I will be celebrating my three year anniversary with the Tampa Bay Lightning in September. Yesterday, our owner and leadership team held a banquet for employees who have been with the organization for three, five, 10 and 15 years. At the banquet our head of human resources shared some shocking statistics with us. For the employees that have been with the team for three years, we’ve worked under one ownership team, hosted over 1,000 events and greeted 3 million guests.
I honestly can’t remember how many events and guests the rest of the tenures had experienced because those numbers were so unbelievable to me that I sat there and reminisced about people I’ve encountered. I thought back to Jack & Rita, my very first couple I sold a group to. They were Canadians coming down for the winter and stayed at a senior resort. They brought 30 people to the home opener after the work stoppage in the 12-13 season. I thought back to Stephen, the college senior who purchased a season ticket plan with me, (he’s now a graduate and working in law enforcement). I remembered the first time I sold a group party area when a group didn’t like the food we served them. I remembered the time I had two clients with the same name who bought tickets to two games a week a part from each other and I sent the wrong tickets to the wrong client. I remembered just this past season when I organized and executed the most successful Hockey N Heels ladies night out. Ever. I’m not being biased. I did a post event survey and this is what people had to say.
My point is, three years might not seem like a long time, but when you’re putting in 60, sometimes 80 hours into your work each week, you better love what you do. Don’t get me wrong, there’s times I’ve cried and times I’ve wanted to throw in the towel and times I’ve wanted to say “I can’t do this anymore. I quit.” E V E R Y O N E goes through this. And when I get to feeling this way, I think back to my freshman year at Mount Union and Dr. Thoma and Dr. Kadlecek would always tell us “If you want to work long hours and get low pay, this is the job for you.” I knew what I was getting myself into. I knew this wasn’t going to be easy. But most of the time, it’s a pretty great deal.
When you work in sales for a sports team you receive a salary and you get commission from all your sales. Some teams commission structures are greater than others, and some vary depending on which team you are on inside the organization. Most sports franchises have a sales structure that looks like this:
1.) Inside Sales (Entry level, you get this job right out of college. This is your “foot in the door”)
2.) Group Sales (focuses on selling group ticket packages to companies. A step above inside sales. If you prove yourself in IS, you can move up to groups or one of the following teams.)
3.) Client Services/Retention (focuses on retaining season ticket members season after season)
4.) Corporate Sales/Business Development (focuses on selling season tickets and premium inventory to businesses)
Each team receives a different pay and different commission structure with the Lightning. But what I LOVE about working in sales, is you can earn as much as you want. The sales reps who hustle their asses off are the ones who see results (i.e. M O N E YYYYY) and are the ones who sit at the top of the sales trackers.
So here I am… three years under my belt… about to start my fourth season… it’s time to decide what’s next, or is there even a ‘next?’
She Shall Sell 