7 Proven Strategies for Boosting Early-Season Group Sales From the Latest FEVOForum

Our latest webinar, FEVOForum Presents: A Proactive Strategy for Early-Season Sales, brought together sports industry experts to share insights and strategies for capitalizing on early-season excitement. FEVO EVP of Partner Success Justin Gurney chatted with San Antonio Spurs Group Sales Account Manager Nancy Gonzales, Detroit Lions Sr. Group Sales Manager Francis Spencer and Boston Red Sox Sr. Director of Group Sales & Service Carl Grider on the keys to early-season success.  

Thanks to the deep knowledge shared by our panelists, we were able to compile a number of essential takeaways that could help you yield big wins on the group sales front. Those takeaways...

Get Out Ahead of the Schedule

‍According to Spencer, the Detroit Lions were able to double their group sales by being ready with offers right when the schedule dropped and excitement was high. (Note: our new pre-inventory offer-building tool can help with this!)

Leverage the Audience You Already Have

The Lions were also able to lean on their Football Education Team to offer every summer camper the opportunity to choose from a handful of games to attend. FEVO’s Social Checkout^TM made it easy for campers to then share a link with friends and family to drive additional attendance.  

‍Analytics Are Your Friend

Gonzales and the Spurs use the analytics dashboard to track the channels where group offers drive the most shares and conversions. They then use that info to plan additional distribution based on both the offer type and target audience. ‍

Maintain Relationships

Don’t just check in with your group leaders when it’s time to sell tickets. Spencer and the Lions have found a lot of success by staying in touch with group leaders and finding ways to drive value beyond the obvious.  ‍

Make Groups More Inclusive

The San Antonio spurs saw a huge uptick in attendance by simply listening to their fans and making a group name more inclusive. They changed “Teacher Appreciation Night” to “School Employee Appreciation Night” after receiving numerous queries into whether the promotion applied to non-teacher school employees like janitorial, cafeteria and admin staff. The questions your fans are asking can often lead you to an opportunity to make things more inclusive to bring out more fans.  ‍

The Inviter Makes a Difference

The Red Sox try to educate their group clients on the B2B side on the importance of sending out the event invite from a person who holds weight within the company. The response to the CEO inviting the company to a night out at the game vs an intern doing it is massive.  ‍

Create a Low-Pressure Environment

In the past, group leaders had a ton of responsibility: wrangle attendees, collect money, secure tickets, etc. Grider and the Red Sox have seen huge group leader adoption by spending a few minutes explaining to group leaders how easy and low-stress it can be for them with FEVO.

If you want to watch the entire webinar, featuring more great insights and ideas for early-season offer-building, you can do so right here.