Defining Your Race Team’s Core Values

I have been working through the Racing Business Planner myself, obviously not as a driver or team, but rather from my perspective as a small business owner.

I created the planner, and I was still a little stumped when it came to the very first page and the values of my company!  I knew a few keywords, but I had never sat down to decide the most important ones to me.

Get your copy of the planner here and we will start working through it in the Facebook Group here.

To be able to fully understand and be able to help you work your way through the planner, I did what I do best and began researching. 

I always want to know the what, why, and how of everything so let’s dig into what I have found.

Brand values, or team values, are the beliefs that you and your team stand for.  They are the foundation that your team is built upon, will help you with decision-making down the road, and should be a focus of all your communications and stories.

Your values should not just be words, but instead should tell the world what is important to your team.  Be honest with yourself when thinking about your values.  These are not something to be made up – they already exist!  You will need to take time and think about what you really care about and put it down on paper to be able to refer to.

So how do you go about determining the values of your team? 

If you need some ideas, I’ll include an extensive list of adjectives to look at for inspiration at the end.  But, before you peek at them, sit down with your team to try to come up with five values that your team stands for.  If you’re not quite sure, think about brands, teams, or other drivers and what you like or even dislike about them, or what sets them apart from everyone else.  I will caution you to remain authentic with your choices.  They will be more believable and powerful when you unconsciously live your values.

If you need to go a little deeper, think about your favorite driver and what you think of them, or what the fans and other drivers think about when their name is mentioned.  Ross Chastain, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Petty, and Erik Jones will likely be described in different ways.  Do you want to emulate them or act in a manner that is 180 degrees different?

Once you have unique ideas that represent your team’s values while also showing why you and your team are special, there are a few more things to think about before putting it out there for the world. 

Two reasons to articulate your values to your audience are to be memorable and relatable. The human brain is magnificent but even so, can only focus on so many things before they are forgotten or confusing.  To keep things simple, try not to use more than three ideas – I have it narrowed down to four and that was hard to do! Acronyms can be used to help give us little hints to help us remember your team’s values.  For example – Capability, Accountability, Resilience, and Success = CARS.  Using alliteration (two or more words used together with the same first consonant sound) may help the values you choose to be more memorable – community, connection, and cooperation.  Lastly, stories are the best way for us to remember things.  Stories which demonstrate your values or define them are sure to stick with your team and fans

Finally, why does a team need to determine its values?

Your brand values will help you connect with your fan base and help them remember you.  This is increasingly important in today’s world where we have so much information overload. 

Helping your fans remember you means that your sponsors will be remembered as well. A well-known premise in marketing is the Marketing Rule of 7, meaning that 7 is the number of times a person needs to interact with a company before they buy anything. If your fans can form a connection with you, when you introduce a sponsor’s product to them, that may decrease the number of times necessary for a customer to see a product before purchasing as they are now not just seeing the product but getting a recommendation to use it from a trusted source. Creating loyal customers for your sponsors will help increase the lifetime value of that customer to your sponsors. Loyal customers are more likely to spend more and to try new products from that sponsor, thereby increasing your value to your sponsor.

I have a link to 230 words that may be helpful to you when considering your values.  I highlighted mine to show you how I narrowed it down to the four I ultimately chose.  This was harder to do than I expected.  All my highlighted words have a great deal of meaning to me, but I chose:

Learning – I want you to have the opportunity to learn, in a short period of time, what I have been learning about marketing, sponsorship, and sales for over 25 years, focusing on motorsports for the last 5 years.  Then take that information, find sponsors, and create an amazing experience for them so they will come back again next year.

Perseverance – This is the only way you will be able to find the sponsors you need to race a full season with sponsors.  I have included the difference between determination and perseverance because I was trying to decide between the two myself.  I think perseverance is more fitting for both seeking sponsors and returning to the track despite all the obstacles many teams face.

“Determination is about how much you want something and the lengths you are willing to go to to make it happen. Perseverance, on the other hand, is your ability to continue to strive for your best despite difficulty and delay in achieving success.”

Success – I want you and me to be successful both ON and OFF track.

Teamwork – a driver does not earn the checkered flag without the support of the team.  I cannot be successful without you including me as part of the team.