Three Things I Learned in Saas, Sports Tech & Live Events

What I learned selling a boxing sponsorship to a gentleman's club*

In 2004, STAPLES Center hosted an HBO fight and we were contracted to sell sponsorship packages.

I was assigned the inbound phone lines.. 

A call came in from Stars Planet, Inc which owned clubs in DTLA. David, the caller, asked what we would sell to his business

After consulting with my boss, we sent over a list of what was available. Traditional packages including signage, tickets, and sought after inventory.

We were wrong in all of our assumptions.

David called a few days later and ordered the following assets:

* 10 tickets ringside on the TV side 

* 6 signage placements in the concourse 

* 10 bus parking passes 

* 3 signage placements outside the building 

It was all undesirable inventory we didn't even know how to price. Eventually, the whole sponsorship was ~$110k, with the tickets being 90% of the cost. 

What did he do?

* He sent his talent to the fight draped in gear promoting his club near each sign

* The signage was all arrows pointing to his parking spots where... 

* He had 10 shuttle busses taking guests to his club after the fight

Here are the three things I learned from the time I sold a sponsorship to a strip club: 

David called me on Monday to inform me it was the biggest night they'd had in ten years - and to invite me to the club "for a VIP experience you'll never forget" (I didn't go). 

Here are the three things I learned from the time I sold a sponsorship to a strip club: 

1. The customer knows their business far better than we ever will. We have to ask what they want before we build packages. Everything we suggested was wrong for his use case. What got the sale for us was that we gave him all the information and he knew what he wanted. If this were a competitive situation, we would have lost. (I have no doubt he was being coy for a reason given the circumstances) 
2. Pricing is very difficult and too often  overlooked. To most, including the 12 core sponsors and the standard categories we sold to, what Stars Planet bought wasn't worth much. For his use case, they were the best assets and we underpriced them. We've learned that lesson over and over at TicketManager as well. 
3. Experience is underrated - and getting more so. He knew his customers and what would work. Analytics, elimination of bias and innovation are necessary. But nearly all of the famous innovators stories had someone with extensive experience involved to help Apple, Google, Microsoft, Facebook grow in their markets. Whether investors or mentors, they are very public, just not as public as the founders. 

* The three things intent is to share stories of what we've learned along the way. It is not to judge others, preach our beliefs and ethics, or discuss those decisions in the moment. If put in the situation today, I would ask off the deal and wouldn't put our team in that position. But that was a decision made from much higher up nearly 20 years ago. I'm not one to promote gentleman's clubs and am a financial supporter of the International Justice Mission. Please check them out and give if you can. It is a wonderful group changing lives every day. Becoming a Freedom Partner is only $24 a month.