Robert Weese starts off the discussion with an examination of what sports organizations can do to improve their B2B sales staff, and ends on a determination of the role of A players amid a sea of B & C players. Its an amazing conversation where the heart of the issue, A players being held back in some cases, has caused massive turnover in sales staffs by their best employees leaving due to C players ruling the roost. Weese goes in-depth into the problematic world where a C player may be the sales manager or supervisor, and ways to ensure that the A players have a reason to stick around. Weese is a sales coach with www.B2Bsalesconnection.com which has been helping executives improve their sales skills online.

Bringing her NBA experience with the Atlanta Hawks to Cleveland State, Carrie Neville talks about how the ticket sales office has transitioned into a full-selling suite. Neville presents several ideas of how CSU’s basketball events are more than just a game, whether that includes concessions, magicians or just fun. Neville discusses her passion for group sales, some of the techniques she uses in order to ensure that the largest group possible comes out, and the great challenge afterward of trying to determine what information aside from the group leader can attained from the rest of those coming. Twitter: @CSU_Vikes

Operating one minor league team would be a normal undertaking, but Mike Ostrowski is responsible for three teams which have overlapping seasons. Ostrowski talks about developing a good sales team, making sure that the brand is extended out, respected, and pushed futher into the community. Ostrowski talks about group tickets, the implementation of dynamic pricing on minor league teams, and the NBADL Canton Charge, which relocated to the Ohio area in 2011.

Idol Sports Marketing is responsible for some of the largest one day non-conference college basketball games in the country. Jon Hines has developed a great strategy of bringing some of the top teams in the nation together to face each other, including Gonzaga’s basketball Comcast Battle In Seattle and the Washington State Cougar basketball Hardwood Classic, both at the Key Arena. Hines talks about the implementation and planning process of putting together such a large event, what it takes to ensure that each ticket that can be sold it, and how he prevents losing the college atmosphere by eliminating some of the higher price point seats in order to allow student sections to exist and thrive. Twitter: @IdolSports

Adam O’Connell has the duality of professional and collegiate experience in ticket sales, which means he can see past the rhetoric, discussing what works and what doesn’t when selling sports tickets. O’Connell talks about his tenure with the Fresno Grizzlies minor league baseball team and the Fresno Falcons junior hockey league team, then expands to what Akron is currently doing to ensure that each fan receives the best customer service in the Ohio area.

Don’t go calling Mike Briercliffe an expert, because he doesn’t believe there is one in the world of social media. Briercliffe does have advanced knowledge on how to build a cohesive social media strategy, going from the fast lanes of the Twitter down to the medium slow lanes of Facebook & LinkedIn. Briercliffe shares his social media philosophies on what works, what doesn’t in terms of building a social media fanbase, as well as his love for the Liverpool Premier League club.  Twitter: @mikejulietbravo

Part 2 of UK Sponsorship Discussions focuses on sports teams’ branding efforts in a changing world of revenues with Two Circles’ Matt Rogan. The discussion centers around some of the ways that a team can brand themselves differently from their competition, and then looks at the UK relegation system compared to the US sports team’s amateur draft and salary cap. An interesting conversation on how to work with a brand that may be 200 years old and what to do when fans affect the brand more than the brand affects the fans. Twitter: @MattRoganSport

Located in Indiana, Juan Garcia shares some of the misconceptions that not only the public, but even the players have about agents. This is an eye-opening account as to what players expect from their representatives, especially when it comes to the player’s personal matters. Garcia talks about the collective bargaining agreement, the NBADL and whether being located in Indiana instead of Chicago, New York or Los Angeles is a hindrance to his agency’s growth. Twitter: @JuanAmg40

Part 1 of UK Sponsorship Discussions on sports sponsorship branding begins with Activate’s Jeremy Edwards, who shares some of the details on how effective branding works for the sports team’s sponsor. Edwards discusses ROI and a good brand message which creates conversation for the team and sponsor. Typically, the focus on branding is what the team can achieve to the fan, but rarely does it go indepth into the customer’s reaction to a businesses’ sponsorship of their team. The conversation also touches on how a team’s roster has now become their own media channels through social media. Twitter: @Activative

A former Arena League2 General Manager, Butch Bellah now spends his days developing and training sports sales staffs across the country. Bellah talks in terms of the sports sales person being a craftsman, ensuring that each understands that they should take pride in what they do. Bellah shares his philosophy on starting the work week off right while the competition is struggling, especially on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons, and how make sure that each sales call ends with progress toward a sale, not toward a no. Twitter: @SalesPowerTips