Cosmos Sports

Outsourcing - Fan Outreach Centre :

Cosmos Sports provides your team/organization extensive sales support from our sales centre. We have worked with many sports and entertainment properties with the purpose of maximizing revenue, by supplementing current efforts or taking complete control of outbound sales efforts. Outsourcing is a great way to add additional resources for the fiscal year or for your peak seasons, providing the opportunity to target unused lists. Increased efforts through outsourcing allow your team/organization to focus on its core competencies for maximum efficiency.

Although outsourcing has significant benefits when run properly, there are also challenges to outsourcing that must be considered. One challenge with outsourcing is customer relationship management. To ensure a seamless process, Cosmos Sports staff takes detailed notes on all phone calls such as pertinent info obtained on recent calls, best time to reach consumers, and amount of times reached. All of this data is then returned to the your team/organization so that future conversations by your staff are up to date.

Another challenge to outsourcing is brand consistency. The fear of outsourcing is not having control of your brand or knowing what’s being communicated to your consumers. Cosmos Sports staff is very professional in dealing with customers. For the 2011 season, more than 6000 calls were made and not one complaint was made to the Edmonton Eskimos as a result (please see below for testimonial). In addition our staff understands the importance of product knowledge and working close with the your team/organization’s senior executives to learn consumer objections and how they are handled internally.

Cosmos Sports also provides support to your inbound sales efforts. In the past, we have successfully provided our clients with dedicated phone lines and account executives to answer inbound calls. This service is especially effective for peak seasons or upcoming events that trigger significant increases in inbound calls.

For example, in 2008 the Buffalo Bills in Toronto Series used our inbound services and provided their VIP Ticket Subscribers with a dedicated phone number to our sales centre. With our superior customer service, upselling and referral techniques, we generated more than $2.5 Million in ticket sales revenue in less than two months.

In support of the inbound sales campaign Cosmos Sports IT and Creative Services department will create email marketing campaigns to send to your list(s) that will help generate additional inbound calls. While most of our time will be spent on reacting to inbound calls, our staff will also contact the consumers that either click or open the e-mail blast. We consider this to be Hot Call Selling.

Please see below for a list of benefits and more details on our Outsourcing Sales Support:

Benefits:

1. Cost: Help your company save money on employee salaries, commissions, and benefits, as well as many overhead costs associated with running a sales department including phones, computers, hardware, rent and maintenance fees – without sacrificing quality, skill, or professionalism

2. Time: Save time on hiring, training, and managing. Furthermore, save time on generating results. In most cases, your business loses significant revenue while waiting for account executives to learn the product, pick up the phone, or ask for the close. Skip the transition period and financial losses; our service guarantees calls and results from day one!

3. Capacity: Save on space. Many professional sports teams or entertainment properties do not have the ability to set up a sales centre. Outsourcing is an extremely effective and efficient option for many organizations. Whether you are looking to sell tickets throughout an entire season or host a one-time or annual event, this program gives teams and organizations with limited office space the opportunity to provide a professional-level ticket sales campaign that will drive revenue and retain customers for the future.

4. Management/Training: As outlined under the Time benefit, managing and training can be very time consuming. In addition to saving time, our Outsourcing department is lead by President Cary Kaplan, who has trained hundreds of sports teams and thousands of Executives on selling tickets. Through our sales centre you will have access to resources with a specialized training and skill set, and an organization whose core competency is revenue generation and ticket sales.

5. Persistence: New sales executives have the tendency to fear “stalking” or believe more often that the consumer will call them back when they are ready to buy. As a result, many leads remain warm as opposed to hot or sold resulting in thousands of dollars being left on the table. While our sales centre approach is to be persistent it is also very important to remain polite. We continue to contact leads by phone and e-mail on a daily basis. It is this approach along with urgency that generates most of our success.

6. Customer Service: While keeping in mind our end goal of producing results through sales, our Fan Centric approach ensures the customer is always satisfied by providing excellent customer service. Maintaining contact with fans and customers that have attended at least one event/game, allows your team/organization to gain constant feedback and insight. With a dedicated phone line in our sales centre for your team/organization you will also always have a live pick-up, rather than having customers waiting on hold.

Features:

•  Cosmos Sports executive leadership
•  Dedicated property-specific account executives with extensive ticket sales training
•  Dedicated toll free 1-800 phone line with a unique ringtone and voicemail (checked daily and on weekends)
•  Extended calling hours - Minimum 8am – 8pm (your time zone)
•  Superior Customer Service
•  Weekly detailed reporting
•  E-mail marketing resulting in targeted hot-call selling
•  Database management
•  Cosmos staff requires that the dedicated phone number be placed on the website and marketing materials
•  Cosmos staff requires for the best results team/property e-mail addresses to provide a seamless integration

Scope of Services:

Complete ticket sales support or supplemental efforts to the following groups:

1.  New Season Tickets and/or Subscriptions
2.  Season Ticket and/or Subscription Renewals
3.  Subscriptions and Memberships
4.  Flex Packs and Mini Plans
5.  Group Sales
6.  Individual Tickets
7.  Fundraising
8.  Donations
9.  Customers Service or Experience Calls

"Northlands contracted Cosmos to assist in increasing ticket sales and customer engagement for the 2012 Canadian Finals Rodeo. The objective was successfully achieved in a short time frame with professionalism, dedication and commitment to the task. It was a pleasure working with Bryan, Sonja and their Cosmos team."

Sue Miller
Manager, Ticket Sales
Siganture Events, Northlands

Cosmos has worked closely with the Edmonton Eskimos (CFL) on an Outsourcing campaign to attract new season ticket holders. With significant success in the first year, Cosmos has rapidly generated over $75,000 in new revenues for the franchise. (View Case Study)
Greg Treble
Vice President, Sales and Business Development
Edmonton Eskimo Football Club

"Performing arts organizations excel at customer service. Keeping our loyal patrons happy is what we do, and we have built our organizations around that need. But every year, we lose opportunities to move our guests up the ladder, from single-ticket buyers to repeat visitors, to package holders to full subscribers. The fact of the matter is that kind of initiative takes a staff that has the same respect for customer care, but a real sales background to boot. The kind of organization that most arts groups just can’t afford to maintain year-round. That’s where Cosmos comes in. With elite-level sales staff and experience in helping to grow the most valuable segments of our client base, and keep our organization strong and secure for the future." (View Case Study)
                               Gregg Taylor
                               Marketing and Development Manager
                               Theatre Aquarius

"In working closely with Cosmos Sports for the Buffalo Bills in Toronto ticket sales campaign; Cosmos staff and management proved to be very professional, knowledgeable and had significant success in directly selling over $2 Million in tickets during the engagement. They represented our brand very well; and I would recommend their services in other similar ventures.".
Jim Edmands
                              Buffallo Bills in Toronto
 

"Leading up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Cosmos Sports worked with CTV Olympic Theatre program to solicit companies for the purpose of reserving exclusive movie theatres for their customers, employees and friends. Cosmos acted professionally as an agent representing our brand extremely well, and procuring a number of high profile clients to engage in this new and unique program. I would strongly recommend their work for any similar endeavor."
                            Michael Boughner
                            Director of Business Development
                            CTV Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium

Past/Present Outsourcing Clients Include: