Abstract:
The purpose of
this study
was
to
examine
the current
state
of
sponsorship sales job
postings in the
sport industry across North America. Content analysis methodology was utilized
to
examine 372 sport sponsorship sales job
postings
from
four sport job
websites over a
one
year time
period. Two-‐thirds of organizations posting jobs were an
organization
with sponsorship housed
internally (team, league, school, or integrated
sport and
entertainment
firm) while
the remainder were with an outsourced vendor. Logistic regression revealed
that more
experienced
positions wee
more likely
to engage in
consultative sales ,management,
and
database
management
than
entry-‐level
positions. Outsourced
organizations were
more likely to
engage in
prospecting,
fulfillment,
and consultative sales,
while in-‐house
engaged
in
setting
appointments.
Supervisory roles
focused
on
database
management, while non-‐management roles focused
on
selling, prospecting,
cold
calling, creating
packages and
appointments.
The
most common skills
sought
from
applicants were communication
skills (82.5%) and
computer
skills (60.8%).
By
understanding what
employers are
seeking
in
the
sport industry,
this
can help better prepare
students and academicians with
educational programming or
workshops. This is
the
first
study
specifically designed to
examine the
nature of
sport sponsorship positions.
Thus, this provides sport managers and
future
prospects with the background
of
desired qualification for
position and
a
comparison
to
sales
positions
as a
whole.
