đ€·đ» Every Market Could Use Competition: Talking Tickets 23 September!
#154: LIV. Lefsetz! Reliability! And, More!
Good morning!
Did you like the new layout and style of the newsletter? Let me know by replying to this email.
New value: Monthly âTicket Talkâ calls focused around a specific topic with some networking, successes and failures, and shared war stories.
We will keep them tight.
Starting out: We will cover some:
Trends impacting sales.
Ways to get people back to your venues.
Marketing in a challenging time.
I want to do the first one Thursday, 6 October at 1 PM Eastern/10 AM Pacific (6 PM in London).
To the Tickets!
I. The Big Story: Most resale in the United Kingdom is 3 people:
Speculative ticketing is in the newsâŠagain!
One big thing: ITV News studied the market and found that 2/3 of tickets listed on Viagogo are from three people.
Wild!
The big take-home: Speculative selling is illegal in the United Kingdom. This puts Viagogo in a tough position.
No one wants to see their customers:
Overpay
Have a bad buying experience
Get a ticket that wonât work when they get to the venue
The other side is that venues can struggle with:
Letting their market know about all of their events
Reaching all of their potential customers
Having allotments that arenât completely sold
The US has a different stance on the secondary market than the rest of the world. This story is a good example of that in action once again.
My feelings on the secondary market are fluid.
I grew up in the secondary market doing premium tickets for credit card companies, big businesses, and high net-worth folks. I also used tickets and the secondary market to launch brands, products, and causes.
I have also been on the team and venue side doing game-day operations, marketing, service, sales, and promotions.
A story like this highlights a few sections where the primary and secondary can work together in any market:
Reaching the maximum number of customers.
Assisting in ease of purchase.
Building a more complete history of customers.
How can this work?
Partnerships that have clear boundaries.
Pricing transparency.
Guardrails on sales.
Iâm not going to say I think this will happen. I donât.
I do know that there are things the primary side doesnât do as well as the secondary market. The reverse is true as well.
The final point: In every market, I advocate for more competition. Competition creates innovation.
Seeing that 3 people are â of the secondary in the UK is the opposite of that.
That is a challenge in every market. đ€·đ»
II. Tools: Mediaworks and Blackpoolâs Winter Garden help the theatre bring its ticketing in-house:
Whatâs new: Blackpoolâs Winter Garden brings ticketing in-house after ending its relationship with Ticketmaster.
Why this matters: Gaining control over your customer relationships is more important than ever as folks work to recover from COVID-19âs lockdowns.
I tell everyone that you need to do something to control the relationship between you and your fans. Blackpoolâs Winter Garden is doing just that by bringing their ticketing in-house.
In reading through the piece about their new partnership with Mediaworks, it is important to keep in mind a few key ideas about building a stronger relationship with your customers:
No matter how great your partners are, you still have to own the relationship with your customers.
You need to ensure that your partners deliver a level of service that meets or exceeds your expectations.
Before you look at partners, you have to understand your strategy and make sure that every tool you use furthers your ambitions.
A few things to be aware of as you look at this partnership or any partnership you have:
Awareness is a top-of-the-funnel activity. You can achieve some level of awareness using digital channels, but digital should be one part of your overall brand awareness campaign. Donât fall prey to last-click attribution or calling something âawarenessâ when it really is short-term sales activation.
Have clear goals and objectives. Understand what success looks like in a measurable way.
Think long and short. Donât just do brand awareness or sales activation, think both. The impact is tremendous over time.
III. Ideas and Concepts: âReliability Biasâ
What is it: Reliability Bias is a bet. That the actions you took in the past will get you the same results in the future.
What is the bet: That the future will look the same as the past.
This is why many businesses stagnate. Leadership relies on things that worked in the past even though the situation has changed.
No matter how successful the action(s) might have been in the past. You canât guarantee that the same action will always work.
I see this show up:
Orchestra websites that are dated or donât create value ASAP.
Learn more: Reliability vs. Validity
IV. Lists: Improving Your Premium Sales:
Bill Guertin came on the podcast to talk sports business sales. This weekâs list is inspired by my conversation with Bill. Along with some research and client work Iâve been doing over the summer.
Some of these require better collaboration between sales and marketing.
Revisit your market segmentation: Many businesses havenât done a proper segmentation in a few years now. Your market has changed.
Focus on insights: Premium Buyers want partners. Partners offer value.
Use your Brand Codes: These are the 4 or 5 things that should be in every piece of material you send out that makes people think of you. Think logo, colors, and images.
Rethink your Product: Use the 3 levels of your product: Core value, product, and augmented product to deliver new value.
Develop new value for your buyers: Scan rates are down this season. This means your buyers likely need help finding ways to create value from their tickets. Help!
Look at trends: Here is one to pay attention to right now, traffic patterns. Is traffic better or worse? Does this make people more or less likely to stay for a game if they are already near your building? Will this change anytime soon?
Whatâs your position: People have alternatives. Are you making it clear why they should pick you?
Emotions drive decisions: Nostalgia. Opportunities. Connections. Family. Love.
Do your research: Qual and Quant. NPS score is still one of my favorites. It is two questions, three if you are greedy.
Get into your customerâs shoes: Market Orientation. Customer Orientation. Customer Focus. Whatever it is, go talk to some customers.
V. Links:
Bob Lefsetz talks about âinventoryâ: There are tons of tickets on sale and buyers may be tapped out.
That shouldnât be a controversial statement, but it can feel like it sometimes.
The ticket economy is up and down, some things hitâŠothers donât.
The skills a salesperson needs now are changing: âSmiling and dialingâ hasnât completely died.
The skills I see salespeople needing now include:
Negotiation skills
Insight development
Business acumen
Scottie Pippen supports LIV: This is a great example of âSports Washingâ.
âSports Washingâ is a term used to describe using sports to cover up for bad behavior. The Saudi Investment Fund has been accused of using their purchase of Newcastle United for the same benefit.
These actions work because most people have short attention spans. They may care at the start, but they quickly move on.
The greatest danger to LIV not succeeding has nothing to do with their association with the Saudi government and everything to do with the quality of the product.
No competition. No friction. No narrative. No one cares.
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Customers are buying refund protection at rates 2x higher than before the pandemic.
Offering your customers refund protection:
Gives customers certainty in their purchase.
Gives you a new revenue stream.
Improves your customer service.
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