“Be different.”
“Be remarkable.”
“Don’t be a ‘me-too’ salesman.”

Those are just a few valuable words of advice from someone who knows what he’s talking about.

While Jesse Cole works in a world far away from that of independent manufacturers’ reps, the lessons he’s learned along the way to becoming the owner of two multimillion-dollar baseball teams can serve as a roadmap pointing to success for reps.

In addition to owning the Savannah Bananas and Gastonia Grizzlies minor league baseball teams in the Coastal Plain League, Cole is the founder of Fans First Entertainment and the author Find Your Yellow Tux. But before adding those accomplishments to his resume he found himself in a position similar to what many reps have experienced when opening their own agency doors.

As he detailed in his book: “It was February 2016. My wife, Emily, and I were sleeping on an air mattress in a one-bedroom duplex on Tybee Island, just outside of Savannah, Georgia.

“The ceilings leaked. Our roommates were cockroaches. Our grocery budget was enough for some ramen and crackers. Okay, maybe just ramen. It wasn’t exactly what you would call our dream house.

“Actually, just a few months prior, we kissed our dream house goodbye — along with our savings accounts and our credit score — all in a make-or break effort to take our young business to the next level.”

And take it to the next level he did.

What Cole has learned along the way appears in many ways similar to what independent reps have learned as they’ve beaten their own career paths. The profiles of MANA members that have appeared in the pages of Agency Sales provide any number of similar stories of challenges and hard-earned success. (A prime example could very well be an article that appears in this issue of Agency Sales where MANA member Tom Schoenauer Jr., Mechanical Solutions of Delafield, LLC, recalls that at the beginning of his rep startup he subsisted on a diet of roots.) That’s why much of what Cole has to say and has written about should resonate with reps.

Going All In

Perhaps a good place to start in examining Cole’s career and business philosophy is with his admonition to “Go All In.” In the beginning of a chapter entitled “Going All In,” he advises that “When you’re a business owner, the day will come when you have to lay it all out on the line.

“If you believe in your mission and what you’re doing, you’ll gladly rise to the challenge. You won’t doubt it for a second.”

However, in a conversation with Agency Sales he explains that “I don’t believe anyone should go all in unless they’ve experimented to determine what makes them unique and what makes them different. What gave me the energy for doing something different was when I realized I had no other options. Once you find that which drives you, then you should pump the gas on experimentation. Realize that there’s no one (i.e., customers) who needs another ‘me-too’ salesman.”

If there’s anything Cole and his organization is not it’s a “me-too” salesman. Consider for a moment some of the steps his organization has taken to differentiate itself from the typical baseball experience:

• Players perform choreographed dances every game.
• Players play games in kilts.
• Players may be escorted to the plate by the Banana Pep Band, walk up as a golfer with a caddie, or even introduce themselves.
• Team owner Jesse Cole wears a yellow tuxedo — not just sometimes, all the time.
• The team has its own Savannah Banana Beer, Banana Split Cream Soda and specialty alcoholic drink, The Slippery Banana.
• And, perhaps one of the most drastic steps Cole took was to part with hundreds of thousands of dollars when he eliminated all advertising in the Bananas’ home park Grayson Stadium in Savannah. “We parted with the advertising because we were thinking fans first,” he explains. “While some might think this was the worst business decision of 2020, our feeling was that no one comes to the park wanting to be sold to. That’s something reps ought to think about. No one is really waiting for your call. No one is waiting there, hoping someone is going to sell them something. You have to position yourself where you’re always thinking of your customers first. As a result, that’s when you can create ‘fans,’ not customers. Remember that customers are transitory — they come and go. Fans are there for the long haul, a lifetime. They’ll always be there. That’s why is it’s so important to create fans.”

Making Up Lost Revenue

While Cole and the Bananas may have lost revenue from ballpark advertising, they have more than made up for it with their merchandising sales. “Our merchandise sales are seven figures plus, and we’re doing more of it than any other team in the country. That’s all because of the long-term trust we’ve built with our fans. They realize that we’re different.”

Compare all of these steps to what the typical baseball game experience is and it’s obvious there’s no ‘me‑too’ there.

No stranger to dealing with salespeople himself, Cole is asked what gets his attention from a prospective salesperson? “The first thing I’m always responsive to is someone who is willing to provide me with something without wanting something in return. I want to deal with someone who has done his research on us, who has read all about us and is more than willing to say, ‘thank you.’ Next, I want to work with someone who looks and acts like a good person.”

That last sentence sounds like Cole is talking about something reps are very familiar with and that’s their desire to work with manufacturers who could be considered their “emotional favorites.” According to Cole, “I’m constantly chasing energy. I want to surround myself with people who give — not take — energy. For me there’s a constant need to learn from those kinds of people.

“On top of that, I maintain that we’re all in the entertainment business. We want to have fun with the people we’re dealing with. Think for a moment how many times have you come home and said to your wife ‘Honey, I just met the most professional person.’ No, we’re always looking to have fun and enjoying the time that we spend with people.”

Finally, Cole urges reps to consider the practice of “Looking at whatever is normal, and then just doing the opposite. If I could ask any rep or other businessperson one question it would be, ‘What makes you different?’ Think about what you could do that would cause you to be the only person doing it. If you can do that, your customers will follow you. You always want to be remarkable and the only way you can accomplish that is by doing something that people will remark about.”

Any doubts that Cole’s thinking is effective could be put to rest when you consider the Savannah Bananas are enjoying a run of 200 consecutive sellouts and they have a waiting list of more than 12,000 people wanting to see their games.

MANA welcomes your comments on this article. Write to us at [email protected].

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Jesse Cole’s book, Find Your Yellow Tux: How to be Successful by Standing Out, is available on Amazon, or purchased directly from the Savannah Bananas. Visit their website at www.thesavannahbananas.com.