Closing The Deal With University Of Phoenix Stadium

This is the sixth part of an eight-part article about Maintenance Mart distributing jan/san supplies for the Super Bowl.

At the time Riley acquired Maintenance Mart, Service Resource Corporation already had Chase Field and the U.S. Airways Center as clients. Through that connection, Maintenance Mart was able to land those two sport venues as distribution customers.

As is expected when working with sports venues, Maintenance Mart purchases marketing packages with each stadium or arena it services. These typically consist of branding around the stadium or a season ticket package, which smart companies like Maintenance Mart use to strengthen relationships with existing customers. It’s a high visibility way to provide references. In fact, Kraus says his family rarely attends the games.

“We’ve been successful by using one (sports venue) as a reference for the other,” says Kraus. “It tends to be kind of a community of professionals that talk to each other that run those places. And they exchange information, and that helps. The Chase Field guy tells the spring training guy, ‘We’ve got this company, they do a really good job. Why don’t you give them a chance?’”

Securing University of Phoenix Stadium as a customer worked much the same way. Maintenance Mart had been supplying Gila River Arena (then Jobing.com Arena) out in Glendale, just across the street from University of Phoenix Stadium. The arena management team from Gila River Arena and the Global Spectrum team from University of Phoenix Stadium would often compare notes. 

The Gila River Arena manager “kept bringing up Maintenance Mart. ‘Why don’t you guys buy from Maintenance Mart? All the major sporting venues buy from Maintenance Mart. There’s a reason why,’” says Riley.

Eventually Riley was given a chance to make her case. She met with management team from Global Spectrum, gave them her pricing and talked about Maintenance Mart’s programs. Global Spectrum was able to use that bid to get better pricing from its current supplier — not surprisingly, says Riley.

“Typically companies like what they’re used to,” she says.

But the following year, in July 2013, Global Spectrum was still unhappy with its supplier for University of Phoenix Stadium, so it struck a deal with Maintenance Mart.

“Just the way Shelley handled everything, the way she was on point with everything, very detailed, her attention to detail, the support we saw we’d be getting from her, it made us feel very comfortable making a change to Maintenance Mart,” says Callender, who has worked for University of Phoenix Stadium since 2006.