When the CEO is a Fan

TWO CHIEF EXECUTIVES, TWO SPORTS SUITES.

TWO VERY DIFFERENT OUTCOMES.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

CEOs from two different industries decided to get company suites because they were fans of the local team. Rather than connect their suites to business development, they used them to entertain friends and family. After each CEO left, the new leadership started asking tough questions about why the company had made such a significant investment without being able to prove the return.

You can’t control when a chief executive will come or go, but you can take control of how company tickets are used. 

FINANCIAL SERVICES

A major financial services firm leased a full-season suite at Madison Square Garden to entertain clients and drive new business. The decision to get the suite was initially driven by its CEO, who often used it to entertain family and friends.

When a new CEO took over with a mandate for change, he soon began to ask questions about the suite. He discovered that business units simply had to ask when they wanted to use the suite. There was no formal review process, and no business justification about why the suite was being requested. He was most concerned by the fact that the firm could not point to any concrete data proving its suite was driving business results in the form of new partnerships and deals.

Faced with this lack of insight, the new CEO immediately began to question why the firm had invested in suites in the first place. He ordered a thorough review to determine whether the suite could be transformed from a private luxury into a true client development asset.

HEALTHCARE

Everyone knew the CEO was a big fan of the local sports team. That’s why he instructed the firm to buy a suite at the venue. The internal process was simple: tickets were first offered to the CEO. If he didn’t want them, they were made available to the wider team.

Records were slipshod and inconsistent. The firm could not see who was using the suite, and it couldn’t prove it was driving positive results.

Eventually, the CEO left. His replacement realized that, despite how the suite had been managed, it was a valuable property which could be used to drive real results, including business development and employee rewards.

He knew the task called for a real system, not more spreadsheets. To prove the suite was working, a new system had to—

1- Show leadership exactly who was using the suite and why, and

2- Prove the return on investment with detailed, easy to use reporting

To accomplish these goals, the firm relied on TicketManager to automate every aspect of their suite and client entertainment. Within a few weeks, the firm was able to access dozens of reports showing exactly how their suite was being used, who was using it, and what results it was producing.

The company suite went from being a private resource mainly used by the CEO to an integral part of the firm’s client development.

A TALE OF TWO CEOs

Two CEOs, two suites— and two very different outcomes.

In both cases, the firms lacked evidence to prove the value of its suites. The new financial services CEO identified the problem immediately after taking the helm, and started asking pointed questions about the firm’s investment in the suite. The new healthcare CEO also asked tough questions, but realized that with the proper tools in place, the suite could be transformed into a powerful asset for the firm to engage with clients.

How do smart companies protect their investment in tickets and live events?

By getting out in front of the problem: by proving their events are driving value before anyone thinks to ask the question.