10 Key Challenges in the Business of Tickets...
Hi!
Summer break is almost over.
I’ll be in Boston on Sunday and Monday to get the boy from camp.
London was fun and frustrating.
I had a great time meeting up with the team from SECUTIX. But I also ended up seeing Pearl Jam canceled. Plus, Kathryn and I got COVID.
We did make it to Brixton to see Arcade Fire!
Kathryn loved it.
I also got to catch up with a few folks at happy hour, lunch, and for walks.
But I missed a lot of other people because I didn’t want to spread the COVID and wasn’t 100%.
I have come away from my ongoing market research and summer vacation with a better grasp on what people are struggling with right now.
So, today, I’m going to lay out the 10 key challenges in the business of tickets right now.
I. Lack of Proper Skills:
I have heard this issue raised by leaders in the industry and staff.
Everyone wants better skills in their teams.
What is holding people back?
That’s a deeper question, but one of the key things is a lack of strategy almost across the board in the industry.
Lack of strategy was brought up a few times and several people mentioned, “We don’t do strategy”.
Skills are holding folks back.
II. Too Many Events:
Self-explanatory, yes.
In my conversations and research, this came up in many ways such as:
“How do you price when your supply of tickets outstrips your demand?”
“What can we do when everyone is maximizing revenue and there is only so much money to go around?”
“How do we stand out when our potential ticket buyers have so many options?”
III. People Feel Stuck:
Call it burnout.
Call it “stuck”.
Call it whatever you would like.
One thing that people kept talking with me about was a need to regain “fire”, “momentum”, and “focus.”
I don’t think this is unusual for folks in the ticketing businesses, but it is a common theme.
IV. Walking the Line Between Revenue Maximization and Customer Acquisition:
My background in nightclubs tells me that if I can throw a good party, I can make money.
Too often, we see the opposite POV take hold in tickets.
Right now, we are seeing teams and shows try and maximize every touchpoint in the sales process.
But this is also holding back customer acquisition efforts because revenue maximization is built on a foundation of customers understanding the value provided and being willing to spend at a premium level for a game, event, product, or service.
Turning non-customers into customers means focusing on the lifetime customer value.
V. Understanding Why Buyers Buy:
This comes down to market research.
No one is doing it enough and too many people aren’t doing it at all.
If you don’t know your customers well and listen, you aren’t going to ever understand what they are really buying.
I can guarantee one thing, they aren’t typically buying what you think they are buying.
VI. Offering Unique Value:
This came up in so many ways.
I talked about this around season tickets.
I had conversations with this around subscriptions.
I heard this concerning premium offerings.
One bit of advice from the jump, every event is unique because it is the once-in-a-lifetime mix of an audience and a performance.
You’ll never have the same mix again.
Unique is the jumping-off point.
Selling it isn’t always done well.
VII. Figuring Out What Parts of the Marketing and Sales Process Are Really Working:
I call this the hangover of “last click attribution.”
Why?
For years, Google and the DATA folks have sold people on the idea that the only thing that matters is where the sale happens, discounting or undermining all the other things that have to happen to get someone to buy.
Now, we have a generation of marketers who aren’t well-versed in the full stack of marketing/branding/selling.
This puts people in a position where they question every move they want to make and they often don’t have a good way to weigh how to make their decisions.
VIII. Maintaining Price Integrity:
When you are known for saying, “Discounts are for Dummies!” everyone asks you about price.
Pricing is something that seems to be on everyone’s mind.
IX. How to Manage or Work With the Secondary Market:
This topic came up in every market.
There were different angles depending on where the other person was located, but managing or working with the secondary market was a topic challenge for folks.
An incomplete list of things people wanted to know about includes:
Should I work with the secondary market?
Can we limit resale?
Should we limit resale?
Are there benefits to uncapped resale?
Are there benefits to capped resale?
How can I keep my tickets off of the secondary market?
There is still a huge trust gap between the primary and secondary market if my conversations are any indication.
X. Useful Data:
My take on data is that data is reactive and research is proactive.
People are confused about what to do with their data.
I had a conversation with David Hornby for SECUTIX’s in-house learning platform and I explained how I approach research v. data for their customers.
A quick guide for you:
Gather your data.
Analyze it, looking for insights.
Use those insights to develop a hypothesis.
Take your hypothesis to the market and do some research.
Data looks backward. If you take data at face value, you are assuming that the future will look exactly like the past.
I don’t like that bet.
You need both.
I’m continuing to email you to say hello and ask how to make the newsletter and podcast more valuable for you.
You can always hit reply and share your thoughts with me.
While I was away, I dropped three fun new podcasts:
Do you have a guest or topic suggestion?
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I advise, coach, and consult on growing your revenues using world class strategy, branding, and marketing ideas to help you!
Hit reply to start a conversation.
You can join me in NYC on September 4th for ‘Fans For Life’.