A Framework for Developing Customer Orientation in Ticket Sales Organizations

Abstract

Although ticket sales represent the most important source of local revenues for most sport teams, relatively little research has addressed the relationship of selling activities to marketing performance. Drawing on the sport marketing, sales, organizational behavior, and psychology literatures, this research produces an integrative framework that links the organizational and individual influences on the selling activities of sales representatives in sport organizations with the value-creating outcomes of higher customer retention that arise from customer loyalty and reduced turnover in the sales force. Four influences determine the extent to which salesperson orientation supports these organizational goals and are cultivated: organizational culture, employee selection, job-related attitudes, and motivation type. Additionally, commitment to team is examined for its potential effects on perceptions of person-organization fit, job-related attitudes, and motivation among the ticket sales force. Propositions are developed based on how a sport organization's culture influences these processes.