:::::::NETWORK::::::: the ladue news business connection ::

Playing the Sales Game
by Stephen Lindsley

Eric Stisser grew up in St. Louis, attending Clayton High School before moving to Chicago. He went to DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind., and later earned an MBA from Washington University. He is currently the director of corporate sales and marketing for the St. Louis Rams. NETWORK caught up with Stisser at his office at Rams Park in Earth City.

NETWORK: How did your position with the Rams come about?

Stisser: I came back to St. Louis in 1996 to do sales and marketing for the Continental Basketball Association, which is the minor league for the NBA. The CBA office was here because Mark Lamping, who is now president of the baseball Cardinals, was commissioner of the CBA.When his tenure was up the CBA head office relocated to Phoenix, and I joined the Rams. I’ve been with the Rams for six years now. This is the 10th anniversary for the Rams in St. Louis, and it seems like it has just flown by. The city of St. Louis and the Rams fans have been very good to us.

N: Sports sales and marketing is a mystery to some. What exactly do you sell?

Stisser: My main role entails the sales and marketing of the executive box suites and corporate sponsorships. There are 124 suites in the Dome, and roughly 50 corporate sponsors each season. Company executives buy boxes to entertain customers and prospective clients, as well as their own employees. One way to retain great people in your company is to offer them perks like tickets to sporting events. Corporate sponsorships can include stadium signage, promotions and other kinds of brand visibility for sponsoring companies.

N: When people think of sports teams, they think about players, coaches and managers, but they might not think about the business side. How do the two parts of the organization work together?

Stisser: The “team” side and the “business” side are two different units, but we’re both respectful of each other’s agenda. Our senior management, John Shaw and Bob Wallace, do a great job of keeping us on the same page. I think everyone involved understands that it takes both parts to make it all work. In the end, what matters most is winning games, and certainly it helps us as salespeople when the team is successful. Overall, the entire organization works closely together for the same common goal.

N: How does a typical sponsorship proposal work?

Stisser: Well, we have a number of sponsorship packages that include various marketing elements. First, we identify sponsor categories and companies that want to align their brand with the Rams. We do a needs analysis for prospective sponsors, analyze our inventory, and then make an offer that we think matches a company’s expectations. We have permanent rotational signage inside the dome, as well as scoreboard signage. There are also neon signs on the outside of the dome, the big kiosk that is visible from Highway 70, and several other smaller options. We try to put together a package that will offer the most visibility for the client, placing their brand in front of our loyal and passionate fans. Our packages can also entail in-stadium promotions, community programs, hospitality and Internet marketing.

N: What are deals like this typically worth?

Stisser: The bigger exclusive category deals are in the high six-figure range.

N: How does this differ from what baseball and hockey teams offer?

Stisser: There are a number of differences. First, if you watch a pro football game on TV, you will notice that no on-field advertising signage is visible during the game. In hockey there are company logos all over the boards and on-ice. In baseball there is field-level advertising behind home plate, on the stadium outfield wall and in other places. In the NFL, though, the league and the networks want to preserve the integrity of the advertisers who pay top dollar for TV spots during NFL games.

Another big difference is the number of games. We have just 10 home games a year, as opposed to 41 in hockey and 81 in baseball. That means that our games are much more of an event. People plan their whole weekend around them. Lots of people come in from out of town. Plus, almost all of the seats in the Dome are PSLs, which are long-term season ticket holders. There are 66,000 fans here during every Rams game. We’ve sold out every game since 1995. In fact, we hold approximately 4,000 tickets each season for individual game sales. Amazingly, on the day these tickets become available through Ticketmaster all 4,000 are sold out within a few hours.

N: What about the sales of Rams merchandise, such as jerseys, jackets and hats?

Stisser: The NFL has a revenue sharing agreement, which means that whether we sell a Rams shirt here, or it’s sold in Chicago or Atlanta, it all goes into the same pot. Each team gets an equal revenue check each season. The only merchandise sales we get to keep for ourselves is generated through our Web site. The largest shared-revenue pie is the money from TV that is split evenly among all the teams. Revenue sharing is what makes the NFL so successful.

N: Do you think of your job as “glamorous?”

Stisser: This is really just a small, family- owned business with a sexy product. It is hard work, but it has its rewards. I’m fortunate because my job entails the combination of football and business, two things that I’m very passionate about. The Rams are a first-class organization that has a great reputation around the league for treating its players and employees really well. The fun part of this job is what sports does to relationships. I might meet a prospective client at the beginning of a game with a handshake and a polite introduction, but by the fourth quarter we’re both wrapped up in the game and “high-fiving” in the suite like we’re old friends. Sports is an emotional business, and it’s easy to create relationships in that kind of environment.

A lot of people ask me what I do in the off-season, but really that’s our busiest selling time. We need to have everything wrapped up and sold by late August. By the time the regular season rolls around,we’re enjoying the games and making sure that we’re activating our sponsorships and taking care of our suite holders. I’m busy entertaining our customers – making sure that everyone is happy and things come off as planned. Our business focus at that time really turns to suite and sponsorship renewals and generating new business for the next season.

N: You probably take pretty good care of your sponsors during the season.

Stisser: For those who are big fans it can be like a dream come true.We take sponsors to games on the road where they join us on the team plane with the players, stay at the team hotel, and come down on the field before the game. This is really a big kick for some of these executives, especially when they get a chance to meet and talk to the players. For some of them it’s like being a kid again.

BACK TO NETWORK HOME