A Take on Talent Development in Corporate Partnerships
By Curtis Walker, Vice President at TurnkeyZRG
As we all know, corporate partnerships serve as a vital revenue stream for sports organizations. It’s one of the most (if not the most) profitable revenue line items for most. Through partnership dealmaking, and creative collaborations with strategic partners who are equally as intentional in using this tool to bolster their business, these partnerships generate substantial funds that support team infrastructure while enhancing brand visibility, enhanced fan engagement, and an opportunity to expand market reach for all parties involved. It goes without saying the ability to secure and maintain these lucrative partnerships is critical to sustaining long-term business growth.
During the 21 months I’ve been with TurnkeyZRG, I’ve had the opportunity to engage hundreds of professionals across this industry. There are many takeaways that I have from this experience but the one I will focus most on today is addressing the development challenges we are facing across corporate partnership roles at entry level through mid-management level roles.
Let me start by saying there is A TON of strong talent with enormous potential across our industry. The purpose of this post is to inspire conversation around how we can unlock and maximize the potential of said talent, while also eliminating the barriers to increase the talent pool.
Over the course of the past few years, we’ve watched this world change before our eyes. Vast technological advancements, challenges across our economic systems (which impact consumer and brand budgets), heightened conversations around social topics, and so much more. As the world becomes more complex, so do the mechanics of the dealmaking process which should force all teams who engage in partnerships to prioritize true talent development at ALL levels but especially the coordinator, manager, and director levels. That requires time, energy, and patience to mold talent.
Partnership practitioners should be able to understand foundational marketing principles that brands use to build go-to-market strategies and understand macro business forces that are impacting brand investment decisions and ultimately impacting the world around us. All representatives within a partnership department should be revenue-minded, integrated marketers.
On the sales side, I’ve come to find these individual contributor roles to be the hardest positions to fill. There are several reasons in my opinion:
Many young professionals come into the business without a clear understanding of the intricacies of strategic partnerships. There is limited instruction around the topic in traditional sport management programs and there aren’t enough internships to go around in this field to get quality experience.
Long-standing industry dynamics and networks benefit those who have pre-existing and/or personal relationships with decision-makers even if they aren’t the most talented or qualified for the job. This point is important because corporate partnership sales is one of the least diverse verticals in our industry, and this has created barriers for diverse aspiring professionals trying to break into the field.
Many (not all) organizations evaluate prospective talent based on years of direct corporate partnership team experience and/or the prestige of the organization a candidate earned that experience. Hence, these organizations are looking for “ready to go” producers who are still very much early in their careers. Often times candidates who have non-traditional experience, but possess the core competencies, skills and attributes to be successful in the role, are consistently overlooked. This again significantly limits the talent pool.
Talent is looking for upward mobility at an accelerating rate which has led to some “growing up too fast”. A leader who I admire once told me, “Your internal clock is moving faster than your external clock.” In many cases, we’ve allowed titles to define growth. Although it is a measure, growth should be centered around expanding scope of responsibility, taking on new projects, gaining experience in a more complex business environment, learning under strong leaders, and finding opportunities to move outside your comfort zone.
Back in January of 2017, I walked into the doors of Minor League Baseball Enterprises as a Manager of Business Development with no traditional sponsorship sales experience. What I received was leadership and a team who believed in me, who invested in me, and who were patient with me. My first year was rough, but over the course of the next two and half years I would have a direct hand in securing millions in partnership revenue.
I’m not sure what the answers are, but I do know we can work together to build each other. As always, open to thoughts on the topic!
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ABOUT TURNKEYZRG
Founded in 1996, TurnkeyZRG is a highly specialized talent recruitment/executive search firm filling C-level, senior-level and mid-management level positions throughout sports, entertainment, music and media. Over the past 25 years, TurnkeyZRG has filled more than 1,400 positions throughout sports, entertainment and media. TurnkeyZRG helps teams, leagues, stadiums, arenas, theaters, college athletic departments, events, sponsors, agencies, media companies, private equity companies and other clients identify, recruit and hire the very best management talent. Turnkey now benefits from ZRG’s global footprint, full array of industry practice groups, data-driven, analytical search tools, and technology investment in changing the way executive search/talent recruiting is done. TurnkeyZRG becomes a tech-enabled disrupter of the prior executive search model.