On my recent trip to visit the USL soccer team FC Cincinnati, I was reminded of a story I once heard about when JFK visited NASA in 1961. As the story goes, JFK walked up to a janitor who was holding a broom and with a smirk on his face said, “Hi I’m Jack Kennedy, what are you doing here?” Joe Sultzer, the janitor, responded with the ultimate answer. “I’m here to put a man on the moon!” When you think about the meaning behind that answer, it’s very special.

You can hire anyone to do a job. However, there are special people who want to be a part of something much bigger than any one person or any group of people out there. There are people who want to be a part of a team who accomplish greatness, and do the “impossible.” These very types of people are the staff of FC Cincinnati!

This is an organization that represents the game of soccer so mightily well. Over the last 10-15 years, soccer has gone from being “Cute” to now being a “Real Business” that has huge upside and growth potential as a business model. FC Cincinnati, as an organization, is a superb ambassador for the brand of soccer. Here’s why....

Every member of the organization has an overwhelming amount of confidence (not cockiness!) about them. They have this attitude of “This movement is huge and you better become a part of it right now... or else you’re gonna get left behind!” However, they don’t come across as “Know- it-alls” or over-confident... there’s this radiance of confidence, positivity and a profound belief in what they are building. It’s not ‘cheeky’ and it’s not offensive... it’s inspiring. I hope that I can lead a team like that one day!

Jeff Berding, Club President, is knowledgeable, humble, confident and most importantly, knows what the heck he’s talking about! Jeff took time to meet with us in his board room and didn’t rush us out or even show the number of things that were really going on around us, during a stressful gameday. He talked, we listened. We asked questions, he answered with detail, was forthcoming and told us exactly the things we needed to hear.

Sarah Huber, SVP and CFO, is one of the sharpest professionals I’ve ever met in all my years in business. We tried to find a way to stump her, and couldn’t. We asked question after question and her knowledge of the business was so impressive. She bent over backwards to make sure we felt welcomed and got the information we needed, including offering follow up conference calls to answer additional questions.

Jeff Smith, VP of Sales & Ticketing, was born for his role. He’s been able to combine his knowledge and skills from selling for Universities, with team members who have sold for NFL organizations and are young and hungry. He’s mixed it all in a cocktail of awesomeness which now makes it perfectly clear how a 2nd division soccer team in the United States has sold over 30,000 tickets to a soccer game on many occasions.

Our experience in their team shop was the best retail experience I’ve had in a while. Coming from a background of sales training, and retail was my game for a while, I was impressed. The team store staff (not knowing that we were guests of Jeff) asked questions, engaged us and got us excited to buy the merchandise and gifts we wanted to bring home with us.

Every little detail appears to be calculated – they have thought of every scenario. From training new phone sales people to Sarah discussing the financial aspects of the business. They take calculated risks and shoot for the moon.. and it’s working!

The sales process that has been formulated (from Jeff Berding’s marketing plan to Jeff Smith’s amazing sales team) and executed tremendously. When I was in the office there was call from a woman with a group of 50 or so that wanted to come to a game and the sales staff was having a tough time finding that many seats available together. The reason for this was because they were so close to selling out their final two home games. They, of course, found a solution but what was amazing to me was the fact that they recommended to the customer that she now needs to plan these events out farther in advance, and of course they are there to help her with that. And the customer completely understood and acknowledged that she will plan it out way farther in advance for next year. They weren’t rude or cocky, they were confident and had the best interest of the customer at heart.

The season ticket deposit sales program is brilliant. I won’t go into the specifics (not sure if it’s proprietary information?) but it’s so spot on with encouraging people to buy their tickets now and don’t wait. If you wait, you may miss out on the greatest thing that Cincinnati has ever seen, Pro Soccer!

All in all, my experience in Cincinnati was such a great learning experience and I now know what greatness looks like in the pro soccer world. They are not satisfied with the status quo and shoot for the moon! As we strive to take the Sol into the landscape of Pro Soccer, I can now say that I’ve seen what the surface of the moon looks like and know what we are shooting for. The future is bright for Pro Soccer in this country... I can’t wait to see what it looks like. I believe completely that we will be a part of it and I will have FC Cincinnati to thank as a big part of that success based on all that I observed and learned.

Ole Ole Ole!



