Here’s what I learnt from the SportsContentStrategy podcast with Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Banana baseball team and founder of Fans First entertainment.

Watch this YouTube video to get the background on Jesse then read these quotes from the podcast.

Being TRULY fans first is the best sales strategy 

“We took over a professional baseball team in Savannah, Georgia that was failing. No one was coming to the games. We came here with hopes of making a successful and we, too, failed immediately. We literally sold two tickets and our first three months. It was so bad because we were doing things like everyone else.

“But then we went all-in on the ‘fans first experience’ - creating attention, naming the team the Savannah Bananas, coming up with a senior citizen dance team called the Banana Nanas, started a male cheerleading team called the Mananas. We just made it a circus. Now, we've sold out every single game and have a waitlist for tickets in the thousands.

“No one wakes up in the morning and wants to be sold. No one wakes up in the morning wants to be advertised to. No one wants to be marketed to or wants to be promoted to. Yet most businesses focus what they put out on trying to sell things. We focus on how to entertain fans. When you entertain fans, they become [true] fans and they find ways to find buy from you.”

The power of mission and story in a sports organisation

“Ask any sports team in the world - what do they stand for, who are they, what's their clear mission? I think a lot of sports teams have difficulty answering that question. We stand for the fans, the best fans. We put ourselves in their shoes, and we're delivering something that they'll never forget. And that's not just based on the sport, it's based on what you're doing on every touchpoint.

“I believe firmly that every company may have core beliefs. They have a mission, but not many have stories that back up those core beliefs and mission, and we are based on stories, our fans first playbook that we give out to the players, the staff and everybody that joins our team has stories, talking about our beliefs.”

The importance of hiring differently

“We have a three-step hiring process. We make it a fun application, you have to send a video cover letter. We want to know who you are what you know what energy you bring. Number two, we ask for a ‘fans first’ essay on how you fit our six core beliefs. Number three, we ask for your future resume. So we're not necessarily interested in what you've done in the past we want to know what you want to do in the future.”