Written by: Brian Barker 
Updated: 12/4/2023
“If you do what’chu did, you’ll get what’chu got.”
So said one of my business mentors, a great man born and raised in the streets of Chicago.
The point of this “psalm” for event directors is to recognize the same process, followed year-after-year, will only bloat your budget (which is what happens… yearly budget increases). And with game & concert ticket costs rising as part of that bloat (5-10+% annually), you need to discover ways to cut costs in other areas.
[Blog Post] 3 Cost Cutting Ideas for your Club & Suite Ticket Program
Every company I demo tells me one thing consistently: we’re investing in ways to avoid duplicated headcount and improve CX (customer experience).
According to Harvard Business Review in 2021, companies worldwide are expected to invest $6.8 trillion in digital transformation from 2020 through 2023. When your company invests in a club & suite ticket program, tell your boss that a spreadsheet to plan, execute & report just isn’t going to cut it.
You need a tool that’s web-based, captures and analyzes historical data and delivers a great customer experience.
As a proud member of the cord-cutting generation, I’m going to lay-out three (3) benefits to cutting the cord on the traditional corporate event strategy.
Put yourself in your attendee’s shoes. If you could make them 10% happier with the pre-event & post-event experience, could that produce 100% more new revenue?
The traditional ticketed event experience is laden with “friction.” From RSVP to follow-up, it’s full of time-consuming tasks, confusion, bottlenecks and frustration. Attendees are so accustomed to “friction” that they rarely say anything. This is a problem though. Their experience is likely to lead to a lower NPS (net promoter score) and lost opportunities to shorten your time-to-revenue or getting that referral more quickly.
Time is money. Leaders in your space seek to eliminate friction AND introduce moments of surprise & delight!
Ever been to a hotel that greeted you with your first name or left a chocolate on your pillow when you arrive to your room? These are powerful moments. You can create similar feelings of surprise & delight by providing attendees [WATCH TO LEARN MORE]:
Create “wow” moments to generate more “deal” moments.
Are you using multiple spreadsheets per event and toggling b/t emails, txts and sheets? Manual steps delay your ability to complete other tasks.
Think about your reps and execs hosting at the venue… do they have to dig around for the guest list or do they forget business cards to share?
Your team needs web-based tools that provide a clear process. Give them access to real-time details with a bookmarked link on their home screen, not just an email buried in their inbox.
If you’re looking to events as a strategy for revenue growth, we agree! Far too many organizations view club & suite ticket programs solely as customer-retention or employee-appreciation levers. “If we don’t bring ’em, we’re going to lose ’em.” The organizations that focus on a customer-growth strategy entice prospects to attend and mix-in customers with a high NPS or sales reps from another product line, for example.
We recommend your attendee ratio be at least a 90/10 split (customer to prospect). However, depending on the event, you should aim for something closer to 75/25, if you can. (The higher your churn rate, the more prospects you should invite.)
A tool like NextLevelFan allows you to engage your prospects, pre- and post-event, with content showing them (1) attendees who match their interest and your (2) products that match their needs. Email and txt messages give prospects a link to our Event Wallet.
With the Event Wallet, your attendees have everything they need to make their event successful: Tickets, FAQs, directions, guest list and clickable content.
And success leads to more revenue opportunities.
It’s not easy to cut the cord. Your company, customers and partners are accustomed to the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
But when you change things up a bit (and improve), you’ll soon see the benefits. Planning games & concerts will be easier, attendees will have less stress, sales reps and execs will feel they have the tools they need to host and more referrals and opportunities will fill your pipeline.
Consider your ability to capitalize on change this coming budget year. All it takes is a small investment to start exploring.
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