Starting Out Sports

Sandra Greer

Company Name:

Greer Consulting

Role Within the Company:

Founder and Consultant

Years Working in the Industry:

38

How did you first break into the industry?

I first worked at Sports Marketing Surveys which was a market research company around sports participation and equipment. They were one of the first companies to use sponsorship media evaluation using a company based in Belgium. I started working more in sponsorship but wanted to do more in the market research side.

I then worked at RSL (now Ipsos) as Head of Sponsorship, who had the contract with UEFA Champions League for their research. We began to do more work in this area and also launched the ITV broadcast sponsorship tracker using “state of the art technology” in those days of CAPI interview on their omnibus surveys.

I then moved into the emerging area of the internet with WorldSport which was set up to run one website for all the international federations (GAISF). Although a great offering the owner would not accept advertising so the business model failed but an amazing opportunity.

From then on I worked at a number of specialist sponsorship research agencies (who subsequently bought each other under the banner of Repucom) combining multiple data sets to widen services and a more consultative approach.

My final destination was media agency, dentsu, heading the research team withing their sponsorship agency, MKTG. After 8 years I decided to have more time for me and have set up my own consultancy.

What skills and qualifications are most valued in the sports business industry, and how someone acquire them?

There are lots of webinars, courses and news sites around -many free – if you are not at a company or brand who is a member of ESA for example, join as an affiliate and pick up as much information and news as possible. Don’t just go on the courses that interest you or are your area understand the whole business as they all interlink.

Listening and learning – hence my advocation of at least 3 days in the office and no headphones! – listen to your peers on how they deal with clients etc. A commercial head and don’t get tunnel thoughts – forget about your own personal experiences, think like the person you are trying to reach and the benefits to them.

You don’t need to have a university degree in sport or events. Marketing would be useful for the basics. A passion not for sport but for meeting objectives and creating engagement are the core skills. You also need to work hard – sport is not a 9-5 industry!

What are the best ways to gain relevant experience in the sports business industry?

Internships are hard to come by and often it is difficult to even offer yourself for free to get experience. Sometimes you may need to get experience in marketing for example but not in sport in order to get that first job in sport when they are looking for that skillset. Voluntary work – you will see the highs and lows and be at the source of it all. This can be at clubs, on committees, coaching, training etc.

Good resources you would recommend?

I was approached by a young golfer in a match and she wanted to get into sport and potentially sustainability – this is a cop of the email I sent her:

 

There are also a lot of news sites which give you an idea of the type of work in the industry – you can sign up for free

 

There are some specialist recruitment companies in sport who when you are ready might be worth contacting.