1. How To Leverage
Sporting Events To Grow
Your Business:
A Step-By-Step Guide to
Engaging Employees and
Clients

3. The purpose of this guide is to provide
you with industry-proven best practices
for using live events as a business tool.
Please use this as a resource to help you
maximize your return on investment
from your Illinois State University athletic
tickets. Examples provided may not
apply to all businesses and is
dependent upon the intent of your ticket
purchase.
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Introduction
Table of Contents
Introduction …………………..........p. 2
Intent of Ticket Purchase………....p. 3
Benefits from Ticket Programs…...p. 4
Best Practice Plans………………...p. 5
New Business Development…….. p. 6-7
Client Retention/Relations………. p. 8
Employee Engagement…………. p. 9-10
Community Appeal……………….p. 11
Company Incentives/Initiatives... p. 12
Maximizing Your Utilization............p. 13

4. Sports entertainment can be a valuable
resource to help you grow your business.
Company seats can help set your business
apart from your competition.
When considering tickets to Redbird athletic
events, take a moment to examine the
following factors to see if a ticket investment is
right for your company:
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How do you
differentiate
your business
from your
competition?
Identify Intent
• What are the primary goals and initiatives for your
company?
• What trends have you noticed within your industry,
market, and competition that set businesses up for
success?
• How are you adapting to keep up with the
competition or to stay ahead of the market?
• How have you gone about improving your business
objectives and what results have you seen from
these efforts?
• What have you done differently this year that you
didn’t do last year?
After reviewing these objectives, you can narrow down
a program to help you grow your business and receive
maximum return on your investment.

5. 4
How do you
determine
priorities for
your
business?
Outcome Driven
The success of your ticket purchase
should be measured against specific
outcomes. Most companies build their
ticket program around their clients,
employees or both. Before you can
develop a plan on how to use your
tickets, consider the importance of the
following:
• Client retention
• Employee satisfaction
• Customer satisfaction
• Sales contests
• Safety incentives
• Employee recognition
• Talent acquisition & retention
• Maintaining key clients
• Vendor relations
• Customer relationships
• New business development
• Revenue growth from existing
customers
When putting together a plan on
the best use of your seats, consider
all of your options. After you
establish intent and a plan, you can
measure the effectiveness of your
ticket purchase by reviewing results.

6. This next section provides you with
action plans to put your tickets to
use. You’ll find action plans to help with:
• New Business Development
• Client Retention
• Employee Engagement
• Community Appeal
• Company Incentives
These approaches are not the only ways to
utilize your seats, but rather a collection of
best practices used by businesses across
the country.
5
Action Plans

7. The following is a proven plan on how
to utilize your seats for new business
development. Customize this plan to
provide the best opportunity for you to
enhance relationships with your
customers.
6
Athletic
events offer
your sales
team the
opportunity
to spend 2-3
hours with
key clients in
a relaxed
and
memorable
setting.
New Business
Development
Step 1
Have your sales team identify in writing key
accounts for new business.
Step 2
Allocate your tickets amongst your sales staff. Ask
each member of your sales team to attend at
least one game with a key prospect. Remember,
relationship sales is a process. Giving away
tickets is a less effective relationship builder than
attending with a client. You wouldn’t ask your
sales team to invite clients to lunch or golf
without them attending , too, would you?
Step 3
Have your sales team invite the prospect to
attend – using “the [President’s/CEO’s/Bosses’]
seats!” Season seats are the only way to sit in a
premium location. Pointing this out will only add
to your company prestige. If it is a really
important client, consider attending yourself.

8. 7
Position your
company or
services to
close the
deal.
New Business
Development
Step 4
Keep the conversations casual. This is a time to
allow you to develop a relationship with your
customer and build trust. Bring up business in
small doses while at the event. When
discussing business, use this time to ask
questions and learn more about your
customers. 2-3 hours at a live event is an
exceptional way to learn from your customers
in a relaxed environment.
Step 6
Position your product or services to close the
sale. Continue to build relationships after the
deal is done – see retention strategies
Step 5
Follow up. Perhaps you learned something
from your client about your competitors or
more about their needs. Use the information
you learned from the client to create an
effective sales pitch.

9. Consider Alternatives -
• Keep your engagement strategy fresh. Consider all
alternatives, but make sure that your customer
feels important. By now, you should have a much
better understanding of the customer’s interests.
The most effective companies utilize multiple
engagement strategies that include more than
live events or lunches. 8
There’s a
great chance
your
competitors
are also trying
to gain an
edge.
Client Retention
Customer Appreciation Events –
• If your customers belong to a similar network, you
might consider a customer appreciation or
hospitality event. This provides you with a way to
engage your clients while reaching a larger
audience. You offer networking opportunities
that position your company as a leader.
Consider enhancing the event with
promotional materials from your company.
Expanded use of Company Seats -
• For games that you are not utilizing your company
seats for other purposes, consider offering them to
clients. Encourage them to invite a client of theirs.
Now that you have a plan for generating
new business, you must also consider
strategies for retaining your customers. If
you’re aggressively pursuing new business,
there’s a great chance your competitors
are also following suit. Continue to engage
customers to ensure their loyalty. Consider
the following strategies.

10. Ask yourself the following questions to see if your
company is lagging in employee satisfaction:
• Are your employees routinely arriving late or
taking long lunches?
• Do your employees appear to simply be going
through the motions?
• Is turnover higher than expected?
• Are you missing out on top candidates?
• Has participation declined in non-mandatory
activities?
• Do your employees appear tired or
disinterested?
If you answered no to these questions,
congratulations! You’re probably already taking
steps to engage your employees. You might
already be a leader in company involvement. If so,
consider tickets as part of your engagement
strategy.
If you find yourself repeatedly answering yes to
these questions, it may be too late. You need to
start an action plan now to change your company
culture. Tickets can help, but are not a magic wand
to instantly improve your culture. 9
Employee
Engagement
Customers aren’t the only important part
of your business. You need to have the
right people to ensure your business is run
smoothly and effectively.

11. Taking steps to build your relations with
employees will help to:
10
Your best
employees
would also
be a great
asset to your
competitors.
Employee
Engagement
• Improve loyalty. Your top employees are
coveted by your competitors and possibly
your clients. Take necessary steps to retain
your top employees.
• Recruit to new talent by staying ahead of
your competitors . Non-traditional perks such
as ticket availability provides you with an
affordable way to set your business apart.
• Motivate your workforce by creating a
supportive environment. Employees that
feel appreciated and taken care of are
more willing to go the extra mile.
• Provide opportunities for a better work-life
balance.
Tickets are another resource to help support
these initiatives. Employees that feel supported
will continue to embrace new challenges.
Company outings and season ticket availability
use different approaches, but both work to
boost employee morale and help you attract
top talent.

12. • Include your seats with raffle prizes for
community events.
• Offer your seats to the winners of your
company-sponsored initiatives. Include your
seats as prizes for:
– Highest participation for volunteer programs
– Health initiatives
– Educational outreach programs
– Employee recognition programs
– Community nominee programs
• Offer seats to not-for-profit organizations that
your company supports to help them
achieve their goals
• Provide tickets to youth sports programs
which your company supports
Community appeal is not a result of being a
ticket holder, but rather a result of your
company culture. Corporate ticket holders
simply have more opportunity to leverage their
tickets to help with their existing community
outreach initiatives. 11
Corporate
ticket holders
tend to be
leaders within
the
community.
Community
Appeal
Corporate ticket holders tend to be more
involved in the community. If public
appeal is important to your company, you
likely have programs in place to support
your community. Tickets are a perfect
compliment to your existing programs. Here
are some examples on how to utilize your
tickets to boost your community appeal:

13. An added benefit to intra-personal
initiatives is cost savings that your
company receives from other areas. Your
company tickets make a great incentive
for the following initiatives.
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Utilize your
tickets to help
reduce costs
to save your
company
money.
Incentives
Offer your seats to the winners of your existing
company-sponsored initiatives. Include your
seats as prizes for:
• Highest participation for volunteer programs
• Health initiatives
• Educational outreach programs
• Employee recognition programs
• Community nominee programs
• Safety initiatives
By utilizing your seats
as incentives, you are
investing in an
innovative culture for
your company. These
ideas also help you to
reduce costs in other
areas of your
operations.

14. If you feel tickets are a good resource for
your company, identify a strategy to
maximize your return. Wasted tickets in
your desk drawer do not do any good.
Now that you have identified the reasons
for your ticket purchase, consider a plan
to ensure that your tickets are used for
their intended purpose.
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Identify the
right staff
members to
coordinate your
ticket program
to maximize
your return.
Ticket Utilization
If necessary, delegate a representative to
coordinate ticket distribution. Make sure this
person is enthusiastic about the ticket opportunity
and the intent of your ticket purchase. Consider
the following to oversee your ticket program
based on the intent of your purchase:
• Sales Manager
• Human Resources Manager
• Account Managers
• Office Manager
• Personal Assistant
If you wish to be more accessible to your staff,
you might consider distributing tickets yourself.
This would allow more accountability if the ticket
intent is for business development. If tickets are
for employee morale, they can help make you
more approachable to your employees.

15. 14
For More
Information
For more suggestions
on how your company
can use seats, contact the
Illinois State University
Athletics Department today.
Call us at (309) 438-1626.