Don’t Forget The Bus Companies

Anyone who sells group tickets for a living has lists.  These lists are for different demographics.  It can be schools, churches, seniors, military, etc… But do you have a list of bus companies? 

If you sell groups for a venue then you should be on a first name basis with all the local bus and tour operators.  They are a valuable resource and revenue source for your efforts.  Think about this, every time you sell one bus group, you sold 50 tickets.  A bus is truly a group sale. 

Bus companies are in the business of filling seats and running the buses.  They are just like you.  You are in the business of filling seats and running the venue, show, or event.  What a perfect marriage.  Many bus companies have their own sales departments.  These sales people are always looking for ways to sell seats on their bus.  If you put together a deal with them, they will act as an additional sales force for you. They have access to all the outside groups and conventions that come to your city.  Don’t you want to tap into that?

Sit down with your local tour operators and put together a package.  Remember that the package has to include the bus ride.  You may have to discount your ticket more then “normal” to make the package attractive.  Don’t think “normal”.  Nothing in this business is normal.  When we get stuck in the “standard”, “normal”, “that is how it is always done” mode we are going down the wrong road.  Put together a package that works!

If you can, join the American Bus Association. This will give you access to all bus and tour operators in the country.  This might work great if you have a national tour going out.  It also works well for sports teams, permanent or unique events.  You would be surprised how many national bus operators plan trips to your city.  They are always looking for stuff to do in your town.  Why shouldn’t you be a part of it?

Want To Move Tickets: Push Group Sales

Tickets to events are down and promoters and venues are scratching their heads on what to do.  One of the answers might be right in front of them: group sales.

Group sales have been a part of events and entertainment forever.  I believe they have not always received the respect they deserve.  Depending on the event, they have been a priority or a stepchild. 

Several years ago I was involved with a group sales dot com.  The response we received depended on who we were pitching.  If we pitched family shows or amusement parks, we were well received.  If we talked to concert promoters, not so much.  To this day, I still don’t understand the mentality of some concert promoters.  If your shows are selling out, great!  But not every show or tour does.  Why would you not want a group sales program in place to move tickets? 

Think about what group sales can do for your event.  It puts large quantities of butts in seats.  What is more important to you, moving single tickets or a bus load?  Yes, you do have to offer a package to groups.  Usually this is done with a discount.  If you buy anything in bulk you expect a price break, right? 

Group sales should be moved to the fore front of event and entertainment marketing for 2010.  Move marketing budget to groups.  This may involve putting more sales people on the streets.  This may include offering a little deeper discount for groups.  If you are not pitching bus companies and tour operators you need to start.  Many have sales departments.  They can become your extended sales force. 

Group sales today are more then school kids and seniors. Every one of us is in a group of some kind. What is your event target market?  What groups fit into it? The opportunities are endless and you might fill some cold empty seats.

Get Your Group Sales Out Of A Rut

All of you who read this blog on a regular basis know that I am always preaching about “thinking outside the box”.  This type of thinking goes for everyone in the event & entertainment business.  Group sales is an area that good use this type of thinking.

Group sales tend to get caught in a rut.  They don’t get the attention that other parts of marketing get.  Group sales tend to only use the traditional methods of direct mail and phone calls to sell.  Don’t get me wrong, I know that these methods still sell tickets.  But are you maximizing your efforts?  Are you leaving no stone un-turned?  Now is a perfect time to look at our group sales methods and give them a 21st century makeover.

All of us that sell group tickets usually don’t get into the transportation business.  We don’t want to book the transportation to get our groups to our events.  But did you know that you can put deals together that gets the bus companies working for you?  When is the last time you made sales calls to the bus/transportation companies? Many of them have sales departments.  You can put together group packages for the bus company to go out and sell.  Here is the Northeast we have two of the biggest casinos in the world.  A huge chunk of their business comes from busses.  They cut deals with the bus companies to make it a good deal for the customer to use bus transportation.    We can do this with our events.  If you are a sports team and you need to sell tickets, you should have ticket package deals in place with every bus company within a 200 mile radius of the venue.   

Group sales departments should be going digital.  Group sales people should be working the social networks.  They are all kinds of social sites that you could be working.  Facebook has tons of “groups” you could be pitching.    If you are selling for a family show, are you working the “mommy” social sites?  Why not find a group that makes sense to your event and offer the “group” members a deal?  Hold a special section and special price for these members.  You might be thinking “is this really a group”?  Why does one person have to buy the block of tickets to make it a group?  Why can’t individual members of a group buy tickets for a block of tickets on hold for them?  Stop thinking “old school”. 

Are you capturing mobile data and email addresses?  Wouldn’t it be nice to send text messages to group leaders?  Think about how quick you can get the group offer out.

Eight years ago I was part of a team who put together an online group sales company.  We went after 1000 plus employee based companies.  We offered their employees the opportunity to buy group tickets to a wide selection of events right from the comfort of their desk.  Yes, the employee could buy two tickets.  If you have this many employees and quality events, you will sell the minimum group requirement.  Think of this as virtual consignment with the company.  Amusement parks have been offering tickets for sale at the Human Resource departments for years.  With this system, HR managers don’t have to worry about being in the ticket business.  They can still offer a benefit without huge amounts of effort.

When we put together a deal with a company and offer a discount we call it a promotion.  Why can’t the group sales team put together a deal.  What about offering customers of a company or retailer a group sales deal? Ski areas have been doing this for years.  They put together group packages with sporting goods and ski apparel stores.  These stores sell these packages (sometimes with transportation) back to the customers. 

Some of you might be saying “we do all this”.  If that is you…great!  But I bet most group sales people are not.  Let’s make it a goal for 2009 to start thinking.  Look at every opportunity as an onion.  Keep pulling back every layer until you can’t.