Sunderland AFC use Art of Cloud to increase Sponsorship Deals by 20% using Salesforce
Sunderland AFC, a historic football club in the UK, has a loyal fan base and a storied legacy in the English Football League. As the club aimed to modernise its operations, they sought to improve how they managed sales, engaged with fans, and collaborated across the organisation. The club wanted to streamline their sales processes, improve visibility across departments, and enhance overall customer engagement. To achieve this, Sunderland AFC partnered with Art of Cloud, a Salesforce consultancy with a history of successful Salesforce implementations in the sports sector, to deploy Salesforce Sales Cloud.
The Challenge
Before implementing Salesforce Sales Cloud, Sunderland AFC faced several critical challenges:
- Disjointed Sales Processes: The club used multiple systems and manual processes for managing sponsorships, ticket sales, and merchandise. This lack of integration made it difficult to track sales progress, communicate effectively across departments, and generate timely reports.
- Limited Visibility Across Departments: Different departments (ticketing, marketing, corporate sales) struggled with siloed data, making it hard to get a unified view of customer interactions and sales performance.
- Inefficient Lead Management: Sunderland AFC’s corporate sales team lacked an organised system to manage leads and follow-ups for sponsorship deals, resulting in lost opportunities and missed targets.
- Inconsistent Reporting and Forecasting: Without a unified platform, generating accurate sales forecasts and reports was a time-consuming process that often led to errors and delays in decision-making.
The Solution
To address these challenges, Sunderland AFC partnered with Art of Cloud to implement Salesforce Sales Cloud, tailored to the club’s specific needs. Art of Cloud’s team followed a systematic approach to deliver an effective solution:
- Discovery and Needs Assessment
- Custom Salesforce Sales Cloud Implementation
- Training and On-Going Support
The Results
- Massively Increased Sales and Conversion Rates: The structured lead and opportunity management tools helped the corporate sales team track potential sponsors and partners more efficiently, leading to a 20% increase in sponsorship deals within the first year.
- Improved Visibility Across Departments: With a centralised system, sales, marketing, and operations teams had access to the same data, eliminating data silos and fostering better collaboration. This integration enhanced overall productivity and communication across the club.
- Faster, More Accurate Reporting: Automated reports and dashboards provided the executive team with real-time insights into sales performance. The ability to generate custom reports on the fly enabled quicker decision-making and improved accuracy in forecasting.
- Enhanced Fan and Customer Engagement: Salesforce Sales Cloud enabled the marketing and ticketing teams to better segment and engage with fans. Personalised outreach and offers based on customer data improved fan engagement and increased ticket sales.
- Scalability and Flexibility: The cloud-based system allowed Sunderland AFC to scale its operations easily, adding new users and adapting the system to accommodate future growth in sales and customer engagement efforts.
