There’s nothing worse on the business side of a professional sports team than to see more empty seats than filled seeds, to be sitting in the upper deck of a basketball arena and hearing the player’s sneakers instead of the fans cheering, for players to hear specific things fans are saying from 30 rows back because there’s nobody in the 29 rows between the player and the fan.

Advertising and marketing for years have been the lifeblood of professional sports franchises, but even in the NFL today all the advertising and marketing in the world cannot guarantee sellouts. So organizations have to be much more creative than they ever have been in the past. And much of that creativity needs to be directed at existing season ticket holders, existing groups, and existing mini plan holders. The organization needs to have a creative strategy for developing relationships with, pulling information from, and ensuring retention of these different client types.

To grow attendance through existing clients requires sound relationships from the start. It is much easier to ask for referrals from somebody with whom you have a good relationship. Is it much easier to suggest a seat upgrade to a plan holder if you know their personal situation better. It is much easier to suggest to a season-ticket holder a group event if you know what civic organizations that they are involved in, what church they attend, and what business needs they have. And it is much easier to suggest a ticket plan to people who participated in a group event if you have detailed contact and other pertinent information about the people who attended the event.

Professional sports organizations are typically so sales and marketing driven that they are in a constant push, push, push mentality. But if they were more concerned with the long-term relationship development with their existing clients and pulling information from them, then the upsell, cross-sell, or referral requests would be far more effective. 

Use relationship development as a vital starting point to business growth.

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