The Business Case for Live Sports: How to Sell Corporate Clients Successfully
By Bill Guertin, The 800-Pound Gorilla
Ticket Playbook Contributor
Let me ask you something before we talk strategy.
When was the last time your best client sat across from you in a
conference room and said, "You know what? I feel really close to you after
that PowerPoint."
Never happened. Never will. But I'll bet you can think of a moment —
maybe at a ballgame, maybe in a suite, maybe over a hot dog at the
seventh-inning stretch, where a relationship shifted. Where the wall came
down. Where business got done not because of a pitch, but because of a
shared experience.
That's what you're selling when you pick up the phone and call a corporate
prospect. Not tickets. Not a suite. Not an all-you-can-eat hospitality
package. You're selling a solution — and right now, your corporate
prospects need solutions more than ever.
What Business Owners Are Up Against Right Now
Here's what the data tells us about the people you're calling on. According
to the Q3 2025 Small Business Index, inflation is the top concern for nearly
half of all small businesses. Nearly a third of small firms run out of money
before generating a profit. And on the human side of the ledger, 34% of
business owners have unfilled job openings they simply can't fill, with 47%
saying they can't find qualified applicants.
Translation: your prospects are squeezed from every direction. Costs are
up. Talent is hard to find and harder to keep. And in an environment where
Zoom fatigue is real and remote work has eroded the casual social bonds
that once held teams together, human connection has become a genuine
business problem.
That's where you come in.
What Smart Companies Are Already Doing with Their Tickets
The biggest corporations in America, think AB-InBev, Verizon, and
American Express, have known for years that a live sports ticket isn't a
perk. It's a business tool. They use them for client development, employee
reward and retention, prospect cultivation, and community presence. They
track ROI, they integrate ticket usage into their CRM systems, and they
treat every unused seat as a missed opportunity.
Your prospects, the regional businesses, the mid-sized companies, the
local franchise owners want to operate the same way. They just don't
always know how to frame it internally, or how to make the case to their
CFO.
That's your job. You're not calling them to ask if they want to go to a game.
You're calling to help them solve three problems they already have.
The Three Problems You Solve
Problem #1: Retention and morale. When a business owner can't out-pay a
competitor for talent, they have to out-experience them. A company night in
a dedicated hospitality space, with food, drinks, and their people together in
a way that feels like a reward — that's something a paycheck can't
replicate. A bulk ticket purchase for a team outing can be 100% deductible
as a company-wide employee event under current IRS guidelines. That's
not a side note; that's a talking point. Lead with it.
Problem #2: Client relationships. Cold emails don't close deals. LinkedIn
messages don't either, not at the level your prospects want to operate. But
three hours in a suite with your best client — or your best prospect —
watching a great game, eating great food, with no agenda except being
together? That closes deals. Corporations have used live events for
relationship development for decades, and it works for the same reason it always has: people buy from people they like and trust. A shared
experience accelerates both.
Problem #3: Brand visibility and community presence. A charitable bulk
ticket purchase buying seats to donate to a local nonprofit, a youth
program or a scholarship fund does double duty. It builds goodwill in the
community and positions the company as one that gives back. In a market
where consumers increasingly choose businesses based on values, this
isn't charity. It's strategy.
How to Approach the Conversation
Stop leading with inventory. Stop leading with price. And for the love of
Pete, stop leading with "we have some really great seats available."
Lead with curiosity. Ask what's going on in their business. Ask what their B-
I-G initiatives are for the year, and how they’re trending. Ask who their best
clients are and how often they're spending time with them outside of a
formal business setting. Ask whether their team has had any kind of shared
experience together in the last six months.
Then shut up and listen.
Because once they tell you they're struggling to retain good people, or that
they've got a big prospect they've been trying to close for eighteen months,
or that they want to do something meaningful for their community this year, that's when you connect the dots.
You're not pitching a hospitality package. You're offering a solution to
something they already told you matters.
The suite becomes a client cultivation investment. The bulk ticket buy
becomes an employee appreciation event or a community relations win.
The all-you-can-eat area becomes the setting for the conversation that
finally turns a prospect into a customer.
The Bottom Line
Your corporate prospects are not looking for entertainment. They're looking
for leverage, ways to strengthen their team, deepen their client
relationships, and differentiate themselves in a market where everything
else feels the same.
A live sports experience, properly positioned and strategically used, gives
them all three.
Your job is to connect those dots before you ask for the sale. Do that
consistently, and you won't be selling tickets.
You'll be solving problems — and getting paid to do it.
Bill Guertin is a sales trainer, keynote speaker, and founder of The
800-Pound Gorilla, Inc. He has trained the ticket sales departments of
more than 100 professional sports teams across the NFL, NBA, NHL,
MLB, MLS, NASCAR, and many Minor League and Division I athletic
programs. Reach out to Bill at bill@the800poundgorilla.com.
