Esports sales dilemma 2020

Newzoo reports promises millions of sponsor's money poured into esports. Does it mean that everyone will get the same piece of the pie? Hell, no. Let's analyze challenges & sales strategies in esports of "new normal" 2020.

According to Hitmarker there are just 72 new business jobs in the whole esports industry. At the same time thousands of sales managers, consultants and CEOs sell esports every day. Generating an enormous amount of cold calls, pitch decks, commercial proposals, ideas and likes on LinkedIn below potential client's post.

Esports bubble: unexpected angle

You thought that esports is the world when you dive into competitive gaming too much. That's why so many esports sales professionals are surprised when their pitch decks don't work so well. Suddenly, Nielsen or Newzoo data don't convince clients that esports is The Thing and marketing manager need to transfer their budget to the team, influencer or organization.

Eye-opener: the majority of sponsors know nothing about esports,

Think of Jane from London, that's working in Coca-Cola's marketing department. She's a big believer of TV ads & outdoors, she accepts YouTube and media placements within GDN or other networks. She prefers to spend money on the most profitable marketing channel that will fill the necessary data in her scorecard, so she will get her yearly bonuses. For her esports is an unfamiliar, strange, and even frightening channel/industry.

She's frustrated when the 10th sales manager visits Jane's office or throws the next overhyped esports market pitch deck on her. Because in her world there's no esports, the buzz is somewhere else: TicTok, MarTech, mobile performance marketing, big events like Olympics etc. Here esports overpromise its meaning & role in the world full of Netflix, Game of Thrones and Tesla.

The result: in Jane's eyes esports is a super-narrow industry that tries to hype itself for the sake of the budgets, but can't deliver business results (try to google results of marketing activations in esports & compare the same search for traditional channels)

The takeaway for the sales teams:

1. Know your client better: what she or he knows about esports, how sceptical she/he is on new channels.
2. Support your sales materials with both brand & performance metrics.
3. Try to avoid hype & concentrate on business goals.

Language barrier in esports: business vs esports

The very 1st question that is interesting to any brand manager: how this campaign/activity will benefit my personal metrics in the business? Yep, they will always cover it within the general business/unit goals metrics, but the key to the heart of any brand manager is simple:

• Know her/his business goals & KPIs
• Deliver them cheaper or more efficient than other channels
• Win-win

But somehow marketing managers & sales professionals can't find the same language. Why?

• Marketing professionals speak "metrics-driven language"
• Majority of esports professionals speak "esports-driven language"

They clearly need a translator! Or new skill-set, another industrial experience that can deliver promised sales deals. There are several strategies on how esports companies solve this challenge:

1. Vitality hired former traditional sports partnerships manager, so he will sell esports to his existing B2B-client's portfolio and shape existing organization's service structure.
2. ESL hire (and fire) highly-experienced marketing professionals & mix them with esports hardcore fans.
3. Weplay mix traditional professionals, let's say, from PR (yes, PR is the part of the sales cycle - it has a high impact on sales), esports pro's with 10 years of experience in the industry.

Clearly there's no simple answer on the "multi-language" case. Balance is something esports industry strive to achieve, but pure "esports fans" still visit sponsor's offices through the world, fire out patriotic speeches about esports & got no budget in the end. Entertaining - yes, metrics-driven - no.

Where's my budget, Ninja?

more money for Ninja - less money for Team Liquid, Blast, you name it

"New normal" for esports is understanding that there's just one budget for various media channels like TV spots, outdoor placements, media networks, CPA-networks, in-store marketing, events, social media networks, special projects, B2B-collaborations... You could be 1001st in the line full of HBO executives, English Premier League sales managers, Tinder growth hackers and Twitch sales machine. Suddenly (oh, really?!) you compete not for an esports budget (which don't exist, usually), but for the small piece of something else.

That's why any new branded collaboration like recent Fnatic x Gucci generate so hype in esports media, among esports professionals. Big campaigns with the global brands are rare compared with traditional world and other industries. Especially, when we dive deeper into level of creativity, execution & long-term marketing strategy. To be honest: all these activations sounds like a joke if you start to compare...

Dear sales manager,

I wish you good luck competing with the best from the best. Trying to convince that your local esports team is worth investing then... FC Barcelona.

So should you quit working as a sales manager in esports or act more creatively? Creativity is the key to esports sales disruption:

• think of an average day of your target audience: where they spend their free time, what sources of information they read and trust. Suddenly, you will find out that they are out of esports media landscape.
• think of other thousands of the same pitch decks that your endemic brand-manager have seen: how could you surprise him, how you could stand out from competitive informational noise?

Act locally - think truly globally

There perfect exceptions on the market: when you open the client's door, he/she smiles to you, clients listens carefully to your story & buys everything that you propose him to do. Sounds more like a dream, I guess so?!

I live in Barcelona. 1st you need to know Spanish to work on the local market, secondly, there are not so many European head offices in Spain (corporations prefer London, Paris & so on). This means that you need to travel frequently to meet your clients whenever they are (from Singapore to NY) or work with intermediaries like advertising agencies. Which leads to another esports sales dilemma: how to attract & retain clients from abroad?

Do you really believe that Newzoo publishes yearly esports reports for the sake of the industry? Nope, it's a sales instrument that converts into direct clients (both old & new).

Let's face it (almost "Faze it"!), lots of esports organizations can't build a sustainable business model. Sponsors don't get esports, fans don't want to buy premium merch, pandemic killed offline events (so sorry, The International). These organizations are run by esports lovers because you really need to love what you do to overcome so big pain and frustration from your business.

Ukraine. Local market. Natus Vincere organization delivers one of the biggest media results in esports in the world. But local brands can't fill even 50% of media placements. Moreover, lots of NaVi fans are from Russia, so you need an external partner to deliver your sales in Russia. Welcome, Winstike that helps to sell NaVi within Russia. And again, the same case as in Ukraine - there's no cue from sponsors willing to spend millions that esports is asking for. As a result, Eastern European esports is full of betting companies that like to explore a new niche. I've seen so many Tier1, Tier2, Tier3 teams that pray on betting companies money, just because they are more simple then Coca-Cola's Jane.

I don't have a simple solution to the "local vs global" challenge. It's a matter of trust between brand manager & local company. And trust is usually built (depends on the culture) at karaoke, bar and other informal places. People love to have a personal attachment to their partners which can't be accomplished online (except betting & performance-driven startups cases). How to simulate a personal touch? Visit esports-related events from ESI NY to Esports Bar. But remember, that it's just the very first step in a long-long chain of sales events.

Kinda like a conclusion

In 2020 you need to build relations based on your value to your client. And value should be generated clearly:

• what problem do you solve to him?
• how he should measure its efficiency?
• how you will lower his stress (of entering unexpected industry)?
• how easily he could present your idea/product/activation to his senior manager?

That's why esports sales should be agile. They need to focus more on buyers personas, have a clear and solid shield of proven metrics and sell... audience - real people that follow, watch and buy whenever Fnatic, Valve, n0tail would tell them. Agile way of life is 100% creative: new sales formats should be created, unexpected strategic partnerships should pop-up here & there, so your clients will love esports as you do.

These are just a few issues that esports sales managers face. Is there a space for B2C sales? Its a topic of completely another article. Stay tuned for more esports insights & analysis.