Nathan Costa presents context in his thoughts on ticket sales and marketing, working both at the team business services level as the vice president of the American Hockey League, and now as the Executive Vice President of the Springfield Thunderbirds. Costa shares the interesting way that the Thunderbirds were born in 2016-17, but two franchises relocating. Costa describes the challenges of building a credible sales team, amid a past 20-year franchise existence that was 30th in attendance annually. Twitter: Ncosta83
Kathy Burrows returns to the podcast after her first appearance two years ago on Ep. 521, ready to discuss how she feels the 100-phone-call-per-day metric has hurt sports sales. Burrows challenges listeners with the idea of what that metric purpose serves, and whether it is misguided in what the end result of sales activity should be. Burrows talks about her refocus on monthly sales training over a one-time training module, in a constant mentoring capacity. Burrows also shares her upcoming projects, such as the Sports Revenue Workshop and Sports Sales Boot Camp, for the summer of 2017. Twitter: @BFirstPitch
Anthony Iannarino is a lot of things, but he refuses to be a shill for the tech industry's bias against sales phone calls. Iannarino explains that he feels the vested interest of the few have outweighed the realities of the many when it comes to whether social selling is as effective as phone calls. Iannarino shares his four levels of value, as well as some of the ways that a sales team can drive consensus during their presentations. Twitter: @Iannarino
After witnessing a lack of ticketing education cohesion in Europe, Andrew Thomas created his own conference positioned on building up acumen for the sports and entertainment industry. Thomas shares insight into some of the issues surrounding ticket platforms, as well as customer transactions online, including pricing mechanisms which may help or hinder the sales process. Thomas talks about his experience, both in sports ticketing, entertainment/theatrical ticketing, and working for ticket platforms, in terms of what limitations software and box office personnel have. Twitter: @TicketTattle
In many ways, Simon Mabb presents the argument that one of the oldest businesses, insurance, may actually help the primary ticket marketplace. Everything else in the world has insurance behind it, including airline tickets, yet entertainment tickets do not generally. Mabb talks about how the coverage can help fans recoup their investment, as well as drive revenue streams for venues, ticket platforms and organizations through micro purchasing of insurance plans. Mabb discusses his efforts thus far in the United Kingdom, as well as his aspirations to bring insurance to entertainment ticketing aboard. Twitter: @SimonMabb
If you’ve ever tried to buy a ticket to the hottest concert, only to find all of the presale numbers gone within seconds, you may have Lowson to blame. Lowson ran Wiseguy Tickets, a ticket scalping operation, until 2009, when the FBI raided his business, charging him with wirefraud, after he generated over $25 million in ticket sales during the 2000s selling tickets to Bruce Springsteen, the Yankees playoff games, and personally being responsible for U2’s drummer publicly apologizing for the 2005 Vertigo concert’s ticket availability not going to their actual fans. Lowson says he’s now on a mission to change the industry, to get rid of his own ticket bot creation, as well as expose some of the inside practices that Ticketmaster, AXS and other ticket companies are utilizing to sell less than 1 percent of the tickets to the general public. Lowson also discusses why the BOTS Act of 2016 signed by then-President Obama has little teeth, especially when most of the bot operators are now located outside of the United States. Twitter: @Tixfan007
Allen Schlesinger swears that he hasn't made a cold call in 5 years, utilizing LinkedIn's Sales Navigator as well as various online tools to get to the decision-maker faster. Schlesinger describes how he has made his successful sales methodology grow while at the Austin Spurs, becoming the first NBADL rep in the league's history to sell over $500,000 in season ticket sales. Schlesinger talks about seeking out alternative information, such as home-buying, political contributions and LinkedIn mutual connections, in order to discover just who he should be talking to about purchasing Austins Spurs ticket packages. Twitter: @ATXSpursAllen
Jack Lucas' podcast episode is bittersweet, as he is retiring after 30 years of operating one of the more successful ticket start-ups in United States history, TicketsWest. Lucas mentions how a 1987 phone call changed his life, while he was teaching music in the Spokane public schools system, and with it brought several facets of electronic ticketing to the Inland Northwest. Serving also as president of West Coast Entertainment, Lucas covers his involvement in bringing Broadway to Spokane, as well as his involvement with Gonzaga basketball, Washington State University and Eastern Washington University.
James "JB" Bryant explains his process in discovering new prospective hires through his sales academy, which uses various methodology and testing in order to find the right fit for the group. Bryant talks about his role at the Rapids, and how he works at getting each hire to engage beyond their technology, in order to provide real relationships on calls. Bryant discusses why the B2B sale is so much tougher, specifically when looking at providing presentations, and how he trains his staff to go further into the conversation toward the sale.
After 15 years selling minor league hockey, Craig Bommer has now stepped into a great sales challenge: radio. Bommer discusses the parallels between the medium of radio and the live entertainment sports landscape, and how to keep selling longer after people attempt to diminish the relevance of both. Bommer talks about how enhancing the live experience, removing the discounting, only went so far because of the pressures from ownership to fill the building with butts in seats. Bommer covers several of the issues facing today's sports sales person, including whether group leaders are becoming more savvy to how much teams rely on their support. Twitter: @craigbommer