If you don’t know by now, we’re big fans of the Savannah Bananas.  

Inspired by Walt Disney and P.T. Barnum, Jesse Cole had a vision and has turned an independent collegiate summer baseball team into a global phenomenon. 

That vision is projected everywhere, from the ownership group (Fans First Entertainment) to the mission (“Fans First, Entertain Always”). The dancing players, Banana Nanas senior dance team and experiments like Dolce & Banana underwear have captured the attention of fans around the world, with  500K+ followers on Instagram and 2.7 million followers on TikTok.

This week, we welcome Jesse back to the podcast to discuss his newest book, Fans First: Change The Game, Break the Rules & Create an Unforgettable Experience. Jesse has 5 Es to building a Fans First organization, which he illustrates through dozens of stories about fans and from fans.

What Jesse understands above all else is, “The first fan is yourself.  You can’t create fans until you are a fan of what you do.”

Here’s how Jesse and his front office have become fans of the Savannah Bananas:

Eliminate Friction

What is it: From the start, Jesse strived to eliminate the macro friction of “baseball is boring.”  Fans are entertained from the second penguins guide them to park in the parking lot, through the player pre-game parade, promotions every half inning and a dance party with the players when they leave.  On a micro level, the Bananas attack the little things – ticket fees, convenience fees, shipping fees, buying concessions, standing in line.  Even the necessary pains, like paying invoices, they make it fun.  

How to approach it: Start with the things that drive you crazy as a fan – parking prices? Ticket fees? Concessions prices?  Make a list and just start tackling it one-by-one.

Entertain Always

What is it: In sports, we talk about the “driveway to driveway” experience, but the Savannah Bananas look at the 7 stages.  The first stage is the first impression fans have – navigating your website, what’s on your social media, the messaging in your confirmation emails.  The team sends videos to celebrate ticket sales and sends you a driving playlist to psyche you up for the game.  The last stage is the last impression – which is not pulling out of the parking lot.  It’s how you communicate with them after the game. Hint: It’s not an email with a postgame survey.  

How to approach it: Think about the different stages of your fan experience.  Take it one stage at a time.  Start with one item that you could “plus up” that will have an impact on the fan experience.  

Experiment Constantly

What is it: The Savannah Bananas are not afraid to try anything. They put their rivals’ logos on toilet paper in their restrooms.  They sell Dolce & Banana underwear.  Every game has 5 – 10 experiments.  With every experiment, they measure how the fans are responding to it, what are they doing, what’s working, what’s not and they learn faster.  What’s critical is how they learn.  They don’t learn by surveys, they learn by observation.  2 years ago, they took a picture of the grandstand every 30 minutes to track fans’ behavior, which led to the 2-hour Banana Ball game.  Every single night, a Savannah Bananas staff member goes undercover.  They park with the fans, walk in with them, eat with them, stand in line with them and report on their experience that night.

How to approach it: What’s the worst parking location, the worst seat, the worst food section in your venues? Go experience that for yourself. Become an undercover fan and figure out the friction points, the frustration points and the Fans First moments. Tackle the friction points one-by-one. Fix one concessions stand at a time, improve one gate flow at a time.  Take it step-by-step.

Engage Deeply

What is it: With such an emphasis on personalized experiences, it’s easy to become overwhelmed or stuck on how to deliver a unique, heartfelt experience for everyone.  Start by doing the unscalable – call a fan and thank them for a purchase, send a fan who is battling an illness a motivational video. From there, try and find ways to make it scalable.  One of Jesse’s other favorite references is from Darren Ross who runs the Magic Castle Hotel – “Listen carefully, respond creatively.”

How to approach it: The Bananas believe in the mindset of Andy Stanley, “Do for one, what you wish you could do for many.” Make one phone call / email / text to a fan per day to thank them for a purchase.  If fans comment on social media that they are coming to the game for a special occasion – first visit, birthday, anniversary – find a way to make that memorable for them. 

Empower Action

What is it: The Savannah Bananas staff are all empowered to create Fans First moments.  If you follow Jesse on LinkedIn, he continuously shares these stories, from his nightly walks on plussing the experience with his Director of Entertainment to one of his ticket staff noticing drain covers could use a Bananas face lift. If you are clear with the vision, then trust your staff to execute it.  If they go overboard with it, that’s great. It’s better to push them and rein it back from there.

How to approach it: We emphasize this all the time, lead with purpose over task.  Define your vision and how your staff can contribute to the execution of it.  Allow them to create experiences for your fans that align with your vision.  

Jesse often cites one of Walt Disney’s quotes, “Money doesn’t excite me. Ideas excite me.”  

For even more ideas than we could possibly share in one email, check out the full conversation and purchase Fans First for your summer beach read, book club or team idea generation session.

The Great Resignation has no doubt impacted your organization. While it was extremely difficult to recruit and retain part-time venue workers this Fall, we’re focusing on the impact it’s had on your full-time staff. 

Last week we led a management team retreat with our partners at Penn State Athletics on this topic, and the learnings were too valuable to keep in a vacuum. So we jumped on the podcast with Katie Rudy from our EngageMint team and Christina Gatehouse, Assistant Athletic Director / Human Resources Strategic Partner at Penn State to reflect on the retreat. 

Before the retreat started, we sent out homework for everyone to prepare. The homework was heavy reading. We sent out fifteen of our favorite articles on the topic of the Great Resignation or the Great Resignation; from industry trends, hypotheses on why this phenomenon is happing, and ideas to turn the crisis into opportunity, it was all there. 

Because you’re like family to us, we’ve made a version of that reading list available to you for free to download.

Par for the course, Penn State is leading the college athletics industry, and in the retreat, we bucketed a ton of innovative ideas to better retain our top talent into short-term/mid-term/long-term ideas. The podcast episode is our reflection on that retreat. 

Now go listen to the podcast, do some reading, and take action!  

How to Sell Experiences Over Tickets

Lessons from Kathy Burrows 

Selling an experience doesn’t mean selling the pomp, circumstance and atmosphere around the game, it means presenting a game day experience that fits each customer.  

This week’s Flip the Switch podcast features Kathy Burrows, president and owner of Sold Out Seating.  After a career change from nursing to selling tickets with the Cleveland Indians, Kathy began teaching teams around the country to sell experiences over tickets.  Selling an experience comes from throwing out the”100-calls-a-day” benchmark, developing and mentoring sales staff and asking pointed questions to personalize the event experience.  

Here were our three favorite Q&As:

(12:52) Coaching Leaders to Coach Sales Staff
How are your 1:1 meetings structured?  Are these meetings simply “check-in updates” or are you working on strategies to grow and improve?  As a leader, use the time to coach your staff on prospecting or sales strategies. What have you observed that could be improved?  What could your staff work on between meetings?

(25:18) Offering Different Experiences for Different Customer Segments
How are you structuring your season ticket plans?  Are they the same for businesses and super fans?  What benefits do they want vs. what do they expect?  Even with a lean sales and support staff, how can you accommodate personalized plans?

(41:00) Building a Part-Time Sales Team
Fans love to have “their person” to contact with questions about their tickets, their account, their experience.  How can you provide that experience with a part-time sales staff?  Introduce your customers to the team that is happy to serve them and make them feel a oneness with you.
 

Our take:

Attendance at sporting events had been declining before the pandemic. From 2014 to 2018, attendance across FBS schools fell 7.6%.  In 2019, the average college football attendance was 41,856. College football wasn’t alone. In January 2020, Sports Illustrated reported that MLB attendance dropped 7.1% since 2015 and the NFL posted its lowest numbers since 2004.  

Largely, the industry expected attendance to rebound following a year of empty stadiums and arenas due to the pandemic.  However, the pandemic continues to present challenges, stadiums aren’t filled to capacity as expected and the no-show rates are even more staggering.  

Fans want more control of their experience and to change the decreasing attendance narrative is going to require some creativity and personalization of events.  Front office and college athletic departments had staff limitations before the pandemic-induced reductions and the “Great Resignation”.  If you are operating even leaner than before, it may seem impossible to customize an experience for every fan.  

It starts with redefining the term “experience”.  Our definition of experience is different from first-time fans, casual fans, super fans and business partners.  Ask a few simple questions to understand what’s important to them.  An experience also doesn’t have to be an in-seat mascot visit or a trip to the sidelines.  Some fans just want a seamless experience (thanks, Amazon!) Offer parking when they call or make parking options easy to find and bundle online. They want the chance to catch a foul ball or a home run?  Know your lineup and guide them to those seats.  A business wants to have an out-of-office outing?  Great, here’s a suite and offer to connect them with catering!  

We all know the definition of insanity – doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  If you are ready to transform your sales process, consider some of Kathy’s principles to engage your sales staff to sell out your experiences over tickets.

For the full episode and show notes, click here.

In this “Great Resignation” movement, employees are seeking roles where they feel valued and appreciated.  This week, we sat down with Dr. Paul White to learn more effective tactics for showing employees appreciation.  Dr. White co-wrote “The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace” with Dr. Gary Coleman, who authored the relationship book, “The 5 Love Languages”.  

The 5 Languages are the same – Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Acts of Service, Tangible Gifts and Physical Touch – but the application is different. What’s important is understanding that not everyone wants to be recognized or shown appreciation in the same way.  Do you have teammates that don’t like public attention?  Maybe there are minimalists on your team that don’t want “tokens of appreciation.”

To show genuine appreciation for your staff, here are three steps to get started:

Appreciate the Person, Not Just Their Work – (3:23)

Typically, when organizations implement recognition programs they are centered around performance – meeting or exceeding sales goals, going above and beyond on a specific project, etc.  However, recognition and appreciation are not the same thing.  Employees “want to be valued as a person, not just for what they get done.”  While completing the work is important, demonstrating appreciation for your staff starts with letting them know that who they are and what they bring to your team matters more.

Learn Your Team’s Desired Language of Appreciation – (9:09)

Showing someone you appreciate them in a way that’s personal to them isn’t rocket science and it doesn’t have to be expensive either.  It just takes that extra step to let people know you are thinking of them.  It’s not just about saying “good job,” but letting them know specifically what they did that was great and why it was important to the team, the company or the client.  If you are ordering food, know what their go-to donut or Chick-fil-A order is and get it without even asking.  

Encourage Your Staff to Show Appreciation to Each Other – (26:03)

Gestures of appreciation don’t have to just emanate from leaders.  People largely don’t just work for managers.  Most of the time they are part of a team and they want to know that they are valued on the team too.  It starts from the top down, but it’s just as important for teammates to communicate that their daily life would be tougher without each other serving the roles they do.  

It just takes one handwritten note or one intentional thank you to get started. To learn more about appreciation, check out Dr. Paul White’s book.  You can also email him at yesdrpaul@gmail.com with the subject “Flip the Switch” to receive a free copy of his expanded Motivating By Appreciation report ($25 value) and a discount code to purchase the Appreciation evaluation.

This week on Flip the Switch, we are joined by Paula Courtney, CEO of the Verde Group.  Partnering with many Fortune 100 companies, the Verde Group brings unique methods to studying consumer behavior and improving the customer experience. Rather than asking “How was your experience?” Paula and her team probe for customer dissatisfaction. Their research has demonstrated that innovating off of points of friction and restoring consumer confidence have a greater financial impact on organizations. 

Here are three strategies to knowing your customer and protecting their trust:

Five Key Elements to a Customer’s Choice – (6:43)

Consumer behavior has evolved at an expedited rate since the start of the pandemic. Many executives are looking towards digital transformation initiatives to try and keep up. If you’re trying to exceed customer expectations amidst evolving fan or customer behaviors, ask yourself these questions:

How relevant are you to your customer? How shoppable is your business? What is your customer support? What is the sensorial experience? How meaningful is your brand to your customer’s personal brand?

The only currency in business that matters is trust – (29:03)

When you have an upset customer actively surfacing a complaint, you’re at a pivotal moment. You’re now being judged for the original failure and how you handle the complaint. According to research done by Paula’s team, with any result less than complete satisfaction, customer loyalty drops by at least 40%.

When a customer reaches out to you to complain, they’re doing so because they have some level of trust with you. They trust you’ll resolve their issue (those without trust won’t reach out, they will simply stop doing business with you). When you exceed their expectations in the resolution, you validate their trust and strengthen their trust further than had there not been a problem in the first place.

Investigate customers’ negative emotions instead of positive emotions – (16:45)

If you look at your post-event or post-season survey, you likely have an “applause meter” question, a question asking some version of “how much do you love us?” The problem with those widely-accepted CX questions is they don’t prioritize what to fix first, they don’t provide actionable findings. And they certainly don’t link directly to financial impacts, such as finding out what a lost customer costs you or giving you a better idea of ROI on investments.

Instead, by focusing on measuring the prevalence and drivers of customer dissatisfaction, you can find out how much business you’re losing and where you should invest future resources for the greatest payback. 

In our latest podcast, David sits down with Shawn McIntosh, Charlotte FC’s Chief Fan Officer.  If you’re thinking, “What is a Chief Fan Officer?” we had the exact same question and invited Shawn on to discuss the vision and purpose for this first-of-its-kind, C-suite role.  Shawn is “not a cheerleader” or a “paid fan of the club,” but an executive that provides an ear for the fans to share their goals, desires and issues with the organization and to have those interests represented in all meetings and business decisions made by the club.  

Here are three strategies to building relationships with supporters and community leaders and creating a one-of-a-kind matchday:

Look beyond your competitors for inspiration – (23:05)

As the newest MLS team, joining the league in 2022, Charlotte FC is cultivating a matchday experience that is unique and special to its city and fanbase.  To create that experience, Shawn challenged the supporters to look beyond the MLS for inspiration.  “Soccer is so unique because it is so fan-driven, but that doesn’t mean we can’t look to really great NHL and NBA teams for things that connect and land well in terms of fans.”  Shawn even attended a Vegas Golden Knights hockey game with a supporter to get real-time feedback on in-game elements. From stunt card choreography to a DJ, Shawn and the supporters are pulling best-in-class elements from leagues around the world to create an experience that will be authentic to Charlotte.

Trust supporters with behind-the-scenes conversations – (38:48)

Often, organizations are hesitant to share information with fans, due to uncertainty that ideas can be executed or concern that details will end up on message boards.  While Shawn acknowledged information is occasionally held back, forging a deep connection with groups like your supporters can be equated to marriage.  It starts with transparency and making fans know that the relationship with your organization is special. Once that mutual trust is established, you can share confidential or non-public information and solicit feedback throughout the process. More than just asking fans yay or nay, you can have true dialogue to ensure decisions benefit the organization and the fans.  

Balance fan desires with business operations – (10:12)

Keeping fans’ needs and desires top of mind when making decisions is crucial, but there may be operational challenges to meeting them.  One of the reasons Shawn was selected as Chief Fan Officer was his past experience in other fan-facing roles.  Prior to joining Charlotte FC, he was the Chief Revenue Officer for the Norfolk Admirals and Director of Ticket Sales for the Las Vegas Aces and Houston Dynamo.  To replicate the Chief Fan Officer role in your organization, consider candidates with an understanding of marketing campaigns, backend ticket operations, video production, etc. that can offer alternatives if/when roadblocks arise that might better serve your fans.

To hear more about how Shawn gathers insights from fans and infuses the fan perspective across the organization, click here for the full conversation.  

This College Leaders segment features Bryan Blair, Deputy Athletic Director and Chief Operating Officer at Washington State University.  In the four years that Bryan and his team have been in Pullman, they’ve worked to build a culture that highlights and celebrates what is unique about Wazzou.  Bryan and David hit on hiring coaches and staff that are cultural fits, embracing your identity and taking risks to move college athletics forward.

Here are three major themes from this episode:

Communicate your vision as passionately and vividly as possible (15:25)

Strategic plans are often created, shared to the team via email, then wind up on a shelf somewhere. But when Bryan and the team at Washington State unveiled their strategic plan to the department, they treated it like a new coach announcement. There were cheerleaders throwing t-shirts into the crowd and the band playing the fight song. To galvanize your team and unite everyone around one vision, be bold. Go over the top. The more effort you put into communicating your vision, the more people will pay attention and buy-in.  

Lean into what makes you unique (18:35)

Mike Leach, Washington State’s football coach from 2012-19, is one of the quirkiest characters in college sports. Rather than hiding those quirks behind-the-scenes, Bryan and team highlighted Leach’s antics and personality in every way they could, through bobblehead nights to sell more tickets, filming him answering fan questions for more content, even having him teach a college course and flying media in to sit in on the class. As Bryan told us, “If you’ve got something unique, don’t shy away from it.  Amplify it, tell that story, and then you’ll attract the right people that are interested in your uniqueness.” With so many entertainment options today, it’s more impactful to connect deeply with a smaller group of fans than connect at the surface with the masses.  

Innovate or Die (29:23)

Bryan and his team have designed a culture where innovation is a high priority, partially out of necessity to compete with traditional industry leaders. Bryan’s belief is “If you just say ‘we’re going to do what we’ve always done,’ you’re not going to get what you’ve always got. You’re going to get less of it gradually.” Your fans’ expectations of you are only partially shaped by what you’ve offered in the past. Their expectations are mostly shaped by companies they engage with every day. Amazon has changed expectations for how fast merchandise should ship. Spotify and Netflix have changed expectations for personalized recommendations.  Disney has changed expectations for customer service. If you’re not getting better at exceeding customer needs every day, your customers will eventually leave. 

Industry legend Scott O’Neil joined the latest episode. From former CEO of Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment, overseeing the New Jersey Devils and the Philadelphia 76ers, to Senior Vice President of the NBA’s Team Marketing and Business Operations division, Scott led teams at several of the most prominent sports and entertainment organizations, gaining valuable insights into leadership and employee development. The insights he shares prove that while winning is important, it isn’t the only driver of success. Here were three of our favorite insights from the show:

Create a Culture of Celebration – (44:12)

To attract and retain top talent, create a culture of celebration. Make people fall in love with the journey, not the destination. Focus on celebrating the small wins in your team’s weekly activities. First win, 5th win, 10th win milestones were all big deals for Scott’s team; it wasn’t just about million dollar sales goals. The culture of celebration was so strong, it had to be toned down after the Office DJ on Fridays led to an eviction notice. When you are going from one event to the next, what small wins are you celebrating? Not just in ticket sales, but in all your other teams?

Encourage constructive conflict – (15:30)

As smart and successful as Scott has been, there have been many times where his strong opinions were wrong. If he were surrounded with “yes men,” those strong opinions could have taken his organization down a wrong path. Instead, Scott encourages leaders to hire talented people, then create an environment that gives them license to disagree and empower them to make decisions they have conviction around. Think of your last management team or leadership team meeting… How much constructive conflict was there? How much flexibility have you given your team to make decisions? 

Data driven decisions > Industry common practices – (43:42)

Before you say you can’t afford a new staff member, have you calculated the ROI? At one point during Scott’s tenure leading the Philadelphia 76ers, they had the largest sales staff in the world for a sports team. He calculated that one sales rep paid for himself/herself in 9.5 weeks, so HBSE just kept hiring until the curve changed. He got pushback from friends who protested because that wasn’t how it was traditionally done. But to Scott, he didn’t care what the industry common practice was, he cared what the math said. How many of your organizational practices are based on “that’s just how we do it” vs. what the data says?  

If you enjoy the podcast episode and want to dive deeper into Scott’s leadership philosophy & stories from illustrious career, check out his new book, “Be Where Your Feet Are: Seven Principles to Keep You Present, Grounded, and Thriving”.

Are you considering fan desires before updating your game day experience? 

2019 NACDA Athletics Director of the Year Jamie Pollard joined the latest Flip the Switch episode and discussed Iowa State’s momentum, culminating in record season ticket sales this year. A significant contributor? Understanding Cyclone fans and tailoring experiences to key customer personas. Here are three key takeaways from the conversation with the NACDA President:

Speak to fans’ love language  

Early into his tenure, Jamie and team recognized the Cyclones’ passionate fan base loved tailgating but weren’t necessarily buying tickets. So the department began investing heavily in the overall Jack Trice Stadium experience. For example, their End Zone Fan Club targets middle-aged, high-earners with early Saturday commitments who want to arrive and immediately step into a tailgating environment. The result of all these improvements? Iowa State has seen a steady increase in season ticket sales over the past decade that started well before the program reached national prominence under Matt Campbell. 

To lead like an entrepreneur, challenge your staff

As a leader, your job must include asking the tough questions before implementing a new strategy. Earlier this year, Iowa State adopted digital parking passes over the standard hang tags for football. Before carrying the same plan over to basketball season, Jamie challenged his team to ask more probing questions: What happens when all cars show up at the same time? Will the scanners work when it’s pitch black and 10 degrees out? Will fans be fumbling for their phones in their winter coats? His team also had to be willing to execute the plan themselves before implementing. The department reconsidered, sticking with hang tags for basketball.  

Hold people accountable. And not just about job performance 

Jamie learned from legendary AD Debbie Yow the importance of holding people accountable. At the end of the day, a ‘job has to get done.’ However, that doesn’t mean an employee should skip important family responsibilities. Jamie prides himself on the “Family First” culture at Iowa State and mentioned calling out an employee who missed his son’s first little league game to complete a work task. At a time when employee burnout is widespread across the U.S., have you evaluated what values your culture truly prioritizes?

Jamie also discussed:

• How the recent Big 12 additions and evolving media landscape substantially bolster the conference
• Learning from past failures 
• Empowering your staff so that you are only a tie-breaker

Are you challenging your team to create new strategies and tactics to build deeper emotional connections with your fans and drive incremental revenue? Rhett Hobart and the team at Wake Forest University have been stepping outside of the box to drive wins for their university, sponsors, fans and larger community.

Rhett has seen success throughout his career, winning back-to-back “Marketing Team of the Year” awards with Mississippi State, and he’s now brought that same mentality to Wake Forest. Rhett joined us to share his approach to driving value for his athletics organization, and it starts with putting the fans first. Here are three key takeaways from the conversation:

Find new revenue streams through co-branded products

As facilities and scholarship expenses increase, athletic departments are seeking new revenue streams outside of standard broadcast rights, sponsorship guarantees and ticket sales.  Wake Forest is one of several schools launching co-branded products including beer and coffee.  Not only are partnerships like Deacon Brew more engaging for a sponsor, they create opportunities for commissions from concession sales and royalty rates from out-of-venue sales.

Create a game day experience any college sports fan would enjoy

“Welcome to Deactown” is all about connecting with the greater Winston-Salem community, particularly those who don’t consider Wake Forest their #1 team.  Rather than emphasizing the on-field product, Rhett and his team have invested in the whole event experience, including the R&D Seven Saturdays Bar and unique in-stadium student tailgating. If your team isn’t winning, or if your alumni aren’t local, market the value of coming to an event (joy, memories, etc.) rather than the product on the field. 

Keep your ticket offers simple

We’ve seen organizations create mini ticket plans to serve their fans, but as Wake Forest realized, providing fans too many options was confusing.  Instead of football mini packages, Rhett’s team created demand through tiered pricing for single games, offering four tickets and parking that increased every 30 days.  For basketball, fans can purchase full-, half- or quarter-season flex plans and redeem vouchers at the games of their choice. There’s a fine line between meeting the needs of your fans and offering too many options. Sometimes simpler is better.