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Emergency - Opinions needed!

by Thaddeus
10 replies
Hi,

I run seminars with a partner. We battle to sell fifteen seats a month at around £230 a seat. We're managing it, but it takes a LOT of time.

We've had a proposal from a major player in the industry, who say they can sell 20 seats a month, every month. They want 30% of the gross on the ones they do sell, (non-exclusive - ie we can go on marketing if we want).

My first foray into this kind of deal. Does this seem high, low, about right?

And we want to sign this today, so I'll read as many opinions as you have, as fast you have 'em... :-)
#distribution deal #emergency #needed #opinions #sales commissions
  • Profile picture of the author s62731
    Here is what you need to think about: Would you have gotten those 20 extra people without him? No. So considering it is going to be extra money in your pocket, without you having to do extra work, it is definitely worth it. Especially if you up sell people.

    What sort of seminars are we talking about?
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  • Profile picture of the author wasp
    any additional streams of tickets sales is good but it is simply a matter of how much you are prepared to pay - I would say 30% is good if it didn't cost you anything for those ticket sales so just add it to your promotional stream as long as they don't want exclusivity. If the above remains you have 35 seats sold as oposed to 15, balance the 30% loss with some kind of upsell (manual, brochure, additional secret resource) hope this helps
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    • Profile picture of the author Thaddeus
      They're seminars for screenwriters.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Kanigan
    Nope, do 50% commission and raise your price to compensate.

    I used to book $2000 2-day sales training seminars and the commission was 50%. Worked well all around--clients were motivated, salespeople were motivated.
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    • Profile picture of the author Thaddeus
      Good point. With their branding alongside ours we can surely charge more per seat. And I definitely believe in motivating people.

      I agree, exclusivity is out, we don't want to become their puppet over time.

      I know we wouldn't have got those extra 20 without them - I suppose the big debate is do we spend the money on their commissions, or do we hire our own marketing person. I'm tempted to go with the big machine that's already up and rolling, even though we might save £10k a year doing it ourselves, the time over head would be massive.

      Good stuff - any other thoughts?
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  • Profile picture of the author theemperor
    Seems like a no brainer to go for this at 30%.

    No more hassle getting seats sold, additional revenue every month. More customers to cross sell to. All for no effort.

    The only reason no to would be if you have a low profit margin on these events for some reason. Is that the case?
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  • Profile picture of the author Aaron Doud
    I agree with Jason on the 50%. 30% is fine but it seems too low. Also not sure how long yours are but they may be too low of a price as well.

    30% or more for commission is the way to go.

    You don't want someone selling for you that will work for peanuts.
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    Aaron Doud - Sales & Success
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  • Profile picture of the author salonmar
    Great question and even better responses. I would go with the 30%; check out the crowd and if they are your targeted group, raise your percentage to 40%.

    Because the time you save on not having to focus on filling seats, you can put towards building your ticket.

    Good Luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author Allan Leadbetter
    I agree the 30% sound like a good deal especially if its non exclusive even doing it yourselves you may save more initially but it could also make you less if you dont have the contacts etc they have
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    • Profile picture of the author Thaddeus
      Excellent answers, thank you everyone. We're going to go back, raise the ticketprice, and offer them more. Which is something I'd never have thought of doing. Thank you very much, everyone.

      Thaddeus
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