Tag: NCFC

Day 8 at NCFC started out the same, as I got into the office around 10, but was greeted by fresh Krispy Kreme donuts from our Creative Services director, Luis. Luis is leaving soon, and these were his thank you gift to the organization for giving him such a valuable and enjoyable experience. I have only known him for a short time, but he has helped me learn the ropes in Adobe Spark on the first day, so thank you Luis!

Moving on to the actual work of the day, I mostly did the same things I had been assigned all week, which was calling the clients on my call lists and seeing how they were doing. While it does not seem like that much work, this developing of relationships with your clients and selling them tickets is a vital opportunity for the club, as it packs the stands, and then down the road, these buyers can potentially become season ticket holders, do a group event, or another package to boost attendance. What’s great about this for me, is that I have been invited back to work the whole summer in the office! The clients I have worked with over the past two weeks will still work with me over the whole summer.

Thanks to Brad, Fred, and the rest of the NCFC organization providing with a great two weeks to learn the ropes of a ticket sales office, and work with the best women’s soccer team in the world!

My day started bright and early, but I was actually late to work due to holdups at the DMV (what a wonderful place). I ended up getting in about 45 minutes late, but I was still waiting on Angela to log me in to Archtics, the software used to actually complete sales so I could fully sell tickets. While I waited, I got set up at my desk, made sure I had my notes ready, and got prepared for a call I had scheduled yesterday with a potential buyer. Angela quickly logged me in and gave me the basic tour of the system, and I was off. However this tour wasn’t comprehensive, so I had to figure out a few things myself, namely finding the seats and then putting in payment information.

At 1130, I got on my call with my client, and I completed my first ticket sale! There were technical difficulties that almost stopped me, but Angela graciously helped me work through them. It was a great feeling getting to write the number 1 on the board, showing that I had really progressed during my time here, getting to do all the big responsibilities and tasks others do.

Cool event of the day, Nazmi Albadawi, club favorite and recent signee, stopped by our offices to say hello to the people he knew and meet the new employees since he left, including me. He’s a very cool guy, and seems to be a model member of the team.

NCFC got much quieter today, with most of the other part timers coming in during the afternoon, and one of my bosses taking care of work with the players at the stadium. This meant I was put on default duty, taking and making calls. Brad extended our Starbucks competition by another day, so it was important that I made some contacts if I could. Indeed I did, getting to interact with a few people from both the new call sheets we had been handed, and the old ones. On my older sheets, I called back people I had heard from in the past, to confirm their interest and try and push the sale along. I also did some calls to groups or organizations to see whether they were interested in getting a party package or suite package together.

It is really interesting to see from a different perspective of a sales call, as when you’re on the receiving end of one, you usually think it is stupid and a waste of time. However, when you’re doing the calls, each call matters and you want the customer to really be engaged and not think it’s annoying or a waste.

Our fun moment of the day was when the NCFC U23s stopped by outside our office, to pick up some materials for their match tonight against the NC Fusion U23s. They all seemed like a general bunch of nice guys, including the head coach, who was interested in what we do.

a rotated view of the order forms for groups.

Today was almost another normal day in the ticket sales office here at NCFC. However, when I came in, I realized that all the desks were taken with part-time workers like I, who had been recently put in the office due to their school getting out. That meant I got shuffled to the corner. I was not there for long when we had our MMM (Monday Morning Meeting), with Fred, another one of my bosses, going over the key takeaways for this week, including upcoming matches and what we needed to focus on. This meant I was back with a sheet of names to call, and the most amount of contacts between me and the part timers got free Starbucks from my boss! I did pretty well, but I will only know the results of my efforts tomorrow when see the board. Among the interesting aspects of my day was when one of my coworkers leaned over and said, “can you speak Spanish?” She had multiple people that could only speak Spanish, as they were exclusively Spanish speaking. This led me to staying a bit longer, calling back people from lots of other client lists that only spoke Spanish. A pretty normal day in the office, but a fun and interesting one putting my skills to work nontheless.

When I arrived at NCFC this morning, all seemed to be normal. Everyone was working away, even though it was a bit quieter, due to the men and the women not playing at home this week. I sat down to make a few calls as I previously did yesterday, but about an hour after I started, my boss Brad came in yelling “Victor, come outside and help me with the grill!” This started my wild adventure with being a helper for the office cookout.

I only grill occasionally, so I was shocked when I was told by Brad that he wanted me to help him grill the burgers and hot dogs for the lunch. However, as the intern, I’m here to do everything, so I got started right away. I didn’t actually end up grilling anything, but I helped carry everything out, get stuff set up, and by about noon, we had food on the table, and the whole office staff, from operations to media to ticket sales out in the parking lot. We shot hoops, kicked the soccer ball around, talked about the upcoming matches this weekend, and club captain Austin Da Luz even stopped by to say hello!

After getting my fill of burgers, hot dogs, chips, and cake for lunch, I trickled back in with the rest of the office to complete a little more work before heading home for the weekend. I spent a little more time doing more sales calls, before Brad told me I could go ahead and go home. It’s been a really fun first week at NCFC, and I’ve learned a lot about how a pro sports organization works, and how much effort it takes to get the fans in the stands for each match.

When I arrived today, the office was in a festive mood. We had won our US Open Cup match tonight and were awaiting the draw of the next round. However, there was still a lot of work to be done, especially for selling people on the potential opportunity to watch an MLS team here at home. Fred, one of my bosses, asked me “are you ready to make some warm calls?” and with that, I was experiencing my first sales work. I was handed many spreadsheets and instructed to follow up on these ticket buyers experiences, and whether they might be interested in coming again.

Many of these calls were not fruitful, either leading to voicemails or disinterest, but I still was able to connect with a few people that had a great time and were very interested in purchasing more tickets. I could not do the actual process of getting them tickets, so I handed them off to my colleague Tyler to finish the process. However, I got to write my numbers down on the board the department uses to track sales!

As I was calling, we all took a break to track the US Open cup draw, which could make a huge impact in the NCFC season, bringing an MLS opponent to town. Sadly, we were drawn away, and the office was angry. However, we went right back to work, checking in with more customers and seeing whether they were interested in our upcoming doubleheader.

After calling the people listed, I was told by my boss to go home a bit early! It has been a great couple days at NCFC so far, and I have learned a lot.