic team practicing specific drills, role-playing exercises should serve as meaningful, developmental experiences in less-threatening environments. Training sessions progress from spontaneous questioning drills to role-play exercises based on the simulated scenarios provided by the sales coach. In advance of the role play encounters, sales coaches should draft a Prospect Profile to be used by both parties, simulating data that may be found in the franchise's customer database system, a script or talking points to be used by the trainee, and a list of cues (e.g., prefers to attend weekend games) and/or objections (e.g., 45 games is too much) for the individual serving as prospect/receiver. Emphasis in role play should be placed on listening, handling objections, and negotiating (Johlke, 2006).

Multiple role-play exercises involving different partners and different sales scenarios should be developed (Randall & Smith, 1989). As with any skill development, appropriate progression should be incorporated with role-play scenarios advancing from face-to-face prospecting exercises such as concourse intercepts and sales table management to renewal and new business calls.

Scrimmaging

While conducting drills with the same practice partner can become stale and counter-productive, limiting developmental exercises and role-play scenarios to fellow sales team members or classmates can yield similar results. Athletic teams often use controlled scrimmages or "pre-season" simulation games as dress rehearsals to assess player performance and play execution under game conditions, and sales training programs should incorporate similar authentic sales encounters such as mock sales calls using unknown prospects or receivers engaging in "simulated" customer dialog.

Mock-call prospects may be recruited from non-sales department personnel within the franchise or sales-class students at a local university. While trainees should be working from their training script or talking points, both parties are provided a Prospect Profile, with the "mock" prospect provided a list of cues and/or objections similar to the advanced role-play scenarios described above. This type of simulated dialog is a critical step in building trainee confidence and comprehension (Chonko et al., 1993).

Coach Brown's practices were run with precision. According to O'Toole (2008), the team practiced to practice and repetition was the key. As reported by noted sales trainers Johnson and Shaivitz (2009), top-performing sales coaches incorporate repetition into their routine in order to ensure that no sales-person encounters a sales opportunity unrehearsed. Therefore, similar to the coach preparing for next week's opponent, the savvy sales manager incorporates drills that represent selling encounters that a salesperson will likely experience.

Adopting principles from the athletic training environment, sport sales coaches can construct a year-round training cycle, commonly referred to as a macro-cycle, comprised of several meso-cycles or phases (Graham, 2002). The physical training phases of preparation, competition, and rest are relevant to the sales meso-cycles and can be rotated through in-/off-season renewal and prospecting periods in order to keep the sales team in "prime condition." Much like a full-time coach, the sales manager must continually assess his/her players, to make sure things are still working, and make adjustments or substitutions to strengthen a position or to capitalize on an opportunity (Mackay, 2010).

The training program should not be limited to new hires, as experienced sales team members, similar to elite athletes, need training to hone their skills. According to Krishnamoorthy et al. (2005), initial training is intended to achieve optimal sales performance, which is not the same as maximum sales performance, which can only be attained through continued maintenance training to learn new skills and market conditions. Companies placing greater emphasis on training veteran sales representatives experience higher sales performance and company profits (Pettijohn, Pettijohn, & Taylor, 2007; Pelham, 2006; Gelade & Ivery, 2003) and report lower incidences of turnover (Pettijohn et al., 2007; Ryan, Schmit, & Johnson, 1996).

According to Batt (1999), effective sales as well as service quality depend on continuous learning, processing of information, and product knowledge development. Such training is hard to achieve without the presence of a staff sales trainer, as discussed in the previous section.

Paul Brown Coaching Tactic #4: Performance Assessment and Film Study

Brown is credited as pioneering the use of film study as a means of critiquing athletic performance. He statistically analyzed practice and game films, grading player performance, and established a game film library. Subsequently, film study is a common practice in almost all levels of athletic development. Videotape analysis has emerged as one of the best ways to analyze behavioral performance objectively and allows participants to view the exact verbal message delivered, identify strengths and weaknesses, and learn how to observe and give feedback to others (McQueen, 2001). Pettijohn, Pettijohn, and d'Amico (2001) report that a majority of salespeople provided this type of assessment protocol indicated performance improvements. Given that learners absorb more of what they see, hear, say, and do, videotape observation and analysis has also become a valuable teaching and coaching tool. Teacher training programs include videotape observation and analysis of veteran teachers, students, and peers (McQueen, 2001; Mitchell, Doolittle, & Schwager, 2005) while videotape analysis has been reported in sales courses as well (Irwin et al., 2007; O'Hara & Shaffer, 1995).

Trainees should initially be shown video of one or more high-performing sellers demonstrating authentic examples of proper communication skills and adherence to the scripted content. Such a tactic lends itself to the application of legendary basketball coach John Wooden's whole-part method. Viewing the seasoned salesperson in a high-performance situation (whole) should accelerate familiarity with expected skills and provide a point of reference for trainees to use when practicing and executing subsequent drills (part). Chonko et al. (1993) found that novice sales representatives learned at a faster pace when provided with a mechanism (videotape observation) that demonstrated appropriate behaviors. Using a system similar to that employed by Mitchell et al. (2005), where observers simply noted the presence of good and bad behaviors along with a brief explanation of each, training can progress toward critiquing examples of low-performing encounters.

As training progresses, trainee role-play and mock-call encounters can be taped for assessment using a systematic observation tool where behaviors are recorded, coded, and analyzed, a practice similar to the system employed by Brown in the assessment of his players. Structuring evaluation to include sales force behavior has been found to yield meaningful results and accelerate skill development (Johnson & Shaivitz, 2006). Likewise, O'Hara and Shaffer (1995) report favorable feedback from students using videotape to assess mock-sales encounters. According to Professor Cynthia Gundy, a sales training program is incomplete if it lacks the capability to record sellers role-playing as no seller knows what they look and sound like until watching film of their behaviors (Personal communication, July 20, 2010). Likewise, Rubenstein has long incorporated film study into his sales training regimen with professional sports teams as he uses video-tape role-play during sales training to capture and analyze what's happening and prescribe what needs to change (Personal communication, May 10, 2010).

Summary and Conclusions

The most critical point to be adopted from Paul Brown's revolutionary football coaching practices is that ticket sales coaching is an on-going process and must be incorporated into day-to-day activities by the sales leadership team, a practice more prevalent in the NBA or in franchises where the sales manager has worked for an NBA team. The NBA, through its Team Marketing and Business Operations Department, embraces education, training, and research; and provides a great deal of support to its member teams in this area.

Rationale for on-going training and coaching comes from the need for sport sales representatives to continuously learn new skills as well as to improve upon existing skills. An effective coach will know when someone needs additional training on a concept that has already been taught while also knowing when to introduce new plays for salespeople ready to learn them (Schwartz, 2006). The ticket sales coach must understand the fundamental skills involved in the sales process and follow a disciplined training protocol aimed at enhancing the sales team's capabilities (Johnson & Shaivitz, 2006). This protocol should emphasize execution and evaluation of sales-skill fundamentals.

Repetition of sales-skill fundamentals (referred previously in this article as blocking and tackling) is essential in the development and ultimate success of the sales team. Coach Wooden believed that how you practiced was an indication of how you would play (Wooden & Jamison, 2005, p. 93). Repetition is also embraced by Keith Rosen (2008), a well-respected sales advisor and executive coach who stated that the keys to successful sales performance are frequency and consistency of coaching the sales team.

Ticket sales coaches are likewise encouraged to follow Coach Brown's example and use a variety of evaluative methods to provide skill-specific feedback. Research indicates that as the emphasis on behavioral outcomes (e.g., questioning, listening) in salesperson evaluation increases, so do relationship-oriented sales skills (Pelham & Kravitz, 2008; Pettijohn et al., 2007), a sales technique highly desirable among salespeople working in professional sport franchises. Emphasis on behavioral outcomes also correlates with greater sales force performance and higher customer retention than organizations using a more traditional transactional evaluation method (Pelham, 2006).

An appropriate ticket sales training requires a significant investment. According to Miller (2009), successful sales organizations spend, on average, 15% of their budget on formalized training. Unfortunately, when the economy turns bad or business hits a rough patch, training and education budgets suffer. This short-term financial fix often compromises the long-term health of the company (Michelli, 2007). If salespeople are not performing up to their ability, they need to be "coached up" so that their individual performance and the overall organizational revenue improve. Much like Coach Brown decades before, ticket sales coaches must rationalize the resources necessary for improving sales team performance. As noted by a ticket sales expert, it takes fiscal discipline to dedicate resources toward ongoing training but the return on that investment is worth the investment (SportsBusiness Journal/SportsBusiness Daily Ticketing Roundtable, March 15, 2010). The Cleveland Browns' owner Arthur McBride realized similar results from Coach Brown's novel approach to coaching.

Opportunities for Further Research

As documented earlier in this paper, research examining sales performance and sales-related topics in sport is embryonic at best. To that end, several areas of inquiry have been identified that can aid the body of knowledge in this area as well as establish several areas where scholars and practitioners can collaborate.

Researchers are encouraged to assess whether year-round coaching results in higher revenue production. Likewise, are salespeople working in such a system more productive in terms of revenue than those working without such a training program? Is there a lower turnover for sales people receiving year-round sales training compared to those who receive initial training only?

Research should be conducted to determine if there is a discernible benefit in terms of ROI for salespeople in such programs or whether additional training results in lower cost per sale. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it would be valuable to assess whether there is a higher success rate among sales people engaged in on-going training as compared to those who are not participating in such programs.

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Richard L. Irwin is a professor in Health and Sports Sciences and director of the Bureau of Sport and Leisure Commerce at the University of Memphis while also serving as associate dean for University College. His research interests include sales management as well as sport marketing and promotion

William A. Sutton is a professor and associate chair in the DeVos Sport Business Management Graduate Program at the University of Central Florida. His research interests include sales, marketing, and promotional activities as they relate to increasing interests and ultimately attendance.