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Hope everyone is having a great, profitable week. It is time for our weekly sales meeting and this week I want to touch on what happened this past weekend on Netflix and the fight card headlined by Mike Tyson and Jake Paul.
You may be wondering how in the heck that debacle could have anything to do with what you do on a regular basis but read on and let me count the ways. First off, did you see the sponsorships? Holy moly, for everything Netflix did wrong, someone or somebodies sold the heck out of it. And visually, assuming your connection wasn’t buffering, and nobody was talking, the sponsorships looked great.
They even got innovative and had specially designed higher-end packages for sponsors. Most famously, they had a $2 million price tag on an ‘Owners Box’ next to the ring. The package was purchased by LA-based personal injury law firm TorkLaw and included that ringside suite, additional ringside seats, presence at the weigh-in, a visit to the locker rooms before the fight, photographs, signed merch and more.
I saw several people on social media who thought the law firm was crazy for paying that much. I have seen smarter people in the advertising and marketing space who thought it was a genius play and a steal at that price for the exposure they received and continue to receive.
The reason for the sponsorship sales and being able to get sponsors to pony up $2 mil for a ringside suite was because of the hype surrounding the fight, the buildup and the anticipation. Clearly the sales team at Netflix and/or MVP Promotions or whomever handled the selling, went out and pitched this with major enthusiasm and played off of that hype. After all, what is Jake Paul in the end, but a master promoter?
We have all been there. An idea comes down and holy cow is it a good idea and something your sponsors should want to be a part of. You go and sell that differently than you do when you are pitching a small company a spot schedule and a website ad. It is only natural. But the lesson from that is to find things you are super excited about within your suite of products and focus on those. The great thing is that won’t be the same product for everyone on your sales team. Master that pitch and get out and sell with enthusiasm.
It could be a certain personality that you think does a great job for clients. Get to know that person really well and their interests and things that you know you could go out and sell and they would do a great, genuine job of pitching it. Again, each seller may have a different talent they match up better with.
Now, we have all also been on the other side of things. The unfortunate situation where something happened completely out of your control, and you have to address it with the clients that were involved. I recall a time when a station I was working at had a concert around the holidays that was to be a great opportunity for clients. However, one of the main clients ended up with most of their signage either covered up by the band or put in places that didn’t get them great exposure.
Address these things immediately and whatever you do, do not make excuses. Make sure you let the client know fairly soon after discovering the problem that you are aware of the situation, are working on it and should you not be able to come up with a quick fix, it will be addressed immediately the next week.
The last thing you want to do is do what Netflix, Jake Paul, MVP Promotions and at least one of the broadcasters of the fights have done and act like it was no big deal. Or say something completely ignorant like, ‘Well that part was added value, so you really didn’t pay for it.”
Ever heard this one – ‘the customer is always right’. If they are upset about something, even if you disagree, you need to let them know you have listened, heard what said and will address it quickly. People make mistakes, things happen and sometimes those things cannot be solved quickly enough. While people might get upset, they are usually understanding if someone is honest with them and doesn’t try and make them out to be an idiot.
I have written this before, but don’t ever get yourself caught up in a lie with a client. It just isn’t worth it no matter how scared you are they are going to be mad about what went wrong.
In the end, despite the major streaming problems, it would be hard for anyone to call what happened last weekend anything but a success. It was successful for the fighters for sure, and really all of them with the purse money and the exposure. MVP Promotions had to make bank, we know the ticket sales were off the charts, heck even one of the ring girls is probably about to make millions off this (she is from St. Louis, by the way, and her father is the very talented in-game host for the St. Louis Cardinals). Yes, Netflix will feel some pain with the issues, but have you seen the stock price?
And you, too, as a media salesperson can win. You can win by taking what this night taught us and putting it into practice. Get excited, hype something up you have for sale like it’s going to be witnessed by the whole world. Excitement sells!
But also remember the lesson about being upfront when things go sideways. You never want to put yourself in a position to upset your client. You always want them to think you are a rock star, and never want to come out looking like a big ol’ Mike Tyson rear end.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
