SEAT Global Magazine - Exclusive Interviews of Global Sport Executive Issue 09 March/April 2018 | Page 72

SUCCESS PUMPING UP YOUR STORY MARKETING PARTNERSHIPS TEAM T HE CH A L L ENGE To say that professional sports teams have a lot of data to manage is an understatement. Ask any team and they will acknowledge that adopting technology to effectively manage this data is no easy task. Without the right system teams can fail to connect the dots between sales, service, marketing and finance. For the Phoenix Suns marketing partnerships department, using the right software and forming the right partner relationship was crucial to their success. For the Suns, it was important to implement partnership management software that emphasized ease-of-use for their staff. The clear choice was StoneTimberRiver—a company uniquely capable of offering a best-in-breed solution catered specifically to the industry. StoneTimberRiver works with sports leagues and franchises to provide a best practice CRM solution for different functions of an organization including Ticketing, Suites, and Partnerships. “The Deal Panel provides our sales team with the necessary and critical information we need, and does so without impairing routine job functions. Being able to see inventory availability, thresholds, and pricing info in a simple interface is important. This allows us the ability to quickly shift focus from specific partners to inventory without getting lost in an overcomplicated system that is tough to navigate.” — Carlissa Henry, SVP, Marketing Partnerships “One of the biggest benefits provided by StoneTimberRiver’s software compared to the alternatives in this industry is the intuitive design on top of the powerful functionality for our user groups. Every process is streamlined and simple for even the least experienced users.” — Ken Borkan, Director of Strategy, Operations & Research TH E R E S ULTS TH E A CTIO N P LA N For Carlissa Henry, SVP, Marketing Partnerships and Ken Borkan, Director of Strategy, Operations & Research, it is not only critical that the team adopts the software but is also able to pull the necessary information out of it. The aphorism “garbage in, garbage out” is unfortunately a common symptom of inefficient systems in the industry. “One of the biggest benefits provided by StoneTimberRiver’s software compared to the alternatives in this industry is the intuitive design on top of the powerful functionality for our user groups. Every process is streamlined and simple for even the least experienced users,” says Borkan. User adoption and data integrity are always significant challenges for any software solution. StoneTimberRiver’s emphasis on a clean, intuitive user interface and workflow for end users allows for easy user adoption and improved data accuracy. The marketing partnerships business can include intricate processes and transitions, but StoneTimberRiver delivers a streamlined and simple solution. The Deal Panel TM , the core of StoneTimberRiver’s partnership solution, provides an elegant and smooth experience for all users across the entirety of the marketing partnerships business process. “The Deal Panel provides our sales team with the necessary and critical information we need, and does so without impairing routine job functions. Being able to see inventory availability, thresholds, and pricing info in a simple interface is important. This allows us the ability to quickly shift focus from specific partners to inventory without getting lost in an overcomplicated system that is tough to navigate,” says Henry. By partnering with StoneTimberRiver, the Suns have improved their process flow, established transparency among their marketing partnerships team, and bettered their sales insights. The Suns pipeline starts at prospect analysis and targeting, moves to proposal building, hopefully to a contract approval, and eventually to finance. Information at each step is valuable for the team internally and tracked by StoneTimberRiver’s CRM software. Providing smooth transitions and effortless data entry ensures that accurate and timely data is captured. For the Suns strategy and analytics staff, this means the marketing partnerships team can spend more time on their core competency (i.e. selling and servicing), and they can focus on producing effective reports and analytics for executives and other appropriate colleagues. [email protected]