After going to INTIX last week, I came away with the belief that sales and marketing are still big issues that people are working to overcome.
Considering there is no end in sight to the amount of information that is available to anyone interested in learning about selling tickets, I thought I might put together a quick list of the ABCs of modern ticket sales.
A is for Automation: In your customer journey, if you don’t have some sort of automation that helps keep your customer engaged, you are going to struggle to make the quantity of sales you want.
B is for Box Office: Even when people don’t go to the box office to buy, they still need to know that someone is there…even if it is only just in case. Box office means security.
C is for Communication: That’s a pretty much key skill in modern life. To sell more tickets, you need to focus on communicating effectively.
D is for Diversity: The day of one-size fits all is over. We need more diversity in the way we approach our jobs, our shows, and our professions. This diversity will help encourage more ways to add value to our customers, our prospects, and our communities.
E is for Experience: We have to keep an eye on the experience that we want our customers to have. We aren’t the only game in town so we need to make sure that we are the best game in town.
F is for Fans: Fans are the lifeblood of our sales. No matter if we are sports or arts, we want to move our customers from prospects to buyers to fans. Without fans, we price of customer acquisition will continue to rise.
G is for Gamification: It is a big buzz word, but we can do worse than to think about how we can make the process of buying a ticket and visiting a venue more fun. Gamification might be a great way to help turn the time between buying the ticket and the event into something to be anticipated and it might be a tool to help us accelerate the buying decision.
H is for Hard Stock: I still love ticket stubs and hard stock tickets provide a great marketing and experiential possibility for your organization.
I is for Isolation: Sometimes we are afraid to reach out to our peers and colleagues. So we end up isolated. That’s a bad idea because many of us are dealing with the same sorts of issues, there is no need to suffer alone.
J is for Joy: That’s the emotion we should be shooting for at every touch point with our customers.
K is for KPI: Every sales organization has KPI (Key Performance Indicators) but does every ticket sales organization use the right KPIs? Can you go beyond just revenue or touch based KPIs into something that is meaningful to building a long term relationship with your buyers?
L is for Lifetime: In NYC, we used to have a tagline, “Customers for life.” That’s what we want to create between our venues, our teams, and our performers and our fans. We want them to go on a journey with us, not just a blind date.
M is for Money: We always need to keep in mind we are operating businesses. But that doesn’t mean that money is bad. We can use our need to be financially prudent with ideas that also enhance the customer experience, making us more money.
N is for No: Sometimes you have to say no. Be that to a request, a show, or a customer. No isn’t always bad.
O is for Optimism: We all need it to be as successful as possible. When you feel down, think about the experiences and memories you are creating for your customers.
P is for Pricing: No one will ever be 100% happy with the pricing of your shows. You can’t make everyone happy. But you can price in a way that encourages the kinds of outcomes you want. Keep the outcomes in mind when you are pricing.
Q is for Queen: How many times have you had to explain that “queen 101” is a great seat?
R is for Resale: Something we all have to think about more and more. How can we corral it to work for us? How do we make sure that it doesn’t hurt our brands? How can we partner with it? The questions go on and on.
S is for Sales: No matter what our role, we are all in the job of selling and marketing our tickets, our venue, our experiences. Sales isn’t a bad word. Its a good word, used poorly by too many people. Because the only way anything good happens is if someone sells someone else on the idea.
T is for Tickets: Tickets are a commodity, if done poorly. Our job is really to market our productions in a manner where the ticket isn’t a commodity, but a key to something bigger: a magical evening, a new relationship, a closed deal.
U is for Urgency: We all only have a limited number of resources and opportunities move fast. To make sure we maximize our impact, we need to act with urgency.
V is for Vital: In the modern world, arts and entertainment is vital. We need entertainment to connect us to our humanity, our community, and the sense of wonder that can often be overwhelmed by being always on.
W is for Wait Times: Being in the service industry, we need to focus on how we can cut down on the wait times for our guests. Is there a way to improve the waiting to get inside? Get people merchandise or a drink more quickly? Expedite leaving at the end of a show?
X is for Xeroxed: With the advent of digital tickets, hopefully we want see too many more tickets that are Xeroxed.
Y is for Yield: At the end of the day, we need to increase our yield to maximize our profits in a way that makes our organizations sustainable.
Z is for Zero: Hopefully that is the number of empty seats we are playing to once the curtain goes up.