The “P.T. Barnum of Baseball” knows what fans hate, and they love him for it. Imagine packing the family up to watch your local minor league baseball team. You arrive at the stadium, present your tickets, and, viola, your evening is ready to rock. No worrying about cash for parking or waving that plastic around to pay for concessions. It is all included in your $20 ticket. Sound enticing to you? We’re just getting started.
Welcome to Grayson Stadium in Savannah, Georgia, where the Savannah Bananas have played before more than one million fans in the first-ever ad-free ballpark featured on ESPN, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. Where they have sold out every game since their first season in 2015 and have more than 12 thousand fans on the waiting list to watch the antics that include the Banana Nanas, their senior citizen dance team, breakdancing coaches, and the Dad Bod Cheerleading Squad. Where fan loyalty is so over the top the Bananas have 300,000 more TikTok followers than the closest Major League Baseball team.
What’s up with Jesse Cole and his Savannah Bananas? He’s smart as a whip and wise beyond his years when it comes to understanding what customers, no, fans want and don’t want. A former Wofford College baseball player who was good enough to be recruited by the Braves, Padres, and Mets before a shoulder injury ended his MLB aspirations, Jesse bought the Bananas and turned the team into a successful and entertaining team. And he did it not by surveying his fans or other traditional marketing methods, but by watching them, very closely, to see how they behaved—to see what they showed him.
“If Henry Ford asked people what they wanted, they would have requested faster horses,” Jesse explained, “In any industry, if you put yourself in your customer’s shoes and ask, ‘What are those friction points from when I first interact with you on your website to when I walk into your store, to when I buy from you,’ you can eliminate those friction points and start creating these raving fans.”
In the podcast episode, Jesse offers listeners nine full innings of useful ways your company can stand out by thinking differently, creating attention, and making fans for life.
You will learn:
"Don is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever met. I’ve known him for a long time and every time we talk I walk away wiser and more inspired. He is the best in the business at teaching you a skill – storytelling – that will last you a lifetime.”
“The ability for athletes to get hired is carried on through you because you are putting out the message that lessons learned from sports are important in life. It is embedded in this podcast, what you’re doing is significant.”
We speak the same language. I am inspired by the stories you tell, the people you have met, and the things you’ve done. Those of us that are competitors like to follow others that have been down that journey, so it is always fun talking to you!”
“Many of the leaders I have worked with were excellent athletes, and I think there is a direct correlation. You’re one of the few people that really has pursued this study, Don. Keep up the great work. What you are doing really makes a difference.”
“Don, you have mastered the skill of interviewing and asking great questions. That is a great skill all leaders need in order to understand their team members’ thought processes.”
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