Selling Stadium Suites: Modern Solutions for Modern Audiences
The worlds of both sales and ticketing are always adapting. From cold calling once being the standard to now accommodating Gen Z and Millennial audiences, selling stadium suites is an ever-evolving process.
Premium hospitality sales have always been a major revenue driver for stadiums, so it’s vital to adapt as the market adapts. Whether your stadium has recently renovated its premium suite options or you’re selling the same stadium suites as 20 years ago, try these five modern tactics to boost sales, foster deeper relationships, and encourage future renewals.
1) Leverage Digital Automation to Keep the Sale Moving
Today’s world is fast-paced— especially the digital world. Premium clients don’t want to go through a drawn-out sales process to secure a suite and learn about their food options. Allow prospects the opportunity to request or even immediately purchase suites online.
Jonathan White, the Director of Premium Hospitality at the San Jose Sharks noted that their team transitioned their premium suite rentals to a digital-first experience in 2021. Fans can secure suites, catering options, and parking passes by themselves online, which has been incredibly well-received.
In a digital-first sales environment, it’s important to cater to Gen Z and Millennial audiences— even though Gen Z hasn’t reached their full economic potential yet, they already represent $360 billion in spending power in the US alone. When working with prospects in these generations, avoid picking up the phone for a call in most cases. Online forms and texts are received much better with these audiences.
One way many premium teams move the sales process forward is by leveraging online forms connected with their presentation decks in DIGIDECK. A prospect can fill out a form indicating their stadium suite preferences (party size, dates, food preferences, etc.), and the DIGIDECK platform instantly creates and sends a custom proposal to the prospect’s inbox with only the information they’re interested in.
2) Focus on Customization for a Personal Experience
We’re all being sold things and experiences almost all day, every day. Everytime we open our phone or pass a billboard or turn on the radio, we’re bombarded with advertisements. The result? Tuning it all out.
If you want to cut through the noise and gain a better chance at connecting with a prospective client, you need to focus on customization.
Personalize your pitch, and really focus on building a meaningful relationship. Leveraging a digital-forward, automated process that still adds a touch of personalization will allow for more relationship-building time. Get to the heart of what the prospect values and is looking for in a premium suite experience, and be sure to include those tidbits in your conversations moving forward.
3) Show, Don’t Tell
Stadium suites aren’t cheap. So why would a prospect make a significant investment without ever seeing what the experience would involve?
Don’t expect a premium customer, whether it be an individual or an organization, to imagine what the experience would be like with words only.
Instead, take an immersive, visual approach that allows the prospect to be immersed in the game day experience from their device.
Photos, videos, and seat viewers can all help you accomplish this. And if your team is part of the 50% of NFL, NBA, MLS, NHL, and MLB teams that leverage DIGIDECK, you can take advantage of:
- 360° Panoramic Venue Tours: Give prospects a clear-as-day picture of different suite options, views from the suites, parking areas, and more with panoramic venue tours and seat viewers.
- Hotspot Technology: Automatically superimpose your prospect’s corporate logo or family name onto appropriate activations across photos and panoramic tours of your premium spaces.
4) Provide Choices: Sizes, Prices, and Options
“Flexibility” hasn’t historically been associated with premium suite sales, but selling to Millennials and Gen Z in a post-pandemic world is requiring immense flexibility.
Candy Fuzesy, VP of Team & Venue Partnerships at Suite Experience Group puts it into perspective by saying, “You can’t go into a prospecting meeting and be like ‘well, here it is, take it or leave it.’ You have to get to know your person, what’s the reason they’re buying, why are they interested in this conversation, and what are you doing to appeal to them and market to them?”
Since there’s hesitancy for long-term commitments post-pandemic and the competition for people’s disposable income is only increasing, strive to find the balance between luxury and practicality. Offer different options for:
- Food & drink options
- Suite size
- Parking options
Offer flexibility, but be careful not to offer too many options so that prospects aren’t overwhelmed with the paradox of choice.
5) Consider Open Houses
Have you ever held an open house for prospects and existing members? This is a great awareness strategy for new business and upselling existing season ticket holders by showcasing how premium spaces would be set up on game days.
Often, people hold a presumption that premium suites are already sold out, so they may not even inquire about the possibility. Holding open houses gets the correct information in front of the right audiences and lets them experience the difference in person— ultimately instilling more buying confidence.
Supercharge Stadium Suite Sales With DIGIDECK
Modern sales tactics are all about adapting and pivoting with the times, especially premium stadium suites. As your premium team considers new ways to impact your audience with customized messaging, explore adding DIGIDECK to your tech stack.
Top premium & ticketing teams like the New York Nets, the San Diego Padres, Minnesota United FC, and more leverage the DIGIDECK presentation platform to take “show, don’t tell” to the next level with 360° tours, hotspot technology, custom automated proposals, interactive pricing calculators, and unlimited microsites & PURLs.
Explore how DIGIDECK can help increase your premium suite revenue by starting with a free demo!
