Joe Shellard
Certainly, more than a few ticketing and live event professionals have heard somebody tell them, “Wow, you know so much about ticketing, you should write a book!” Well, Joe Shellard actually has done just that. His book, “How to Sell Out: A Manual for Becoming the Hottest Ticket in Town,” was published in March and features insights a wide array of INTIX members will surely value.
Shellard currently serves as Senior Director at TodayTix Group, which uses its mobile app and other digital innovations like Lottery and Rush to bring new audiences to theatre. Previously, he was Head of Data and Ticketing at the arts and events advertising agency, AKA, where he led a team that used data to build and optimize marketing campaigns for major West End shows.
His new book offers advice and strategies for selling out both one-time-only events and longer running shows. He says, “Fundamentally, the task is the same, which is siphoning demand. Audiences hear about shows through emails, brochures, and digital advertising. Our role as ticketing professionals is to convert this awareness into sales. On a one-night show, this means creating urgency among potential customers and encouraging them to book now rather than waiting until last minute, making the buying process easy for them, and optimizing the conversion funnel so that a high percentage of prospects actually buy a ticket.”
Shellard continues, “On a long running show, audiences will naturally book into short-term cheap seats. So, our role is to siphon the fire hose of demand into sales for the performance today, tomorrow and next month. It’s about balancing supply and demand so that houses are full long-term and short-term, with good coverage across all seating areas and price points. In the book, I share various strategies for distributing demand so that all performances are busy, not just Saturday nights.”
Another subject that “How to Sell Out” touches on is dynamic pricing. Some find it to be a difficult concept to implement and optimize. What advice does the book have for them? “The purpose of dynamic pricing is to maximize occupancy on all performances and to maximize revenue on popular performances,” Shellard says. “The book shares the economic concepts behind dynamic pricing, and then walks through practical case studies of how to implement it for a show. Ticketing systems vary in their capacity for dynamic pricing. So, we talk about three key approaches — rebranding, micro-zones and seat-by-seat — so readers can make use of the strategy most suited to their organization.”
“How to Sell Out” also explores how much ticketing and live event professionals need to understand human psychology in order to maximize sales and fill their venues. Shellard points to social proof — a psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behavior for a given situation — as “a good example of consumer psychology that is useful to consider when selling tickets. People tend to look to others for reassurance when making decisions. Social proof leverages this tendency by demonstrating that others have already made a particular choice, thereby increasing the likelihood of conformity.”
He acknowledges that positive testimonials and reviews from satisfied customers can also be powerful social proof, as can the opinions of local influencers. “Their endorsement or association with your show can enhance its perceived value and credibility,” he says. “If you have a show that is a ‘hard sell,’ think about where you can display quotes from esteemed critics and known and trusted influencers to reinforce that customers will enjoy themselves.”
Shellard adds that it is important to remember that there are no bad shows, only shows that haven’t yet found their audience. “Our job is to find the audience for every show,” he says. “We sell more than tickets; we sell experiences, possibilities and travel into imaginary worlds. We are in the business of memory-making.”
Shellard has seen ticket sales from every side: at the booth; in the auditorium as audiences take their seats; on his phone, with the rise of apps and e-tickets; in producer meetings during big on-sales and early closures and tens of millions of pounds of COVID-19 refunds; and now, into the post-pandemic years as the industry continues to rebuild itself.
He says, “I draw on all of these experiences throughout the book, as we discuss how to find an audience for a dud, and how to have your hits earn enough to pay a year of salaries; as we learn what language is most likely to make audiences buy; the optimum day to go on sale; the right discount to offer; the best price for a premium ticket to maximize income; and much more.”
The book is split into two halves. The first half walks the reader through the lifecycle of setting up a new show, getting it live, selling the tickets, making optimizations and closing the show. In the second half, Shellard shares his toolkit for selling out, starting with consumer psychology and how to take advantage of the heuristics which are at play when consumers are browsing for tickets to increase your conversion rates and average ticket price.
He concludes, “If you follow the framework suggested in this book from start to finish, it will expose the strengths of your sales, the weaknesses in your potential, and aspects of the ticketing strategy which need to be adjusted. The framework I suggest is nevertheless suitable for events anywhere in the world, large or small, and for events that run for a night or for decades. This book will offer advice whether you’re a marketing professional, a producer, a ticketing manager or an audience insight specialist. If you are interested in a career in the box office or theatre management, if you want to analyze data about live entertainment, or become an inventory manager or producer — then the lessons of my experiences can guide your own.”
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