Relationships Sell

by Mark Adams

We are in a business where sales can come in droves or dry up for weeks at a time.  Fortunately or unfortunately, that’s just part of the game.  For those of you who are building newer markets, the struggle to sell becomes even tougher, because you don’t have the relationship power that mature markets have.  That’s exactly why it’s important to build relationships with the venues you do have, because relationships sell.

I had the pleasure recently to go with Eric Volann (Northeast Ohio Territory Manager) to pitch Sporcle Live to a group of 15+ different Buffalo Wild Wings.  That was the first time in my four years in this business of having that many decision makers in one room.  It was a huge opportunity and a daunting one at that.

Upon walking into the room where everyone was gathered, it wasn’t nerves, excitement, or anticipation that caught up with me.  What caught my attention instantly was the number of people in that room that knew who Eric Volann was.  Katie Senkar who was key in getting this meeting set up immediately came over to Eric and I and welcomed us. Not too long after that the GM from the Canton location spoke to Eric briefly.   However, it was what Eric said next which really resonated.  He said, “that’s Rich, the GM of Avon Lake.  I knew we had a chance with these other Buffalo Wild Wings because he spoke up for us.  If Rick speaks up for you, others follow suit.”

Essentially we could have walked into this meeting and did a little song and dance and would have been successful.  The sale had already been done long before we walked in.  And that’s all due to the amount of time that Keith/Jeff and later on, Eric put into creating a relationship with those first few locations.   I can remember when we first signed Katie’s location, Jeff sat and played trivia with her on the first night.  That was the initial relationship building seed that ended up getting us this massive lead.

The lesson to be learned here is that when you invest time into creating a relationship with a bar and bar manager(s), that does multiple things.  1)  It buys you more time to get a show built and 2) it potentially leads you to other sales down the road that you weren’t even proactively seeking.

You want to create a relationship with your bar managers where if they have any doubt about keeping Sporcle Live running, they don’t want to drop it because they’d be quitting on you personally.  Here’s a great example of that…

In June of 2010, we started doing an advertising program with 93.9 The River in Detroit.  They are a mid-sized radio station and we worked out a deal called Trivia Tuesday with them.  It was outside our usual scope (and budget really) of things to try, but we wanted to go out of the box.  We didn’t get a ton of measurable ROI on that investment, yet we kept it running for over a year.  Why?  A lot of it was because of our sales rep, Bill St. Laurent.  Bill made it very clear that he was there to help us make the campaign succeed and did things that were above and beyond what we expected, including getting us to host a tournament on a riverboat, gave us a whole slew of prizes to give away, etc.  Even though we knew things weren’t working the way we wanted with the ad campaign, we kept it going because of Bill.  We wanted to quit 93.9 the River, but we didn’t want to quit Bill St. Laurent.

Bottom line here is in our endeavor to build an entertainment empire, you have to start by building individual relationships first.  Go build them, because building relationships sells.

Now Hiring a Content Manager

We here at Sporcle Live believe wholeheartedly that good, consistent content is a key factor in providing trivia teams with a positive experience each and every week.  Therefore, we are happy to announce that we are searching for our first Sporcle Live Content Manager.  This is a part-time hourly position, working about 32 hours per week.

The Content Manager will oversee and assist in the following areas related to Sporcle Live:

-Question Writing
-Nightly game question formatting
-Mystery Rounds writing
-Audio clues
-Visual Round creation
-Creating Powerpoint presentations for shows that require them
-Assist in tournament preparations
-Assist with Rock Bingo content

The Content Manager will need to be able to work out of our office located in Plymouth, Michigan and be available 4-5 days per week.

The ideal candidate will be a creative type who thrives on creating quality and quantity.   This person needs to be energized, efficient and take pride in their work.

Interested candidates should email their resumes to Mark Adams at mark@sporcle.com.  Please also include in your email the answers to the following questions:

1 – Why are you the perfect fit for this role?
2 – What is your availability?
3 – What is your salary requirements?
4 – Give us your best trivia question.

Sorry, we don’t have any venues to announce yet. Check back soon for more info.