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Owner/Admin
Location: Manhattan
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Mark Cuban is THE MAN!
That dude knows how to run an operation. All of his employees are happy and they do a good job. I would love to work for that guy if I ever had the chance.
http://sports.espn.go.com/chat/sport...FranchiseCuban
READ THIS ARTICLE, IT MIGHT CHANGE YOUR LIFE
Quote:
How to win fans and influence people
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By Mark Cuban
Special to SportsNation
Editor's note: In the Ultimate Standings, the Dallas Mavericks rank 5th among all major sports franchises, and rank 1st in the category of "Fan Relations." We asked Mark Cuban to tell us how he turned a moribund franchise into one of the most successful in sports.
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When I bought the Dallas Mavericks three years ago, it was a beaten organization. There was a culture of survival, but not a lot of hope or expectation for success.
The sales office had a great manager in George Killebrew, but he had virtually no staff. The marketing was terrible. So I did a few things. I put my desk in the middle of the sales bullpen, tripled the size of the sales staff, and brought in a new ticket sales director, George Prokos, and a new marketing manager, Matt Fitzgerald.
I explained to them that we no longer sold basketball. We sold fun, sore throats and sore hands from yelling and clapping. I told them if anyone even mentioned our win-loss record (we were 9-23 at the time), they were fired on the spot. Every sales rep was required to make 100 cold calls per day until we started selling out games and they couldn't give away tickets unless I approved.
Mark Cuban: "I spend every day thinking about the Mavericks. That includes time dreaming about the Mavs while sleeping."
We had people who bought in and others who realized they would have to start working and they left or were let go. I sat next to them and made calls myself. I sold tickets, went on sales calls and I made it clear that the new mantra was, "Every minute of every day, it's selling time."
From a player perspective, no one was very happy before I came. Everything was nickel-and-dimed -- from the hotels to the food we ate, you name it. The players didn't feel like anyone really cared. The fans saw that in the players, in the game presentation and in the culture of the organization. I came in and made sure that everyone realized that if you did your job and worked hard to be the best at what you do, whether you are a player, a sales rep or customer service rep, I would do mine to give you the support and resources you needed to be successful. That in turn changed the culture of the team, the image of the brand and the expectations of our customers.
The craziest thing is that it started happening immediately. And now we have taken huge steps and have completely turned around the culture and brand equity.
We've become very good at providing a great in-arena experience because we work so hard at it. We don't allow any excuses for our game presentation not improving every single day. This ranges from finding new ways to entertain our fans -- for example, the Mavs ManiAAC's (men between the ages of 21-50 who had their dancing debut at the first playoff game in 2001), the Mavs Man and the Mavs Dancers -- to the type of merchandise we sell, to the music and videos we play, to the painted fans who get in free for every game and provide our own little version of Duke's Cameron Crazies.
Everybody knows that the ultimate responsibility for customer satisfaction falls into my hands. We have amazing customer service people and a basketball staff, from our CEO Terdema Ussery to the Nelsons to our assistant general manager Keith Grant, who are uncompromising in our goal to make sure everyone is happy. We aren't 100 percent successful, but we try to solve every customer service problem.
I make it a point of being very easy to contact, either in the arena or via e-mail. Since I became owner, I have answered thousands upon thousands of e-mails. When I get an e-mail from a fan with a problem, it gets forwarded to people who respond to customers immediately and make sure the issue gets resolved to the best of our ability. We cover everything from broken cup holders or chewing gum on seats to a light on an aisle being out. We even handle complaints from people not getting their Taco Bell Chalupa coupons -- which we give out if the team scores more than 100 points -- or from those who feel there isn't enough cheese being put on the nachos. My feeling is that everyone has thousands of entertainment choices and we don't want to create any excuses for them to go and spend their money somewhere else.
This is the same way I have run all my businesses. No detail is too small when it comes to taking care of customers. We have an understanding with every customer: If you give me your money and passion for the Mavs, everyone in this company will do everything I can think of to make sure you will get more than your money's worth. It helps that I spend every day thinking about the Mavericks. That includes time dreaming about the Mavs while sleeping, often waking up in the middle of the night multiple times to e-mail someone about a problem I solved with my eyes closed.
Many people are surprised at the way I treat my players. The reason I go out of my way to have the best facilities for them is because I hate contracts. I would rather be in a position where I have to earn someone's commitment to stay and work for me rather than thinking I have them locked up contractually.
I try to put everyone in a position to succeed, knowing that the better they do, and the happier they are at doing it, the better we will be as a company. In that regard I still haven't lived up to the success of my first company, MicroSolutions. We only had 85 employees, but over the course of seven years, we only had four employees leave. And all of them came back to work for us at some point.
Making sure the Mavs name is out on display in public is very important to me. When we redesigned the Mavs uniforms last year, one of the goals was to make them more wearable for kids going to school. The reality is that you can't wear sleeveless basketball jerseys year round and girls had a hard time wearing them at all. The Mavs football jerseys are one of my ideas for which I am very proud. They allowed fans to represent their Mavs in any season, in any situation, and they are fashionable and comfortable.
We think we can sell several million dollars worth of them in the next year, and we are actively working with other teams to sell them versions for their teams to offer to their fans. Now if I could convince the NBA to sell them nationally, I might be able to pay my luxury tax with them!
Mark Cuban, who is ranked No. 327 on Forbes list of the world's richest people, bought the Mavericks for $280 million. When he is not managing the Mavericks, he is working on his high-definition television company, HDNet. He can be reached at Mark.Cuban@dallasmavs.com.
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