We were lucky to catch up with Tahira Bellot recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Tahira with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
As a first generation American, born to parents from the Caribbean who came to America for an education, my work ethic was instilled in me since birth. All I have ever known is that I have to work hard, take risks and sacrifice to achieve my goals and see my dreams come to fruition. Watching my mom climb the corporate ladder I learned that I need to know my industry in an in depth way so that others would always look to me as someone they could turn to for information, ideas and advice. To do that, I needed not only hands on experience but research and a network with other individuals who can teach me the things I don’t know. Having started my career in sports later in life, it was an all or nothing mentality. Being paid an entry level salary, it was imperative I sell at a high level to maintain my adult responsibilities. This meant often staying late and working on Saturdays. Once I saw that this got the attention and respect of upper management I decided if I wanted to continue growing my career I would always need to be willing to do what others won’t and go the extra mile to get the job done.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
As the Director, Premium Service with the Las Vegas Raiders I am responsible for our revenue retention. In short, I find ways to keep our season ticket members happy, engaged and feeling the value of their membership. What is most exciting and special about my role is I get to help fans dreams come true and be apart of their lifelong memories. For example, in one of our routine check-in calls we learned that one of our members had recently lost their young son who was a huge part of the reason they are Raiders fans. We invited them, as a token of our appreciation, to participate in a cool opportunity to take a photo on the field after a game. We then searched the internet for a picture of their son and then framed it. When they arrived to take their photo on the field we surprised them with the framed picture of their son so he could also be present in the occasion. This is something that family will never forget and I love that I got to be a part of that.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
For me, the three most important qualities that helped me on my journey was first, the ability to anticipate someone’s needs. Second, the skill of networking and third finding solutions to problems rather than complaints. Anticipating one’s needs allowed me to cater my sales pitch to what resonated most with them. This led to high sales revenue which earned the attention of higher ups. In networking I would find a commonality with people I encountered to assist in building that relationship in a genuine way. This helped people get to know me and my accomplishments which was instrumental in getting recommendations and interviews. By finding solutions to problems that I would face on the job I was able to pitch events that generated additional unplanned revenue. This proved that I was capable of more than my responsibilities as a sales executive and would benefit the organization more in a leadership role, which led to my first Director title.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
Like most people in sports, the biggest challenge can be the thing that is most out of their control. Winning. That is no different for me. I can implement several new benefits and exclusive opportunities for our season ticket members but it will go unnoticed if the team, the product on the field, isn’t successful. People don’t spend money to come to games and watch their team lose week after week. It is unmotivating. Season Ticket Members renewal percentage and revenue generated from this is one of my key performance indicators. It can be a challenge to work really hard to reach these goals and miss them because of something out my control like how many wins the teams gets that season. So I am constantly trying to find ways to make people feel like their membership has value beyond the success on the field. This in itself is a challenge because what some may consider a great benefit, others may feel different. it is hard to please all the people all the time.
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