GROUP SALES MONTH: Maximizing Technology to Sell Group Tickets
Group Sales Month on Empowerment of a Salesperson is sponsored by FEVO. FEVO is a sales amplification tool used by industry leading pro sports teams, colleges, and festivals. For more information check out FEVO.com.
Guest Author: Doug Fowler is the EVP of Customer Success for FEVO. Doug joined FEVO after a distinguished career in the MLB & NHL. He has helped FEVO grow to over 300 partners across all major sports and many festivals.
The Problems Part 1 - Traditional group sales are dying a slow death.
Think about what you are asking of group leaders:
Pay for a block of tickets
Sell those tickets to your group members
Collect money or more likely, continually chase people down for money
Distribute the tickets in-person with physical tickets or log onto an account and send everyone their tickets one at a time
Ask yourselves a question: would YOU do this?
If someone buys 50 tickets from you, after taking on the financial risk and a second full-time job putting the group together, are they going to call you and ask for another 50 tickets so they can do it all over again? I know there are some group leaders that do. They are the exception, not the rule.
Part 2 – Thinking your existing tools are the answer.
Have you gone through your promo code buy-flow? If no, do so and come back to this article.
If yes, from the group perspective, how on brand was the experience? Did it have the team logo or the logo of the organization or group you are working with? Did you have any idea who else had bought tickets for the event? Was it easy to invite friends?
Looking through the lens of "easy to use", how many clicks was it to checkout? Did you go through it on your phone as well? Did you have to create an account or remember a password?
Similar to traditional group sales, think about the hurdles you are asking fans to jump through. Is the experience good or bad? Remember, we live in the era of "Amazon one-click to buy".
Key Trends There are four trends that sales teams should pay attention to that are intertwined:
The world is moving fast into an experiential economy. This is great news for group sales teams as people focus on shared memorable experiences over possessions and goods. It is bad news if a consumer can't put together that experience quickly, easily, AND on mobile. Why would the group leader want to host their people every year and how can you expect to increase sales for that group?
People use their mobile device to access the internet and make purchases, with more internet traffic coming from a mobile device than desktop. How are you making the group buying experience mobile-friendly?
It is the ‘want-it-now’ generation. “We are now at the stage where we have access to services instantly, stream videos and music and access news instantly, so the next step consumers crave is being able to have the products and goods when they want it” – Ben Perkins, head of consumer research at Deloitte[i]. Let your fans buy tickets the same way they buy everything else; online in a quick and easy way that works on their phone.
FOMO, the fear of missing out, is real. When you see that others are doing something, you are more likely to do it, especially if you are invited by friends. Turn your fans into your sales team.
The Great Shift Experience matters! It’s about people and culture. I can get very philosophical and deep here, but I’ll try and keep it simple; we’re all tribes.
Tribes have rituals and rituals are shared experiences. It’s not only about being together, but that thing that happens when like-minded people celebrate what they have in common. It is what turns a moment together into a meaningful event in your life. Rituals changed over time, but our communities remained mostly the same until recently. Then we went from radio to television, television with three channels to three hundred channels, and now we have video games, on-demand and live streaming events. People moved, social institutions declined, and community and trust eroded. In an ever more connected world, we feel disconnected and lonely.
Experiences matter more than ever! We’re still tribal animals and we still need to do rituals together. The great shift has occurred from making events better to making life an event. And that is the fundamental reason Fevo exists – to form tribes around your rituals. Whether you’re in a 50k seat arena or a six-person dining room, we all rally behind our tribe. Tribes pull us together and draw us into adventure. Fevo is how tribes buy.
The Solution There’s a way to collect the money for the group, distribute the tickets, collect the data on who’s coming out within a group, and turn your fans into ticket sellers and marketers.
There’s a way to personalize it for the group so it truly feels like their tribe's ritual.
There’s a way to make ticket buying a seamless, mobile friendly experience that prompts people to share and socialize with their networks. That can tap into FOMO and make your events truly social.
Fans can even buy multiple events in one transaction. The transaction can take place anywhere; on your website, your partners website or on its own landing page.
It’s Fevo.
We’re changing the way tickets are bought and sold. We proved buyers will invite their friends to drive incremental sales for your amazing live events. Fevo connects your group sales and marketing efforts, facilitating incremental revenue through a fully mobile platform that rewards social sharing and group growth. That means more data to optimize your sales and marketing initiatives.
The largest brands in live events trust Fevo with their fans, what’s stopping you?
[i] Instant Fix: How Big Brands Are Bending To the 'want-it-now' Generation (2017) Ashley Armstrong - https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2017/08/19/instant-fix-big-brands-bending-want-it-now-generation/