The Fall 2013 Ticket Summit® Plus webinar series concluded
yesterday with Become a Better Broker. In this webinar, two premier brokers—Lon
Belvin of TIX CITY and Andy Wallenstein of Best In The House Tickets—discussed best
practices for running a ticket brokerage in the secondary market.
The two brokers covered a variety of topics, including daily
logistics, last-minute orders, pricing, customer relations, and marketing. Each
broker discussed how these issues impact his business, depending on its size.
Belvin runs a large brokerage, with about 15 employees, while Wallenstein’s is
smaller with only one employee besides himself.
Belvin’s buying and pricing philosophy is simple—he wants to
be the first in to an event and the first out. “The only way we have inventory
late is if we really believe in the event,” he said. Customer service is also
very important to his business. As he says, “the way you say ‘there’s nothing
we can do’ makes all the difference. Say it nicely and they’ll come back.”
Wallenstein agrees about the importance of customer service.
“It’s really not that hard to do customer service well,” he adds. His pricing philosophy
is a little different though, he looks at the price on the TicketNetwork® Exchange and prices based on that. He also defines
his competition slightly differently: “Someone buying three tickets isn’t actually
competing with pairs or four-packs…they’re different customers.” He also advises brokers to diversify their
inventory, unless they have a great knowledge of a specific area.Ticket Summit® Plus will continue in February 2014. More details about the spring webinars and registration will be available on the Ticket Summit® website soon.
