“Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them.”

Whether it’s Aristotle or Dale Carnegie you ascribe to this quote, the principle behind it is that sometimes we need a bit of repetition to really understand something.

Mike Bohndiek, a leading technology, commercial and business change professional operating in the sports industry, recently reviewed my book, Winning with Data – CRM and Data Analytics for the Business of Sports, and used the above to refer to the way the chapters are broken up into an introduction, thoughts, examples and summaries. In his opinion, this approach helped make it “a good read on a plane” and “light work”.

That’s exactly the style I was aiming for – something that could be read with ease but wasn’t too light on detail – and I seem to have achieved this as, in Mike’s words, the book succeeded in “striking the right note between beginners advice and helpful tips and tricks for the more experienced data monkey”.

The case studies have been contributed by rights owners including UEFA, Arsenal, San Antonio Spurs, MLS, and Special Olympics International, with commentary and examples of many others including the NHL, Derbyshire CCC, and Golden State Warriors.

There are ten chapters that from start to finish take you through the key principles of applying CRM and data to the sports industry (although I’ve had feedback from several readers who’ve rightly pointed out the content is relevant for all industries, not just #sportsbiz). This approach is intended to ensure that if you’re a generalist it will provide a helicopter view across all applicable areas, and if you’re a specialist it’ll put your role or department into perspective with the rest of the business.

However, Mike did call me out on the relevance I placed on the role of technology. There is one chapter wholly dedicated to the CRM tech stack, but in my desire to ensure the book presented tech as an enabler not a driver, he feels I perhaps didn’t give it the voice it deserves. So on that note, when I start to plan the 2nd edition, Mike has generously offered to contribute to that area!

Please get in touch if you’d like a preview of our book or would like to discuss anything CRM and data.

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