The Obstacle is the Way: The Evolution of a Sales Machine

In the fall of 2019, I discovered one of the most profoundly important books I have ever read: The Obstacle is the Way by Ryan Holiday . The book's premise comes from the quote from Marcus Aurelius, "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.

Reading this book months before the COVID-19 pandemic was instrumental in how our team navigated that challenging time and came out the other side stronger. Looking at the obstacles before us and, instead of stopping, using the obstacle itself to find our way forward is central to our sales leadership at NASCAR. It's in our DNA.

Last weekend, we experienced a triumphant Rolex 24 at Daytona, with the highest attendance in the event's history. While we did not know just how high we would reach, we've known this event would be remarkable for the past year. We knew this because, by renewing early, we were outpacing last year for the past 12 months.

The following story is about how we executed a solid sales process, deployed a new technology, and turned obstacles into opportunities to build a record-setting event. While there is so much more to our story, I feel the way we arrived at such groundbreaking new process warranted its own post.

Sales Process

A fundamental tenet of our sales process is using time to our advantage by starting early. In our previous lives in traditional sports like baseball, basketball, and hockey, we prided ourselves on being the first team in the league to start selling for the coming year. That meant New Year's Eve in hockey, and in baseball, it was early July.

In motorsports, we may only see our guests face-to-face once a year, so we must take advantage of that opportunity. Renewing our guests while they are at the event, at the height of their euphoria, is critical to maximizing their rate of return.

To be as efficient as possible, in 2021, Morgan Keil , Regional Vice President, Consumer Sales for the Southeast, instituted a process of making pre-event calls to check in with our guests before the event and, most notably, to schedule the time we would meet on race weekend, either at their campsite or at one of our sales locations across the property.?

In making these calls, we made a happy discovery. We were selling many accounts on the "scheduling calls." Our guests still wanted us to swing by so they could meet in person and "put a face with the name," but they also wanted to "go ahead and take care of the renewal over the phone."

New Technology

Late in 2021, after months of vetting competing platforms, we began the implementation of a new sales engagement tool called?Outreach.io. This tool has been a game-changer for our already stellar sales team. Outreach allows us to automate many tasks, such as e-mails, to kick off a campaign, follow up after leaving a voicemail, or even follow up on the initial e-mail.

As sales leaders, we can craft a message and prescribe sequences of touch points based on the nature of the campaign or the source of the leads. We have greater visibility into team activity, with all calls (in and out) logged automatically. We can listen in and provide coaching in real-time, often having a rep communicate with their leader through Microsoft Teams while the leader "rides along" listening in.

I could dedicate an entire article to the power of Outreach, but for now, I will move on to our favorite feature or use case, the schedule a call link.

Most of our campaigns begin with an e-mail inviting the guest or prospect to book time on the rep's calendar to discuss the upcoming event. The copy of these e-mails changes depending the on the event and how close we are to the recipient. If this is a cold prospect, the message will be much different than if it is part of the rep's "book of business," someone with whom they have an ongoing relationship.

The pre-event "service" e-mail is the one that created both our obstacle and one of our most significant opportunities.

The Obstacle Becomes the Way

In January of 2022, fresh from implementing Outreach, we prepared to launch our first e-mail "farm" for the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The purpose of this message was to invite guests who had purchased for 2022 to book time with their rep to make sure they had everything they needed for the weekend and to discuss their plans for 2023.?

The moment we hit send on this campaign, it was as though we had dropped a bomb in the middle of our sales bullpen. Suddenly our calendars began to fill. The reps had a feeling of losing control of their day. Panic and anxiety were spreading throughout the room. The question of the hour was, "How will I make my calls if I have so many people scheduling time with me?"

The problem worsened once these calls began. We quickly discovered that their calendars were filling with "service" questions:

"How do I print my tickets?

"What gate do I enter?"?

"What time do garages open?"

We nearly had a mutiny as the team refused to use Outreach. At this point, Nathan Blum , Senior Director of National Ticket Sales and Strategy, through hand-to-hand combat in the room and eventually a team meeting, repositioned the "obstacle as the way."?

We positioned the service calls as a good thing. For the two weeks leading into the event, they NEED us. They have questions that need answers. They no longer need us from the Monday after the event until next year. We need them.?

I repositioned the team that everyone scheduling a call to discuss a service question was also on their outbound call list. They are the same list of people. They are not tedious service calls vs. sales calls. Every call is both.?

This process became the model for the rest of the events in 2022. Using this approach, we generated almost the same renewal revenue in the two-week pre-event window as we did during our five-day on-site, face-to-face meeting with our guests.?

Back to the Rolex 24

As we come out of this fantastic weekend, we are confident we will see growth in 2024. This confidence is because, rather than celebrating the success of this year's event, the team was busy securing our foundation for next year, to ensure history will repeat itself.

As a result, our early renewal window exceeded the ENTIRE 2020 renewal period which ended on July 15, 2019. So we will wait to sip champagne later in the week.?

The world changes fast, so as we enter the 2023 season with more obstacles on the horizon, we will continue to seek out hidden opportunities to improve our process and our business.?

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