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To jump straight into it, the purpose of the role is to generate revenue from outbound telesales campaigns, which means phoning people repeatedly throughout a work day. This is primarily for a match by match basis, filling up the hospitality boxes and areas of stands, however, there is a constant intention of building a pipeline for seasonal revenue, possibly a season ticket or a collection of seating or packages for external businesses to take advantage of. The focus of a Business Development Executive’s job will be on ‘bringing in new business’, to fill up seats and quite simply make money for a football club.

The role and it’s job responsibilities can be transferred to other industries, however we like to look at Sport. As previously said, an BDE will need to lead pro-active outbound sales activity through phone and emailing, to generate revenue for Matchday and Non-Matchday. A good BDE will upsell and cross sell (advertise unutilised products or services) to existing customers who have not yet invested in all that the club can offer. This will be pushed and more likely to be successful if a relationship and trust has been built; or in other words, the customer sees you and your employer as reliable and a good way to spend their money. Additional to this, a BDE will have to aim to move happy customers from a match-by-match basis to committing themselves to seasonal packages.

Being on a larger team of BDEs and a sale department, the delivery of sales will come from tactical sales campaigns with clear defined targets and metrics. These so-called metrics may include but are not limited to; any revenue, if it be seasonal and/or match by match, good conversion percentage and any ‘leads’ contacted. A BDE needs to hit targets, otherwise known as Key Performance Indicators to ensure they are earning their wage! This is because their job is almost solely based on the money they bring in, the seats and other products that they sell and the amount of face to face appointments they make with other businesses. These appointments being made can lead to god knows what, but maybe a great deal for the club if it be relating directly to what the BDE does on the phone, or if it is something that is only done face-to-face including building the number of partner companies e.g. club sponsors. Whilst these meetings are often done by other staff, the BDE will be required to talk face-to-face to clients in the additional hours they work or “sixth day of work” as one football club said to me, by this they mean before and during matches when the customer is in the stadium; this is where relationships and additional customer retention is built.

The Key Relationships for a Business Development Executive in Footbal

• Senior Sales Manager
• Inside Sales Manager
• Hospitality Operations Manager
• Hospitality Sales Team