Ticket sales are the lifeblood of nearly every sport organization. Not only do ticket sales generate revenue, outbound sales programs charged with selling tickets aid sport organizations in the development of customer relationships and distribution of marketing materials and messages. Despite the importance of sales in sport, minimal scholarly research has been conducted within sport management literature to determine the effect of sales training on sales performance, as well as perceptions of sales training effectiveness by employees. The current study addresses this gap. Data collected from 140 ticket sales professionals reveals not only an alarming lack of sales training being conducted, but also a statistically significant relationship between the amount of time spent in certain sales training methods and attainment of sales goals. Further, sales managers and sales representatives differed in perceptions of which training methodologies were most effective.
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