Webinar Recap: Become a Better Broker

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.