Few sales leaders manage portfolios as complex as Randy Wills. As Vice President of Ticket Sales for the Miami Dolphins and Miami Open, he leads sales across some of the most demanding sports and entertainment properties in the world, including Formula One at Hard Rock Stadium.
In this episode of Against The Sales Odds, Lance Tyson sits down with Randy to trace his path from Michigan to the global stage of sports sales. Their conversation unpacks what it takes to build and scale high-performing sales teams, design fan experiences that translate across markets and cultures, and lead through the pressure that comes with selling at this level.
Randy also shares the perspective he’s earned along the way on what real success looks like, and why getting there requires more than ambition.
Check out Tyson Group’s Open Enrollment Programs: https://www.tysongroup.com/openenrollment
Check out Lance’s Bestseller Books:
The Human Sales Factor – https://tysongroup.com/books#thehumansalesfactor
Selling is an Away Game – https://tysongroup.com/books#sellingisanawaygame
Download our playbooks: https://www.tysongroup.com/sales-playbooks
Schedule a call with one of Tyson Group’s member: https://bit.ly/41YJW7K
Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://tysongroup.com/#weeklynewsletter
Follow Lance across Social Media:
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/lancetyson/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/lance_tyson_1/
🎧 Tune in as Lance shares the mindset, behaviors, and tactics that separate average reps from elite performers.
Love the show? Subscribe, rate, review, and share! https://www.tysongroup.com/podcast
—
Listen to the podcast here
What It Takes To Lead Sales For World-Class Sports Properties With Randy Wills
This week, we actually have Randy Wills. Randy and I go back to the Cleveland days, and I think some really rough Cleveland Browns teams, right, Randy?
Randy is the best.
No doubt. Randy is currently the vice president of sales for the Miami Open and the Miami Dolphins. I thought I would get them both in there. The open just happened recently, or you’re finishing up. It was the last two weeks.
For the last couple of weeks, we just wrapped up this past Sunday. About five days ago, with another record-setting year and so many different accounts. It was a successful event.
We will get talking about that. Now, Randy, I am looking over Randy’s shoulder. If you’re tuning into the show on Spotify or Apple, I can see some palm trees over Randy’s shoulder and behind him. If you hear any revving of the engines, F1, right people. There are F1 cars there, and people are on the practice track and stuff like that. We will talk about the property in a second. Randy, tell us about your role. What does it encompass? What comes up underneath you?
Scope Of Current Role And Organizational Structure
Underlying my role now lands again, thanks for having me on this show. I am excited to be here as well. As you mentioned, the vice president of ticket sales for the Miami Dolphins and the Miami Open. Oversee all new business revenue for both the dolphins as well as the Miami open, and then the concerts and other events like soccer and things that come through here. Underneath me, it is all, like I said, new ticket revenue. Season ticket sales, luxury sales, and then group sales across all three of our verticals. Miami Dolphins, Miami Open, and the group sales for Formula One as well.
It is interesting if you’re tuning in, if you’re not in sports entertainment, because our audience is pretty wide. This down here in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium, this has become quite the destination down there. If you’re not paying attention. If you give a little background, how long has the Miami Open been there, and then talk about the F1 race. Of course, we had an NFL team there, too.
The Miami Open started here, Lance, in 2019, shortly before I actually joined the organization. I joined the organization in November of 2019. There was one year of the tournament before I got here. Formula One really came on board in 2021, with the first race being in 2022. Now I have had that for a handful of years, and just to continue to grow here as a great global destination.
It is amazing. If you have not been, know this week, as you said, you just had the open, and then F1 is in May, right?
Yes, that is correct.
What reports up into this? Tell us about the organization or the org chart underneath you, and if you can give an orientation on like growth and revenue, whatever you’re comfortable sharing, in that way, in terms of your organization.
The way we’re set up overall in the ticketing side is we basically have like three different properties within the Miami Dolphins umbrella. You have the Miami Dolphins, the Miami Open and Formula One. I oversee new business sales for the Miami Dolphins as well as the Miami Open. As I said earlier, the concerts and events like soccer and things that come through here. It is a handful of directors and managers that roll up underneath me, but we’re fully focused on new business. We have a separate VP who handles Formula One, new sales, and our enterprise. Group sales were one of those unique areas that all roll up under me, but have an impact on all three of the verticals as well.
Critical mass of people up underneath you for new business? It is a decent size.
Yes, it is a good size. Within our new season ticket sales team for both the Miami Open and the Miami Dolphins, we have roughly 24 total combined between those two properties. Within luxury and suite sales, it is about six reps. We have an inside sales or we call it a sales development team underneath there as well. That is between 14 and 20, depending on the time of the year. It looks like, let’s see, about 6 or 7 managers and a handful of directors.
Your organizational talent head count you’re well over 60. That’s a big organization. That’s a really big organization. As I asked all my guests, Randy, we’re talking about this in the pregame a little bit. Everybody, how we came up with this format, people would ask me, “How did somebody like Randy get there?” I am like, “I can tell you, he certainly just did not arrive there.” There was a heck of a journey. Let’s go backwards in your history a little bit. Where is home? Where are you from? Where did you go to school? We will get to that first job out of school. Give us a little background on that.
Originally from Rockford, Michigan. Just outside of Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the west side of the state.
You’re excited about this week, right?
Yes. I’m hoping that they can pull it off on Saturday to make it to the national championship in men’s basketball on Monday. That would be pretty cool to see that, especially after the football national championship a couple of years ago, being there. I grew up, actually, as a diehard University of Michigan fan. You bring that up, and that’s ultimately where I went to school. I knew growing up that there was no other place that I wanted to go to school. I was determined to do whatever I had to ultimately get there. It is fortunate that I was able to get into that university right out of school. As James Earl Jones mentions, it is the greatest university in the world.
You remind me of that a lot. You’re definitely a Michigan man, right?
I am. This industry comes across a lot of people from Michigan, a lot of people from Ohio, but I would not have it any other way. A lot of the greatest people that I have worked with have come from one of those two states.
When we first met you, I told you I lived in Columbus, and you rolled your eyes, but I said my legions were to Penn State anyway. We were good there. You went to Michigan. What did you get your degree in, if you do not mind me asking?
I was in sports management. I always wanted to work in sports. I did not really know exactly what I wanted to do, but it was always my mission to work for the front office of a team. I did not know what I would want to do, whether it was sales. Operations have actually been going on for a long time. I thought I would want to get into statistics or analytics or something like that. I took an internship in college in operations with a minor league baseball team in Grand Rapids. It was the West Michigan Whitecaps, and I worked a lot of long hours doing that, and really learned right away.
Early Minor League Experience And Operational Exposure
The pinnacle of pro sports, the Whitecaps, right? Some of the best people I know come through minor leagues like that. You intern there. I did not mean to interrupt you.
You wear a lot of hats. It’s cool going through that. Learning everything from how we make sure the stadium is well-maintained and presentable for guests coming in, like our parking operations, and making sure everything is practiced. You see, you get really exposed to a lot of things behind the scenes, which I think has helped me appreciate what we’re trying to do with new initiatives and things like that. Now in the sales world, like the level of lift and the level of asset we’re asking from, like our stadium operations team and across the business, when we try to activate these new things.
It was a really good exposure there. Going through college, as I said, I knew that I wanted to work for a professional sports team. I was pretty open to location. I was open to relocating, wherever I needed to go, and applied for as many jobs as I possibly could, through my senior year of college. I did not really know what a lot of them were, but I wanted to get on interviews, understand, like, “What does this look like? What are the different roles that are out there? How can I get involved?” A lot of people gave that stereotypical advice of, “Starting sales, start there, get to learn how to sell.”
I remember sharing that with my parents, and like, “You will not pick up the phone to order a pizza. How are you going to make a cold?” You’re never going to talk to somebody that you do not know. I do not know if I am an introvert by the true definition of the word, but I heard where they were coming from, and I was like, “I am going to find a way to make this work.”
In my senior year, I got a couple of job offers in sales roles, but ultimately landed on going to the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers, which was actually owned by the Atlanta Spirit at the time, because it was a unique opportunity to sell dual property, which was great. Ultimately, it was the leadership that was there and the whole process, the whole interview process, they felt like they were really intentional about investing in people, training, developing people and all those things, which is what really encouraged me to go there and get my start.
I want to get back to this. I remember the first meeting with you. I do not know if I could gauge with somebody’s intro, but two things about you. You’re reserved, and when you have something to say, you will say it. If you do not have something to say, you are not going to say it. That’s a superpower because sometimes I run my mouth when I probably should not. I admire that. You go to the Atlanta Spirit, which has two properties, which, ironically enough, you’re involved in an organization of three properties right now. Selling hockey in Atlanta, not an easy sale. It’s a monster market. What was that first role? Did you go inside sales like a minor salesperson?
It started out in inside sales. I remember very vividly starting with about a class of twenty individuals. There were a few veterans, we will call them veterans, inside sales reps who were there already. There were four of them. When I got started, I knew that it was going to be competitive. They laid that out from the start. As I said, I moved down to Atlanta. I had $50 in my name, but I could not afford an apartment. I slept at, I believe it was my high school principal’s brother’s house, through a few mutual connections. He lived just outside of Atlanta.
I was like, “I will do whatever I have to do.” Eventually, I waited to get an apartment and slept on the floor for a couple of months. I ultimately could even afford a mattress. That was a lot of my motivation. I remember thinking that there were a lot of people back home. They’re like, we’re never going to make it, move into a big city. I am from a smaller city up in Michigan, a smaller town up in, up in Michigan. I was determined to ultimately prove them wrong. One of the first days I got there, I just got insanely curious about things like, “What does it take to be successful? What are the best people doing?”
You could see what they were doing, and you’re getting a lot of advice like, “You’ve got to make a good volume of phone calls. You’ve got to connect with people like you’re getting all this good advice.” I just remember thinking, “This person is being really successful because they’re in there leading the way in phone calls right now. For every one phone call they’re going to make, I am going to make two, like I am not going to be just marginally better. I want to be exponentially better.”
What I found over time is that it gave me more reps. It gave me more practice. Not only was I touching more people, but I was getting more practice, so it allowed me to ultimately accelerate my craft and work on my craft at a much faster rate than others. I was by no means one of the first people promoted in my class. In fact, I tell people a lot that I was the last person in my class to make my first sale. I do not even think it was close.
I have a question. Do not lose it. You’re the last person in the class. If you go back to those twenty people you started with, and just do quick math in your head, how many are still in pro sports? What year was that? How many are still in pro sports?
2008, and as far as I know, none of them are still in pro sports. That has been for quite a while.
When I talk to people at your level and anybody who has tuned in to us, as you get to your level, you’re willing to do the things that unsuccessful people are not willing to do. It’s just like you said with the “I am going to two for every phone call, every single time.” You’re the last person in your class to make, and if we’re gauging it purely on sales to make a sale, if we’re gauging it purely on sales, we’re sitting there going, “S***, all right.” I might be behind a little bit, but go ahead with that. I apologize.
Growth In Inside Sales And Exponential Performance Improvement
Going back to that, Lance, though, I think a lot of people really, they gauge themselves for how well they’re doing based on what others are doing and how good others are doing, not by how great they can possibly be. People have set too low a bar or set too low standards. We talk a lot about this with my team, but we set really high standards. If something’s the best practice, how do you do it? Not just like marginally better, but how do you do it exponentially better? How do you do it significantly better? How do you really stand out from the crowd?
Too many people measure themselves against others instead of their own potential. The problem isn’t a lack of talent—it’s that they’ve set the bar too low.
That first impression you make, too, is really going to set a pathway for your entire career. It is going to have a significant ripple effect, which it ultimately did. I was able to ultimately work my way up out of inside sales into our new season ticket sales team. I was on that team for about a year and won the award for new season ticket sales employee of the year, leading the way with revenue. I was on that team for about a year before I got promoted to premium sales with the Atlanta Hawks and the Atlanta Thrashers. That was when I really started getting involved with B2B.
This is like year one inside sales, after about a year inside, you get promoted to.
I was inside sales for about four months, and then I was in for about a year.
I want to go back to some things, like I want you to keep this in your mind as we talk, because there are two things that you said that I think become really important to how you sell and then how you lead. If you’re paying attention to this, it’s one. Randy used a word early about my mission. If I know anything about you, you’re very mission-oriented in every sense of the word.
Anyway you think about mission with your personal beliefs, with your career, the direction of your family. The other word you use is the standard of excellence. It was not against everybody else. It was against itself. Think Dr. Seuss said, you play lonely games too. You cannot win that you cannot win because they’ll be against you. That’s the competition against yourself, not everybody else. You get promoted to, did you say it was the premium piece, correct?
Yes. That was my third step within that organization to get promoted to premium sales.
Where were you in the lineup? Meaning like, were you one of the better folks? Were you in the middle? You’re getting promoted.
At the time I got promoted, I was top of the leaderboard for that, for the new season ticket sales team.
I heard Chad Estis say one time he was with the Cowboys when he went to the Cavs. I asked that question all the time, “Where were you on the board?” He goes, “Early on, I was a solid 4 or 5 or 6.” As you said in the beginning, I was not number one. It was this gradual incline. What did you start to realize, Randy, about now that you’ve talked about the standard of excellence? You talked about knowing your numbers. That’s the analytics side of you. What was your sales philosophy, though? As you interacted with businesses and people and things like that, what did you start to form and realize?
It is interesting you mentioned that, Lance, because in Atlanta, I cannot confidently say that I had a really strong one. I knew that I wanted to go out and meet with businesses. I was very fortunate that I had a lot of great leaders that I worked with in Atlanta. Many of them, as you look at where they’ve grown to and what they’ve gone on to, I’m not going to name names because ultimately I’ll forget somebody and I’ll feel bad about it.
I knew that crew. That’s a great ballpark.
Fantastic crew. I owe so much to them. That’s every step along the way that I’ve been here that I’m really fortunate I’ve worked for really fantastic people. As far as an overall philosophy, I knew that I wanted to get really good at selling to businesses. I do not know if I had a great methodology at the time, but I knew that I wanted to meet with businesses. I wanted to understand how they operate, how they tick, how they work, because I get really passionate and really excited about business and driving revenue.
Every time you’re going out and meeting with a business owner, which is primarily who you’re ultimately calling on when you’re trying to sell suites and premium seating, you understand how every business operates a little bit differently. You start understanding something a little bit different, like leadership philosophies, what’s important to people, what makes them tick, what they care about, what their challenges are, what their goals are, all those things.
Every meeting with a business owner teaches you something new. The more you sell premium experiences, the more you realize that every business operates differently.
Over time, you start to realize, “I’m meeting with all these really great people. I’m building up a network.” I’m understanding what their business is like. How do we help make sure these products that we’re selling help them accomplish their biggest goals, like their top 1, 2, 3 goals, not goal 5, 6, 7, or 8, 7, 8. Not those like smaller goals that they’re worried about. It’s like, are those big things that we tie our product into? That was one thing that I really tried to focus on.
Naturally curious about the complex because businesses are not complicated, they’re complex. You want to understand that. You’re naturally curious about my observation of you, we’re talking, you’re like, tell me more about that. Let’s pull the string on the sweater a little bit. You understand that, and you kind of deduct, I like that a lot. Your venture and journey into the Atlanta timeframe, much 3 or 4 years?
I was there for about three and a half years. It started in June of 2008. By the time I was done, it was late 2011.
You get to the apex there a little bit. You’re at the top of the Hill. What is the next move at the time? Are you thinking of the next move internally? Are you starting to set your sights on other places?
Transition To Ministry And Return To Pro Sports
I hit this point where I was doing very well in sales, fortunately. One thing I get really motivated by is learning. I love learning new things, and I love exploring new things. One thing that was always a major part of my life was my faith. After selling and leading the way in Atlanta for a couple of years, I felt this itch to let me go work in ministry. Let me go get involved in something that I am really passionate about. God really just made things align a little bit there because, fortunately or unfortunately, the NBA had a lockout. The Thrashers moved to Canada to become the Winnipeg Jets.
We went from selling the two properties to a somewhat of a standstill. It left me just the opportunity to really think about what I want to do next. My wife and I decided to move down to Tampa because the church that she and I met at in Atlanta was planting a church down there, and we wanted to be a part of that. We moved down there, but I was not working in ministry yet at the time. I ended up taking a role with the Tampa Bay Lightning because I needed some type of income. I was just recently married, so I got to provide a living there.
I worked for the Lightning, but I was only there for a short period of time because I knew deep down that the reason I moved down there was to get involved with ministry. After about eight months with the Tampa Bay Lightning, I left to go work for Crown Financial Ministries. There was an opportunity down there to oversee real sales efforts in Western Florida. I was in Tampa at the time. I took that on. I did not know much about the ministry, but the whole purpose of the ministry was to teach people how to be good stewards of the resources and money. I was meeting with pastors and churches and things like that.
You leave pro sports. Randy, before this interview, I mean, I know how important ministry and faith have been to you, but at the same time, I did not realize you had eggs in it.
Little over a year to explore that world because I felt like if I was going to do it, I needed to go all in because it had my toe in the water with it when I was working for the lightning. I was like, “This is not the reason I came down here.” I did not go down there to work for the lightning. I loved my time at the Lightning. Do not get me wrong. It was, but that was not the reason that I went down there. I went down there to really get involved with ministry, and they knew that I was very transparent from the beginning. There were no surprises from anybody when I ultimately let them know that I was going to leave to go into full-time ministry.
After about a year of doing that, working from home, working remotely for the ministry. I realized that I really felt deep down that I was making a bigger impact by working in pro sports and being around so many younger people, great minds, the camaraderie, and being in the office. I saw the impact I was able to make just with my coworkers in Atlanta, the number of them that were, whether it was coming to church with me and things like that, and just developing those relationships. I wanted to get back into it. I felt called back into sports, which was right around the time that the Cleveland Browns ultimately reached out about an opportunity there.
That’s kind of where our paths crossed right there. You get hired by the Browns and another great crew. It’s like Brent Stehlik and Nick Frasco and Bob Civic and Josh. Many great players there. I’m running the domain, and the list goes on. You get hired there for what now? Now, at this point, you’ve gone from minor league sports to the NBA and the NHL. You go to Tampa for a hot minute, another NHL. Now you’re working for the shield, which is a different place. Talk about that a little bit. What job did you apply for?
I actually, interestingly enough, Lance, I did not apply. It goes back to just like having a really strong network in the industry. I had a casual conversation with a friend of mine, with whom I worked in Atlanta, when he was down in Tampa vacationing with his family. He is like, “What’s going on? We’re just casually catching up.” I mentioned, I was like, “Look, I’m feeling called to get back into sports. I want to get back into it, but my dream has always been to work for an NFL team, not just a pro sports team, but an NFL team is okay. Give me your resume. I know somebody at the league office who can maybe call some people.” I honestly did not think much of it. I’ll get you that. You hear it all the time from different people, “I know a guy, know some people.”
“I got this guy.”
It was probably twelve hours later. I get a call from the Cleveland Browns, and I’m having a conversation with them, and they’re telling me about the opportunity. I did not think much of it. I’ll be from Michigan. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Ohio did not sound that appealing. Also, we’re living in sunny Tampa. It’s the sunniest city in the country. I’ve spent a lot of winters up in the Midwest. My wife is from Florida. I just did not know how that would go, but I started talking to those guys and, like, “They sound really passionate about what they’re doing.”
They’re telling me the story of how all the people are getting to go there, with the whole rebuild and what their vision is and how they’re going to approach this and really challenge the status quo and do some great things. I got excited. I was like, “I’ll hear you out. They come up here and see it.” We did. My wife and I flew up there in, I believe it was March 2013. We landed there, I think it’s 28 degrees, wind blowing straight, sideways, and snow. I’m like, “My wife is just going to be, let’s get out of here.”
Fortunately, she was not. She was like, “If this is what you want to do, I’m all in. I am very fortunate that I have the most support from her that I could really ever ask for. Met like tour the facilities, met with everybody you mentioned, Frasco, Stehlik, and Alec Scheiner there at the time, met him as well. They just got me so excited about the potential opportunity and like where the business was at right then, where they wanted to get it to. I knew it was just something I had to be a part of. They ultimately brought me on board as a suite sales representative within their premium sales team.
It was tough because I was working with the team. It was not an easy sale. It was just not, because the team did not help much. A lot of sports have to be sold, and that is all B2B. Now you’re at the spot, you leave sports, you come up through your backup North. Where’s your head with the sales philosophy at this point? I’m sure it’s probably fully formed because you recommit to coming back into sports at that point. What’s your methodology? What’s your philosophy of selling?
Overall, like I knew that I had a lot of success selling to businesses, meeting face to face, and really wanting to sell the higher dollar products overall, but ultimately, I like to make sure that we’re finding the right fit for the customer. I am fortunate and like not trying to toot your horn here, but my first week up in Cleveland, you were there training and that was the first time that time we had met. You were there for, I believe, the whole week, if I recall correctly, because we had 20, 30 people across premium season ticket sales, inside sales, all starting at the same time.
We’re all learning it. That was really where I learned the importance of having a predictable process, which you talk about. It’ll yield predictable results. I learned so much from that time, when I still just followed my philosophies that I had in Atlanta, where it’s like, I want to meet with as many people face to face, meet with businesses, but just get out in the market and understand what people care about. What are they passionate about? What are their challenges? What are their goals? How can we help them solve those? There was a lot of education involved in it as well, which I remember as like walking people through how these different products work and how they can help their business.
Everything I would do would be related to how I make sure I’m finding the right fit for the customer. I wanted to go high, but at the same time, it’s like, let’s make sure we’re finding the right fit so they can be a long-term client. They can see the value in it. I cannot tell you the number of people that I’m fortunate to reach out to, like, “When you first met, I only or when you first reach out to me, I only wanted to meet with you because you said you were with the Browns, but then you showed me how this could help my business, and I’m grateful for that.
The tie in there too, it’s something I always admired about you because you’re so even when I remember meeting you, I can remember that week. You’re always just so naturally curious, like, “How does the process work, Lance? Let me understand this.” I can imagine when you go into business, you do the same thing. You have good cardinal knowledge of their business and a good cardinal knowledge of the product. It fits like a Lego at times.
If you can line the pieces up, it does not even have to be a perfect fit. Right. You show them how the use case could work. That makes sense to people because you’re just great bedside manner at the end of the day. We talk. Did not mean to interrupt. I just could not agree more with the way to do it. That takes time. People do not realize that’s not a fast sale. That’s a slow sale.
I did not start out that fast in revenue. To your point, Lance, everything I did just went back to my faith, like let’s find the right fit for the customer. Let’s do the right thing for them and operate with just the utmost integrity with everything we’re doing in our process, just to make sure that they’re going to be a long-term customer. That’s ultimately what we want.
That’s no doubt. You’re there. You’re selling a suite. You’re at the top. If you’re not in sports sales, it is one of the toughest B2B sales because it’s a lot of the product. It’s a capital investment. It’s a multi-year engagement. There’s not a ton of negotiation other than the fact that maybe some terms and stuff like that. It’s a tougher sale. You’re not customizing it that much. You’re tailoring the use case. I think it’s probably the best way to say it. You’re there for how long, and then what’s your trajectory there? Talk about that for a sec.
I was there for about three, maybe three and a half years again, started out as a suite sales representative there. During my time there, there were a few people who left our director of suite sales. I was fortunate that I was in the right place, the right time, which was like let me throw my name in the hat for that, and basically oversee as a manager of suite sales, like a little bit more of our suite process, your benefits, things like that, to try to help out. In that way, I was just starting to learn it. I was not managing people. It was more like starting to manage processes, things like that.
We’re primarily starting with our single game suite process. About a year later, our manager of premium sales left. That was my first real opportunity to take on a true manager role where they merged my role with that of another role. I was the manager of premium and suite sales, overseeing, at that time, a team of four. I was a sales manager. I’m responsible for helping make sure I’m developing them, training them, helping them drive results, as well as having the number that I was responsible for as well.
How did your ministry, your standard of excellence, how you sold, how did that tie into your first management role there? Now you’ve got some people underneath you. The game has changed. It’s not about you, it’s about the team now.
It’s about them, yeah, you’re right. Being in a leadership role, which I think a lot of young managers do not realize, is it is fundamentally different from when you’re selling. When you’re selling, you’re responsible for yourself and yourself only, and you can control 100% of that. When you go into a leadership role, you’re starting to understand, like, how do they tick, how do they work? You’re ultimately responsible for the results they drive, and the results have to come through them. At the end of the day, results are king.
At the end of the day, results are king.
To answer your question, by faith, everything went into that, which is really investing in the people, like understanding them as people, realizing that, like, people are your most important asset. You can grow them exponentially. The better they are, the more results you’re ultimately gonna drive. I was able to instill a lot of the philosophies that I learned from my prior leaders as well. Where it’s like, “Let’s make sure that we’re continuously training. Let’s make sure we’re continuously coaching.”
Let’s make sure you’re joining reps on meetings and helping coaches, like, “Here are the areas of opportunity, things that we can improve on. Just making sure we’re following a sound fundamental process.” I really believe that, like the people who are the best, are the ones who are following the fundamentals and doing the fundamentals really well. There’s no silver bullet. There’s no shiny object that’s going to come in and ultimately make you a sales guru. Just execute the basics, execute them really well and consistently.
You’re so right. We just launched this high-performance sales coaching. I was talking to a leader. This is what it’s all about. It’s about the fundamentals. I said, “You cannot get into the complex unless you can run a complex offense. If you do not understand a fundamental offense, you’re in the complexity.” Your complex scenarios are far and few between most of the time. It’s very fun. It’s Occam’s razor. The simplest way is usually the right way. The easiest path, simple genius.
It’s so true. A lot of people like to think, like, “Here’s why my situation is different. Here’s what’s different about this.” When you really boil it down to the most simplistic elements of it’s like, it’s the same thing. Let’s not make something more complex than it is. Soon, you can break it down into the simple pieces of the process.
That’s why we follow a process rather than a script. If it was like, “Here’s a script, just go do this.” Everybody does the same thing. You’re just creating a bunch of robots, but we want to create people who are critically thinking they’re following the process. They’re adapting, they’re pivoting based on what they’re seeing, but it’s still just a consistent process all the way through.
It’s like with AI right now. AI enhances the strategy. It’s not the strategy because it could write a best-selling script. We’ve always had scripts. It does not mean it’s the best-performing salesperson. The best performing salesperson and leader can think critically in the moment and make good decisions. You’re in your first management role, and you’re all about fundamentals, just like you were in sales. That did not change. You get the next opportunity. Where do you go now?
My next opportunity was Orlando with the Magic, where I had my first true leadership role.
I remember having a good dinner down there in Orlando. That’s a good dinner.
Down in Orlando is my first opportunity to really have my first true leadership role, where I was not also a selling manager, because in Cleveland, it was about two, maybe two and a half years, I was selling and I was managing. In Orlando, I went down there as the director of premium sales in 2016. I believe it was. I had a team of four down there and really wanted to instill all those fundamentals that we just talked about. Really have an opportunity to run the playbook that we know is going to be successful because we’ve seen it done at multiple stops. That was something I was really excited about. My wife is also excited to get back down to Florida, a little bit warmer down there. It was something that I learned a ton from in my first year of school.
Leadership Transition And Implementing The Management Playbook
What up? Do you change it up, or do you stick by the playbook when you’re at Orlando?
I did not change it up at all. I wanted to stick by the playbook because we knew it worked, and the results did not come as quickly as I would have liked them to. Once we ultimately got rolling, the flywheel started, started spinning and you realize like, “This process works, this system works. We developed a very consistent pattern of training, which is something that I am very passionate about because the more we can develop people and the better off they are, better they are, the more we’re going to succeed.
I was really the first full campaign because it started really after we had already gone on sale for the twenty, it would have been the 2016 NBA season. It was like picking up the pieces that were there to help drive the revenue through the latter half of that campaign. For the twenty, would have been the NBA season, I believe, really having our process rolling. We started out hot that year based on what we had instilled.
I do not ask this rarely. I do not ask this a lot, but I know you and I have had conversations. What did you learn about managing in Cleveland, and how do you navigate the leadership hierarchy? Orlando is a different organization. The NBA team is very different. Would you learn about how to navigate with your peers above your head from both organizations? There’s a lot of selling there. There’s a lot of equity there. I do not talk about a lot of them. I should talk about it more in these interviews because that’s a whole other animal. The result is one thing, but you have to navigate your peers. What would you learn about that, or what’s your perspective?
What was unique about the two was comparing and contrasting different roles, like I started out selling in Cleveland. I am very fortunate that the leadership team made the expectations really clear on what they were as I was selling. As I grew, I knew what their expectations were. I knew what their philosophies were. I knew what questions they would ask. I knew what they wanted to know. You go to a different organization, and it’s really easy to assume that all of that’s the same, but it might not be. Good, bad, or different, it’s different leadership, different philosophies.
I had to learn how to better ask what they need, what their expectations are, and what I should be managing up. I could have done a better job of that, like early on, but to answer your question in short, I learned how to better manage up and better understand and ask more questions about internal curiosity. What philosophy should we be following to make sure that you’re getting what you need, so I can help the organization be as successful as possible based on what we want to see from the top of the organization, if that makes sense.
It does because sometimes I think leaders, as they kind of move up in an organization, do not take it into consideration. My team and I do a lot of coaching on navigating the politics of leadership. I had a leader recently say to me, “I’m not interested in politics.” I said, “You’re probably not going to last very long as a leader because you have to embrace it at some level.” As you said, good, bad, or indifferent, good, bad, or ugly, it does not matter. You have that because it is competitive and people aren’t out to get you, but they are interested in protecting their brand and their side of things.
Expectations aren’t always the same. You’ve got legacy things that go on, and that has to be taken into consideration many times. I know you, and I have talked about it several times over the years, good, bad, and indifferent. How do you navigate that piece? Every team inside an organization is a little bit different. Well said. You’re there for how long? That’s where we start getting back to where you are right now.
That’s right. I was there for about three and a half years, and then I was fortunate to have the opportunity to come down here to Miami with the Miami Open. As I said earlier, they just went through their first tournament in 2019. A lot of the leaders who were there at the time dispersed to other bigger roles across the country, and a number of different areas from Miami. I got a call from Jeremy Walls to come explore what they were doing here at the Miami Open. I was like, “I’m intrigued.”
It is something that is a little bit more of an opportunity to set a strong foundation because it was a newer property, but within an established organization that had the resources of an NFL team. It was just going back to you. About being mission-oriented, like I knew that ultimately, over time, I wanted to get back with an NFL team. Like, “This is part of that. Let me go see what they have going on.”
You saw it as a challenge and an opportunity.
It was like I said early on to like, I get really excited and motivated by learning new things. That’s probably the one thing that motivates me the most. Learning something new, trying something new, exploring something new, just going back to that genuine curiosity that you mentioned earlier. Exploring the world of tennis and how it works, and how we can sell it. I hit a handful of road bumps along the way because the market and the buyer, the way people buy a tennis tournament that’s fifteen days long, is they buy it more like an event than they do a season ticket, which is what I was used to selling in Orlando, Cleveland, Atlanta, Tampa, etc.
There was a lot for me to learn. I learned a lot from my first three months here, starting in November of nineteen, and about three and a half months later, it all shut down with COVID. It was really an opportunity to step back and just reflect on everything I’ve learned over those first three and a half months here, and like, “Coming out of COVID, like how do we make this tournament the best it could possibly be? How do I take what I learned from those first three and a half months and make our team better, our department better?” All those things.
You get the opportunity. You settle the tournament down, it becomes a more successful, more mature product, and you build that out. What’s the trajectory internally to how you got there?
When I came on with the Miami Open, I was overseeing luxury and suite sales for the Open. We had, again, a lot of great leaders above me that I learned a ton from. We shrunk down to a pretty small team through COVID. I think at one point, it was maybe three of us in leadership and one wrap. There are basically four of us through one of the tournaments, and let’s see. We had the 2020 tournaments canceled. 2021 was a socially distanced, minimal capacity tournament, and then right after the 2021 tournament, that was when things started becoming a little bit more official with Formula One.
There is a lot of internal reshuffling and reorg. They moved me from the Miami Open as the senior director of luxury and suite sales over to be the senior director of luxury and suite sales for the Miami Dolphins. I was only overseeing the new sales for luxury and suites for the dolphins starting around April 2021. About six months later, the opportunity to oversee and take on the service side of luxury and suite sales opened up as well. I was fortunate that they put me in a role where they combined my role with that of another.
Got it. From there, the roles start to grow even more, right?
Yes. I was in that seat for about two years and really just tried to work on driving as much value for like our luxury suite members as possible and just really try to innovate, challenge the status quo, do some new things. I know that we are in a fantastic market, in a market that really values premium products. We want to make sure that our premium products are as good as they can possibly be. Through that time, we were able to innovate with a lot of new ideas, a lot of new initiatives, and drive additional value, drive revenue. Ultimately, about two years later, I was able to step into the role that I’m in now as the vice president of the Miami Dolphins.
Is it safe to assume you did not overcomplicate it now that you’ve 6x the number of people that report to you?
Yes, I did not even complicate it. Stick with the fundamentals, stick with the basics. Do them consistently, with high integrity, high standards.
Here’s our standard. I love that. I was talking to somebody the other day, and I realized they were talking about one of their superpowers, and they said, “One of my superpowers is pattern recognition.” I said, “That might be mine too. I’m a pattern guy, and the pattern that I see with you is fundamentals, mission-oriented, standards are high, lifelong learner. I love it. As we bring this bird down for a landing, my three typical questions that I ask.
First question going in to get a big deal done. You’ve talked a lot, you’ve gotten a ton of, but you did not even talk about some of the big deals that you’ve gotten done. I’ve witnessed some of your big sales. Just for the audience, this guy’s a straight-up apex hunter. I’m telling you right now, for my name, Apex Hunter, to another one, Randy’s definitely at the top of my list. What song are you playing in your head? You’re going in big deal millions on the line. What do you have going on in your head?
The song that’s going through my head in that instance is The Final Countdown.
It’s a great song.
It’s like we’re going to get this done, bringing this thing to a close. It’s the final countdown, final count. It would give me a good feeling there, too.
That’s good. If you had a gift of a book to somebody, what book would you gift?
The book that I would give is interesting because I love to read. I’ve read countless sales books, countless leadership books, and you start to realize that they all have some similarities. Maybe it’s like, it’s the same philosophy, maybe packaged a little bit differently. They use different words, things like that. It all goes down to the fundamentals. What’s interesting, my wife and I talk about this a lot. Every one of those foundational philosophies ties back to something that I can point to in the Bible. To answer your question, the Bible is the answer because that’s the truth. That’s to me why all those foundational philosophies ultimately work because that is the truth.
There are in any great book, including the Bible, that are fundamental. That is the truth. Fundamentals are part of the truth. Obviously goes way wider than that success. I prepped you for this. You have a niece and nephew sitting on the edge of a dock, nice lake up in Michigan, and they’re 5 or 6 years old, and they say, “Uncle Randy.” Remember, at 5 or 6 years old, what does it mean to be successful? You say what to the 5 or 6-year-old?
Defining Personal Success Through Faith And Stewardship
Immediately, what comes to mind is in the Bible, it talks about having God say, well done, good and faithful steward. It’s being faithful and being a good steward of the resource, the time, the talent, the treasures that you’ve been given. Success can be completely subjective to each person. It’s not that you’re making the most amount of money or having the most amount of stuff or being the most popular, but basically maximizing the time, the resources, and the talents that you have in the way that is consistent with what you’re feeling called to do. That’s the definition of it.
I appreciate you always letting me be a part of your journey as always. I really do. My pleasure. I cannot wait to get this out. Thanks, Randy.
Important Links
