Senior Zaskowski’s A Nom De Plume

Senior Zaskowski grilled up some Polish sausage and burgers on Pirate Day at the Red Stars annex.

Don’t be fooled by his suave Polish exterior, or his cool, calm and collected persona. He can be found late-night at the Red Stars annex pumping Poison (the band!) into the air, or on the rare occasion leaving early to catch a Perogi Party in Belmont. He keeps a 6-pack of imports in the fridge and would never hesitate to share a brewsky with a co-worker. Red Stars Director of Ticket Sales Greg Zaskowski is as human as the rest of us – but his knack for sales is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

Now, let me say, I’ve worked in Sales before. In fact, I was a licensed Realtor in Central New Jersey (Princeton/Pennington/Ewing) in my early twenties. By way of proximity (I lived on the Weidel Estate in Pennington), and no job to speak of after graduating college, I was persuaded by my landlord to take the torturous 2-week 8am-8pm crash course in Real Estate in order to pass my License.

There were parts of selling homes that I really enjoyed – the marketing (yes I built websites for my listings way back before Realtor.com offered online tours), getting to know my customers, and looking at all the really cool and historical homes in Princeton (wow!). But when it came down to it, selling just wasn’t in my blood. I couldn’t move a property with a “90% Off” sticker – even back in 2001.

But Greg is different. I sware if he wanted to, he could sell a season ticket package with a 90% increase! How does he do it?! Here’s what I think.

First, people trust Greg. There’s something about the way he communicates that instills confidence and makes you want to hand over your hard-earned cashola. Parents adore him, kids want to play games with him, and guys and gals just want to hang out with him. Kait Sawyer told me that last weekend, at a tournament in Barrington, Greg convinced a 10-year-old girl to run all the way across the complex (no small task by the way that facility is pretty big!) to ask her mom for $5 to buy a Red Stars pin. He was so impressed she actually did it that he gave her a squishy ball for free.

Second, people appreciate hard work. Greg works long hours, making phone calls and connecting with soccer clubs here in Chicagoland whenever the time is right for his clients – 6am, 10pm… doesn’t matter. If I ever ask Greg, “What did you do yesterday?” or “Where were you this morning?” or even “How was the party yesterday?” the answer is always the same: “Selling tickets.” And he means it. (Greg, do you count tickets jumping over a cloud when you tuck in at night, the way everyone else counts sheep?)

Finally, and most importantly, Greg believes in what he does. With transparency being so key within our organization (aka here’s our President Peter Wilt’s blog) I think people recognize that. Greg’s commitment to the growth and development of women’s soccer energizes the rest of us to sell tickets. He’s always offering incentives to his Account Executives to bring in sales (he buys weekly gift-cards at places like Giordano’s or Best Buy for top-sellers). He’s honest, up front, and will give you a solid deal from the get-go.

I think it’s cool that Greg hung one of Emma’s quotes up above his desk: “There’s an altruistic love of the game here, and we all want WPS to succeed. More importantly, we’re willing to do anything it possible takes to make that happen.” Right next to it is a sign that reads: “Football without fans is nothing.”

Last night, Greg stayed at the office well past 10pm to complete his first blog post, which I have been encouraging him to do since WPS set up our social network. In the post, he wrote about how I’m working to connect with fans and supporters online using social media marketing (thanks for all that Greg!). But in response I want him to know that without him, and everybody else in this office, the things I’ve been able to accomplish thus far truly wouldn’t have been possible.

We all feel that way around the Chicago Red Stars. We each have our roles and work diligently to produce quality events and products, and we’re all working with smart budgets and realistic constraints to make this happen. Each person – from our GM to our interns – is so highly valued and regarded within this organization that I can easily say I’ve never been so proud of a team of co-workers.

Right now, there’s an incredible buzz in the air around allocation, and personally I just can’t wait to get our players on board. I hope that if any of them are reading this post, they know they will be valued for every little contribution they give as well – both on and off the field. From signing that one extra autograph to running one more sprint, thank you in advance… and get here quickly because we’re all so excited to meet you!

Of interesting note, the WPS “prospective player page” gets more traffic than almost any other. That tells me our success as a League and a team will be directly linked to our ability to market our players… and believe me I will do so, or I’ll die at my laptop trying. You name it – YouTube, WPS, Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, MySpace, etc. And of course I have a few tricks up my sleeve ;-) We’re all in this venture together to raise awareness, gain exposure, and be the very best professional sports team in the world.

So off my SEO soapbox and back to Senior Zaskowski. Please stop by the trailer *ahem* I mean annex, call the office at 866-WPS-2009 and ask for Greg. Buy season tickets. Maybe if you’re lucky he’ll invite you to a Perogi party.

Tagged as: Chicago Red Stars, Emma Hayes, greg zaskowski, peter wilt, toyota park