How CRM helps increase ticket and season ticket sales

Although CRM is not a panacea that can solve all the problems of sports clubs on its own, it can be used to increase ticket and season ticket sales. Let's take a look at how this can be done in the Tribune CRM system, what problems may arise, and how the process of selling season tickets and tickets in sports clubs works in principle.

Ticket sales process

When it comes to hockey clubs, sales begin during the preseason, when priority ticket purchases are offered to those who purchased them last season. Tickets are usually released gradually, and priority purchases are necessary so that people who already bought them last season can renew their seats. To do this, they are sent personal links to their seats from last season — these are usually downloaded from the ticket system. For example, at Tribune, this data is stored and used to create personal links that can be used to track whether season tickets have been purchased or not.

After the priority purchase period, the second wave of season ticket sales begins. Not all seats may be available at this stage — for example, only those in the middle sections — with the rest gradually becoming available. The third wave is launched to track pricing, see how many people are buying season tickets in principle, and at the same time, sales for VIP fans' boxes are underway.

At this point, CRM is needed to track those who buy season tickets, write requests about them, and view their purchase history. This makes it possible to identify potential problems: for example, a link to a season ticket did not arrive in a personal account, and then it turns out that the person did not pay for it. Or a person put four season tickets up for sale, but in reality only bought two. Two more are gone, and the fan has a question: where did they go? These cases are often dealt with through CRM and the ticketing system.

CRM is also necessary to assess the market situation: who is currently attending the stadium, what is its capacity. Based on this, a plan for the next season can be developed. However, this requires a database, a person to manage it, as well as an understanding of how to sell tickets and for how much, what the dynamic price is, what promotions will be offered, and so on. After that, you can form a ticket content plan and quotas — this will give you an understanding of what to expect in the coming season. But while some develop a full-fledged strategy, others use a simple Excel spreadsheet, which is a very common option.

Problems and their solutions

The main problem in increasing sales is sales predictability. No one understands what price to set. For example, if we take a stadium with a capacity of 6,000 people, not many tickets will be available for sale, at most 2,500. This is because around 1,000 will go to season ticket holders, and there are also concession holders, sponsors, hockey players' families, club employees, and quotas for the media. Of the remaining tickets, some will be taken by scalpers. But to prevent tickets from falling into the hands of scalpers, there is no need to open sales in principle — start with priority purchases, divide the rest into series, roll out two at a time, and sell them on a priority basis. This can be done by taking many small steps — the more clubs value the cost of money, the more they will address these issues. The first option is to distribute invitations, the second is to offer tickets at a discount, and the third is to sell tickets in batches with specific offers, such as “buy one ticket, get one free.”

In this case, CRM is needed to identify, for example, the segment of people who bought a ticket but did not attend the match, or to look at a database of 10,000 users to see how many of them did not attend any games this season. You can remind them about your club and send them a message with a promo code for a personal discount.

In general, interaction with fans should not be underestimated, because it is also part of the club's income. Of course, clubs earn money in different ways, and there are several factors involved: participation in the playoffs, television broadcasts, and images from the stadium. There are those who, due to the development of their brand, earn well from ticket sales — for example, Torpedo Nizhny Novgorod or Traktor Chelyabinsk. But in general, clubs don't earn that much from ticket sales (it's only a small part of their overall budget); it's more like a mandatory program — on average, 150 million is made from tickets and season tickets per year, counting the regular season and part of the playoffs. One regular season game brings in an average of 2 million in revenue, and one playoff game brings in 3-4 million.

At the same time, ticket sales are often linked to the calendar, namely to the belief that fans want to “watch interesting clubs.” But more often than not, people don't care which game to go to; they are looking for interesting leisure activities and ways to pass the time. All strategies should be based on getting people to choose a stadium and come to a game. The class of the opponent is only interesting because the clubs themselves promote this strategy. But if we take the Siberian derby between Avangard and Sibir: in Omsk, the arena is full not because there is some super-strong team in Novosibirsk, but because the cities are neighbors. The same goes for Admiral and Amur—neither of these teams would generate any interest in Moscow, but their matches against each other in the Far East always attract attention.

The same goes for holidays—clubs continue to focus on the competitive aspect, on “strong opponents,” when they could simply organize a themed match with a good show for Valentine's Day, March 8, and so on. Everyone will go for it. And CRM will really help increase sales when you build this strategy into it, taking into account all the specifics and forming priority and regular purchases — both tickets and season tickets. And don't forget about promotions and discounts.

Key CRM tasks for increasing sales

There are several key tasks when working with CRM that will help, among other things, to increase sales: you need to compile a database, gather communications, launch a promotional campaign, and analyze its results. Then we go deeper: we segment fans, draw up a marketing plan for the season and a price matrix in advance. We launch the campaign and track its results using CRM for a day, two days, five days, or a week. You can look at the results of one match and slightly change the campaign plan before the next one. Later, analytics appear: who reacts to which teams, which matches are more popular, bring in the most revenue, which groups of people go to the stadium the most, and so on. This is how you need to organize your work.

At the same time, it is important to understand that clubs are short-staffed, which means that some of the work with CRM may be done on a whim. Therefore, for example, the Tribune CRM provides an AI assistant that allows you to receive analytics reports automatically by email every week, as well as makes recommendations on which promotion is best to launch at a specific moment in the season.

It is essential to work out priority redemption and link sales to loyalty programs, because without this, it is impossible to achieve any growth. Bonuses bind people emotionally, and a complete image of the service for customers is created when there is feedback. This is exactly what a brand should do — create an image, an image of the club. CRM also helps with this.