How Major League Teams Hire Entry-Level Ticket Sales Representatives: A Qualitative Analysis

Abstract

Maintaining a robust salesforce is critical for nearly any business. The sport industry is no exception, as salespeople help sport organizations generate essential ticket revenue. While the sport industry is a popular career option for young professionals, relatively few aspiring sport managers desire to work in sales. As such, entry-level sport ticket sales positions experience high turnover. The purpose of this study is to assess the hiring processes of recruitment, evaluation, and selection of sales candidates among North American professional sport leagues. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 21 ticket sales hiring managers from teams in the four major North American professional sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, and NHL). Data analysis from interviews revealed four primary themes: (a) recruitment as an active and continuous process, (b) contrasting approaches to interviewing, (c) hiring managers’ preferences for ideal candidates, and (d) challenges assessing candidates. Several subthemes were identified. Implications for faculty, practitioners, and students are discussed.

So you want to work in sports? An exploratory study of sport business employability

“…Following the method used by Finch et al (2016a) in a non-sport context, a content analysis was completed of SB employment postings. To ensure consistency, data were collected exclusively from TeamWork Online (TeamWorkOnline.com), a leading SB employment website in the United States (Pierce, 2019; Popp et al , 2019). Every employment posting was collected from the website between September 1 and December 1, 2018.…”

“…Postings were collected exclusively from TeamWork Online (TeamWorkOnline. com), a leading SB employment website in the United States (Pierce, 2019;Popp et al, 2019). This approach allows for the examination of (1) the development and competency resources employers seek, (2) whether organizational factors, such as sector and size, influence An exploratory study of sport business employability qualification demand, (3) whether this demand has evolved over the past decade, and ( 4) what are the implications of these findings for administrators and educators in sport management.…”

“…To answer these questions, this study also leverages the framework adopted by Finch et al (2016a, b) in a non-sport context, by conducting an empirical content analysis of SB employment postings from two different years, a decade apart, 2008 and 2018 in the same months. Postings were collected exclusively from TeamWork Online (TeamWorkOnline.com), a leading SB employment website in the United States (Pierce, 2019; Popp et al , 2019). This approach allows for the examination of (1) the development and competency resources employers seek, (2) whether organizational factors, such as sector and size, influence qualification demand, (3) whether this demand has evolved over the past decade, and (4) what are the implications of these findings for administrators and educators in sport management.…”

Attrition in entry-level ticket sales positions: a survival analysis

“…The large number of available job opportunities coupled with the negative perception of sales by applicants creates considerable competition to recruit talent to fill these entry-level positions (Sattler and Warren, 2016;Shreffler et al, 2018). Sales is one of the few departments in a sports organization that sends recruiters out to college campuses to find talent (Popp et al, 2019a). As a result, inside sales managers responsible for the recruitment, retention and growth of entry-level inside salespeople need to understand the nature of salesperson attrition so they can enact well-timed intervention strategies that promote retention and growth of salespeople.…”

“…Relatedly, no empirical evidence exists to confirm or refute the notion that sales is a great way for students to "get their foot in the door" of the sports industry. This mantra is frustrating to inside sales managers who are looking for good salespeople, not applicants that want to ultimately be doing something else in the industry (Popp et al, 2019a;Shreffler et al, 2018). Entry-level sales positions are often assumed to lead to other positions within sport organizations, but this assumption has not been assessed.…”