Build your own path
By: Eduardo Drapier
Tags: Football, Career, Startup, France, Sports

If you want to succeed you need to build your own path. Build strategies to achieve your goals and work hard for it.

Today we bring Joris Combe story. He used to play football during his studies in the USA but due to some injuries, he had to change plans and build his path to work at the Olympique Lyonnais.

Great insights to help you get some motivation to go through these hard times and succeed in the sports industry.

Thank you, Joris! Keep pushing!

Your professional sport career started as a rollercoaster. Can you share the story with our audience on how you ended up from an athlete to a sport professional?

I was playing soccer for Rollins College, a university located near Orlando, Florida with the dream to make soccer my only priority after graduating.

Unfortunately, things did not go as I expected. A severe injury during practice put an end to my playing days and forced me to reconsider my career plan.

I flew back to Europe and found a study program in Amsterdam (ISMB) that could help me fulfill my goal to work in the sports field.

After graduating with a bachelor’s degree from the Hogeschool van Amsterdam, I moved back to Lyon, France and managed to get my first job as a sales representative.

I jumped from one opportunity to another in order to learn, get better and finally reach the organization I had always hoped to join … Olympique Lyonnais.

During your 4 years at the University of Amsterdam, you had 3 internships. What kind of internships did you have and what did you learn from them?

For my first two internships, I worked for the youth academies of Olympique Lyonnais and Orlando City where I had very diverse missions.

These tasks were mostly football-related and taught me that the football world is a results-driven business and that you must be reliable, efficient and able to work under pressure to make it.

My third and final internship was in Marbella, Spain where I worked for a small sport federation. Again, I was confronted with very different missions. My goal though with that internship was to add the Spanish language on my resume.

How did you see the program at Amsterdam elevate your professional sports career?

The ISMB program enabled my classmates and I to dive deep into the sports world.

Not only did we go on field trips to visit major sporting organizations, but we also had lecturers with very valuable experience from the field of sports.

Throughout the 4 years I spent at the HvA, I kept on learning on how the sports world was organized and where the different possibilities were.

ISMB gave me the foundations and knowledge to elaborate a clear career map and most importantly, it helped me decide what I wanted to do and how!

What tips do you have for people looking for a sports program?

Look for a program that offers the possibility to do internships abroad topped with experienced lecturers with a strong background in the field of sports.

I would recommend anyone interested in studying sports management to enroll in the ISMB program at the HvA. The perfect study program to become a sports professional.

Going back to your professional career, you have obtained a lot of experience in the world of sales. Take us through your sales journey and how you ended up at OL Lyon.

My first sales experience was at the Nike Outlet Store in Amsterdam where I worked part-time as a student. I realized that I enjoyed listening to clients and selling the best products for them. Working for Nike was a valuable experience in terms of customer relationship and client satisfaction.

My first full-time job was to sell LED lighting solutions to tennis clubs. An enriching work experience where I learned how to negotiate and network. Most importantly, I learned that the best salesmen are truly convinced that their products are the best on the market.

I then moved to another position which was more strategy-oriented. I had to define and implement the commercial strategy for a non-for-profit organization in order to generate more revenues.

Before joining OL, I moved to a sales rep job working with a big territory. I was driving an average of 700kms per day selling freezing and conditioning systems to high-end restaurants, bakeries, hotels.

A tough but tremendously enriching experience which taught me to be organized, to work independently and to close the deal, quick.

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You are currently the Business Developer B2B at OL Lyon. What are your key responsibilities?

My main mission is to sell annual hospitality memberships to companies in and around Lyon. These memberships enable companies to invite their clients in our VIP lounges, private boxes and grant them access to our business club: OL Business Team. Through this program, they can easily meet other people and consequently develop their professional network through OL.

I am also in charge of commercializing our different hospitality products for all other events happening in our stadium such as concerts, shows, and our music festival FELYN.

How do you see the B2B landscape changing in the next couple of years in the football industry?

B2B clients are results-oriented and expect a ROI which is hard to define in our field.

We do not have the tools to precisely measure how much business a client gets in return of its membership. I believe that the notion of ROI will become the key factor in couple of years and companies will expect a strong ROI before committing to memberships in a football club.

To attract clients and retain them, we will have to provide them with clear data on what they can earn through their VIP membership.

Furthermore, I believe that traditional memberships will disappear. As of today, we only propose packages which include every single home game. But in a football season with about 25 home games, clients can meet difficulties using their tickets. Sometimes, it happens that they do not find anyone willing to use their tickets to attend the game. Clubs will have to find a different way to market their annual memberships and be more flexible with payment methods in order to maintain the numbers of season-ticket holders. We are working on it now and very interesting ideas come out almost daily.

What tips do you have for students trying to find their career path? And why would sales be a good way to go?

Be proactive in finding internships. Do not just wait for an opportunity to find an easy work placement. Think about what you want to do later, and which job experience could help you get there.

Be curious and approach people working in the sports world. Ask them about their missions, responsibilities, opportunities… Try to draw a map of an organization and ask yourself where you would like to stand in the short-term, mid-term and long-term.

I have been enjoying working in sales because I have been able to work independently, at my pace and never had a period with no workload. There is always something to do!

Moreover, it is a job that pays based on your performance. The better you are, the more you sell, the more you earn