💰👛23% of People Say Getting Management Buy-In Holds Back Their Pricing!?
171: I've got my raincoat ready.
Hey There!
Will I see y’all in Seattle next week?
Let me know.
I’m going to be at the Cover Genius booth on Wednesday and Thursday during trade show hours. We are going to try an experiment and host conversations called, “8 minutes at INTIX!”
Not full-fledged podcast episodes, but quick ones tailored to INTIX.
Stop by and appear on ‘The Business of Fun’
Also, I’ll be hosting a panel on the Inspiration Stage on Thursday morning at 10:45 AM. The session called, “Enhancing the Customer Journey with Embedded Protection” will include Joe from Cover Genius, Jo-Ann from AudienceView, and a surprise guest.
To the Tickets!
I. Inspiration Stage on Thursday: See me, Cover Genius, AudienceView, and more talk about the customer journey.
See us in Seattle!
Spoiler: Stop by the Cover Genius booth to say hello and you may end up on the podcast and I might have some special Seattle-themed giveaway that I come up with.
No promises, but I was born in Bremerton. My first job in theatre was at the Paramount Theatre. My apartment used to be about 5 blocks from the conference hotel. And, I am still given Sonics gifts regularly because people know that besides Spurs and Alabama, my heart belongs with the Sonics.
On the Panel:
We will talk about:
NPS Scores and how embedded refund protection changes them.
Changes in buyer behavior based on whether or not you offer refund protection.
How venues are using embedded protection to improve customer service.
And, a lot more.
Come to the Booth:
I’ll be at the Cover Genius booth on Wednesday and Thursday.
I’ll be recording some podcasts from the booth. We are going to call the series “8 minutes at INTIX.”
So stop by and see us.
Let’s unpack a few reasons why and how you can fix it.
Why does it happen?
Lack of research. Without research, you are flying blind, making guesses, and “thinking” you know what people value. This makes your ideas easily defeated.
Marketing has become the coloring in department in too many organizations. By this I mean, it is all communications and nothing else. When you are only seen as the folks who send out the messages, people will be more likely to dismiss your ideas about pricing.
Poor pricing strategies. Pricing is an art and a science. It is hard and a lot of people were never properly trained on pricing methodologies or haven’t been versed in pricing strategies before. So it is easy to make poorly informed pricing decisions based on a limited set of experiences.
How do you fix it?
Research: Have a hypothesis. Interrogate that hypothesis. Find answers to your questions. Begin with what people really value now.
Advocate for marketing’s role at the price and strategy table: Fight for your spot by understanding what marketing can do for your organization. Beginning with getting the voice of the customer inside the organization.
Bring profit-oriented ideas to the table: Pricing = value. Marketing is getting the voice of the customer into the organization. The combination of these two ideas can help you find profitable opportunities. Don’t shy away from them. Put the impact front and center…and don’t be afraid to not back down from them.
FYI:
For small businesses and smaller organizations:
There is a lot of great secondary research around. Just use Google and you can find tons of really great research reports.
Remember this number: 1% = 10%. For every 1% in the price you can raise, you gain around 10% in profits.
Remember this number: 1% = 40%. For every 1% discount, you can lose up to 40% of your profit.
For smaller organizations, the research and strategy bit are even more important because you don’t usually have the resources to spend your way out of a bad set of tactics.
III. FIFA says they’ve sold over 500,000 tickets to the Women’s World Cup:
Let’s recap all the ways that I’ve predicted this over the years:
You are not your market. You have to do your market research and look at the market. Don’t go by your “gut”. The research was clear that women’s sports were going to grow.
Proper segmentation will teach you a ton: Research is at the heart of proper segmentation. When you don’t just look at the reactive data and look at the proactive with research, you’ll find opportunities.
Joe Rixon talked about the “long runway”: Unless you are a guaranteed sell-out, thinking about the release of your tickets makes a lot of sense. This goes back to the distribution conversation. You need to distribute, price, and promote in a way that maximizes your success as a rights holder or content producer. Value and perception of value is a fluid idea that you can use to your advantage at different points in the sales calendar.
IV. The Swiss Ramble looks at the financials of getting promoted to the Premier League:
The Championship Final is the richest game in the world with the winner receiving almost a quarter of a billion dollars!
The Big Idea: Promotion is a big deal.
Of course, costs go up with promotion as well.
This shows the challenge of managing the finances if you are a team like Fulham or Norwich that seems to bounce back and forth between the Premier League and the Championship.
You make a lot of money, but you are always in a state of one foot in the EPL and one foot in the Championship, making a sustainable push to the top difficult.
V. Links:
Disney investor wonders if the brand is at risk:
This is interesting because Nelson Pelts makes some interesting points:
Brand equity is related to your price.
A “nickel-and-dime” approach to customers and staff can wear away brand equity.
Profit matters. Revenue is a number for suckers. It isn’t what you make, but what you keep.
Senate Judiciary Committee calls hearing on “broken” ticket market:
It will be on the 24th so I won’t be able to attend.
Congressman Pascarell applauded this and his office made sure I knew it was going down.
But check out the C-Span website and you’ll be able to watch it.
Mark Cuban talks about Sonics’ basketball:
Bring ‘em Back!
I’ll have my Sonics hat on most of the time in Seattle, FYI.
Linktree: Find everything I’m up to.
Join the ‘Talking Tickets’ Slack Group. Almost 300 people from around the world.
The folks from Cover Genius will be at INTIX in Seattle in January. You’ll be able to meet the Cover Genius team in person.
Offering your customers’ refund protection:
Gives customers certainty in their purchase.
Gives you a new revenue stream.
Improves your customer service.
Great podcast conversations: Take your business to new heights by learning from the best in the business.
Recent Conversations:
Simon Severino
Zoe Scaman
Harold Hughes