Bryan Van Den Bosch, Minnesota Twins New Business Development Manager

Minnesota Twins New Business Development Manager Bryan Van Den Bosch joins Work in Sports podcast host Brian Clapp to discuss sports sales jobs, leadership and building a strong team

Hey everybody, I’m Brian Clapp, VP of Content and Engaged learning at WorkInSports.com and this is the Work In Sports podcast.

As I have admitted many times on this podcast, I am not a natural networker. It is not my comfort zone, I am not the type that will walk up to someone and engage in conversation with ease.  

I wish I was. 

Oftentimes getting out of your comfort zone is essential to growth. And I like growth. I am a curious person who likes to learn and challenge myself, so last week’s National Sports Forum, with 1,000 people deeply connected to the sports industry, was somewhere I needed to be. 

But I was feeling both anxious and cowardly leading up to the event. 

You see we all tell ourselves a story in our head that is loud. It echoes. It has power and weight. 

We tell ourselves, “these people won’t want to talk with me” or “they’ll find me uninteresting or I’ll struggle with relevant things to say”

Even deeper we tell ourselves “I’ll never get that job” or “I’ll never lose that weight” or “I’ll never be able to speak in a crowd”

Boy, do we have a lot of voices in our head.  So ask yourself the next time you feel this happening -- ask yourself -- is this self-doubt helping me? 

I broke out of my comfort zone last week. In fact, today’s guest was one of the people who helped me do it. 

Minnesota Twins New Business Development Manager Bryan Van Den Bosch said hi to me in the line for food the first night of the conference… we struck up a conversation, he’s an awesome guy with tons of sports career experience so we shared a few sliders at Mercedes Benz Stadium and booked a podcast interview. 

So let’s get to it - Bryan is an expert at building relationships in the sports industry, and he’s here to share his world in baseball with the Minnesota Twins…

Questions for Bryan Van Den Bosch, Minnesotas Twins New Business Development Manager 

1: For the last 10 years since graduating from Valparaiso you’ve worked for a multitude of teams in various leagues – and we’ll get into all of those details – but I’m curious first, your roles have been all connected to revenue generation – account executive, inside sales, premium hospitality, new business – what led you in this direction, how did you figure out this was your fit?

2: Let’s talk about your first two roles – we’ve often talked about how jobs in the minor league or in your case independent league baseball are great training grounds – what was your experience like with the Gary SouthShore RailCats & Lake County Fielders?

3: After the independent league, you join the Chicago Sky of the WNBA as an Account Executive -- what was the biggest eye-opening moment for you as you grew from independent league baseball to a big city pro sports team?

4: Account executive is a pretty broad term, explain to us what your role was like there and what you enjoyed most about it?

5: You were prolific with the Sky.

Multiple sales awards, beating your yearly sales goals with months to spare, in fact in one month you led the entire WNBA in new ticket revenue – so at this time what were you learning about sales and how to connect with potential buyers? What was it that was working so well for you?

6: In addition to your role with the Sky, you also became part of the Premium Hospitality team with the Chicago Bears --  you’re a Chicago guy, was it hard working for your various hometown teams, or was it a dream come true?

7: Would you consider yourself a competitive person? And if so is that a valuable attribute for working in sales?

8: Chicago Sky bumps you up to Manager of New Business Development, now your managing a team of account executives…what were some of the big things you learned jumping into managing people?

9: Now you are evaluating and motivating staff, setting goals, holding people accountable and more --  so after all that, what do you think are the essential qualities and skills that can help someone thrive in revenue-generating roles?

10: For the last year you’ve been with the Minnesota Twins as the New Business Development Manager – how much more difficult is it with such a long season, large stadium and many many home games – is that a daunting challenge?

11: You’ve worked for multiple organizations now in your career… how important is culture to a thriving workplace, and what role do you play in trying to establish a strong culture?

12: We’ll finish up with this, I know this is a busy time in baseball and you’ve already given us a lot of your time which we appreciate – 10 years in, do you still love working in sports, and if so, why? What is special about it?

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