Most amateur athletes have recurring dreams about that future big payday. They assume that the money will start pouring in once they sign a contract with a professional organization in a large American sports league. For many, that day never comes. For those who do “go pro” they will quickly realize that the first contract does not pay much. The second and third contract will garner the big bucks. In all actuality, though, if an athlete wants to truly strike it rich, he will be the best at his trade, and command most of his earnings off of the field of play.

Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, LeBron James, and a host of other superstar athletes make more money per year in endorsements than in salary and winnings. An endorsement is simply an athlete giving approval, sanctioning, and support to a product or service. The product or service being endorsed hopes to benefit from a boost in image through the association with the athlete…with the intention of earning more profits in the end. The athlete receives compensation for endorsing the product or service.

In the past, endorsements included an athlete making public appearances, recording television commercials, and posing for billboards, often in exchange for an up-front payment. Times are changing. Many companies want to know that they are getting value from their endorsers, and have decided to strike deals that include the athletes as a part of their core business. For instance, you have undoubtedly seen Mike Golic on TV promoting Nutrisystem. He reveals a unique URL that provides a discount to those who sign up for the service. This serves as a tracker, which may be built into his payout per the contract Golic signed with the company. Expect to see more of this in the future.

Twitter and Facebook will continue to promote these new types of endorsements. Dwight Howard has over 350,000 fans on his Facebook page. A company may ask his agent to post a link on that page to the company’s product or service. That same company may buy a certain number of “endorsed tweets” on Twitter. The links and tweets can have certain trackers built in, to see how much value the athlete is bringing to the company. The new mediums allow companies to track results, but also integrate the strong communication features of these social networks. A brilliant viral campaign or a fun contest can be much more beneficial than a paid tweet.

In sum, I believe that in the future, we will see more athletes working with companies looking for endorsements, instead of working for them. Gone are the days of huge up-front payments for a plain old endorsement. Endorsements 2.0 is about using the new mediums effectively and paying athletes for the true value that they bring to the table. Dream about that for a while.

Photo Credits: Preppy Princess and Bettorsedge

 
1.     Advanced Applications
There are numerous LinkedIn applications that can be added to your profile that can give your online presence that little extra over your traditional resume. If you go to the left side of your profile, you can find a link labeled “Applications,” where you can access all of the various applications such as [...]

As a sports ticket sales rep, you’re used to hearing ridiculous and off-the-wall excuses from your customers as to why they’re not interested. One of the most airtight and hard-to-fight objections, however, is the budget issue.

This objection takes several forms. A prospect may say anything like, “It’s not in the budget,” “My budget’s been cut,” or “I just don’t have anything left in the budget”.

These are actually three VERY different objections, and need be handled differently! Let’s take each one separately and break it down:

“It’s not in the budget.”

Here are some ways we can address this on a call:

• “That’s all right. No one budgets for ideas they don’t have yet. That’s why I called today.”

• “I hear that a lot… and once my customers get around the budget issue and see what positive things come from these seats, the budget is never an issue again.”

• “Probably not. A lot of companies haven’t figured out the value of seats like these, so they don’t budget ahead for them. It’s a good thing we’re talking today!”

• “That’s OK. I’m sure you’ve had good ideas that have come up that weren’t in the budget that were able to get done somehow. Right?”

“My budget’s been cut.”

Many budget cuts have been forced upon managers from their higher-ups, and they have to deal with the problems it has created all day long. Here are some suggestions on how you can respond to a budget cut:

• “Wow… I imagine that’s caused a lot of headaches for you. What sorts of things have you had to do without?” (Find out what has changed in their work life, and then address those things that your product can help them solve positively, cheaply, and effectively.)

• “That’s tough. Was it across the board, or did some things have to go completely?” (Learn a little more about what had to go, and you’ll see where the company’s priorities lie.)

• “That’s pretty common. It sounds like more work for you! Do you ever get out yourself to see a game?” (If they’re the decision-maker, a well-placed comp game might overcome any budget issues if they enjoy themselves.)

“I just don’t have anything left in the budget.”

This means there’s money there, but it’s been apportioned to others. All we have to do is figure out whether or not the money can be RE-apportioned:

• “I understand. When does your fiscal year start?” (Find out when their 12-month calendar starts. Some companies run on a “calendar year”, Jan-Dec; others start their fiscal year at different times.)

• “So if there WERE budget left, you’d consider these seats? Do I hear you correctly?” (Get their buy-in on the “if” part!)

• “Let me ask this: is your budget actually SPENT, or is it just sectioned off until the need comes up? If something came up that was more cost-effective than what you originally budgeted, could you look at it?” (You’re suggesting that what you have is more cost-effective and potentially a better buy than what they’re currently lined up to spend their money on. Press on to see if the money’s actually gone, or just placed in different buckets waiting to be spent!)

Don’t let the budget be your arch-enemy! Stick with it, keep the conversation alive, and you’ll have a much greater chance of success.

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There’s another objection we’re hearing a lot today, and it has to do with being able to justify buying our tickets after just laying off employees.  I’ve got several suggestions for answering that challenge in my latest Sports Ticket Sales Newsletter; just click here to access it.

What has been your best (most successful!) response to the “budget” objection?  Feel free to leave your comments below and I look forward to hearing about your success!  

Or since transformation can be negative, let’s say intelligent growth or evolving.

 People in the sports world do it all the time when they add another dimension to their game, or when they improve upon a certain facet of their skill set. Joe Mauer adding more power to his arsenal, LeBron improving his defense and free-throw shooting in the off-season, a pitcher developing a new pitch; these are all examples of athletes transforming themselves for the better.

But what about this online world that we live in?

Lewis’ personal (and professional) brand has been undergoing positive transformation since he stepped on the scene, and this re-launch of Sports Networker is a perfect example of thinking long-term and continuing to evolve. It’s what I’m doing by coming along on this ride, (and I’m very grateful that Lewis elected to keep me on his starting roster.)
I’d like to think that Sports Networker, and all the brilliant writers that I’m humbled to be sharing this spotlight with, is going to continue help ushering in positive transformation at the intersection of new media and sports.
But how? Sports are notoriously late adopters and there are few (relatively speaking) athletes and franchises that “get it.”

First of all, it doesn’t mean setting up a Facebook page, Twitter account and blog for every athlete and/or franchise.

It takes a lot of effort to execute even one of these mediums successfully. Learn to do one of them really well first, and then if that platform is resonating with you fans (or your clients’ fans) and you’re capable of doing another, and more importantly, it makes sense strategically to operate somewhere else, then and only then should you take that leap.

It’s important to have a clear-defined strategy and know why you’re using social media, and the specific tools affiliated with it prior to launching anywhere.

And let’s not forget all the snake oil salesman that will try and convince you that they can help you build your brand via social media just because they’ve used these platforms as a hobby.

There’s a big difference between using social media, and understanding how to strategically interweave it into an overall marketing approach conducive to humanizing a brand, connecting with fans, and driving ROI.

Knowing what not do is half the battle, but it’s still essential for the sports world (e.g. athletes, franchises, agencies, sponsors, bloggers, etc.) to understand where new media is trending.

I fully intend to keep you abreast of these trends (among other things) in the next two months here at Sports Networker, but in the interim here are 3 things you should be doing right now to stay ahead of the curve:

1.)   Locate examples of athletes, teams, agencies, bloggers, etc. using social media tools effectively as a component of their overall marketing strategies. Analyze what makes them effective and share them with others so that we can all learn together.

2.) Understand that in part because of new FTC regulations there is going to be a chasm among sports bloggers. There will be those that abide carefully by these rules, amend their own community’s rules to ensure they’re a more credible source, etc. and then there will be those that don’t care about anything other than ad clicks and continue to post more pictures of scantily clad women than insightful sports commentary. Some will manage to marry the two. They will be few and far between.

3.)   Come to terms with the fact that organizations will get over all the hype and the buzz words and insist on some real metrics that prove ROI where it counts, in the piggybank. (As an aside, monetary ROI has to be a factor, but we must also not underestimate ROI as it relates to a brand’s image and the equity that can potentially generate.)

What about you? What are you (or your organization) doing to positively transform yourself, to stay ahead of the curve?

*Photo Credit: PracticalOwl