The question I keep being asked is “how does your team manage to do it?… How do you fill these big venues?” My answer tends to scare people. We book a theater and then get good people working on filling it… Essentially, “we fill it because we have to”.
And when you’re focusing on filling a single event, the front end sales also have to cover your living expenses for 6 months, not to mention our 3 staff members. I had the money for the deposit in my bank account, but I didn’t want to spend it. You know that feeling – you’ve got a nice little pile of money in the account and you avoid touching it. You keep it there, you know – just in case. It’s safe. It’s comfortable.
EVERY company who employs sales people will tell you – the way you get great sales people is to build them. You need a plug and play system that you can put ORDINARY people into and get extraordinary results from them. But that system HAS to include someone who has already done it to manage the whole thing, so you’ve got two choices: Pay a Wage and get someone in who’ll help you OR (and this is definitely what I think!) Learn to sell yourself
Before your customers buy from you, they have to know who you are. You have to get in their faces, regularly. Consistently. But also meaningfully. You need to engage with them on their turf—whether that’s in the band room or the library—and talk to them about your brand. Directly. Personally.
Sales are a pain sometimes, but how do you expect your company to grow if you don’t make any?
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