Don’t get me wrong, I love talking to Pulitzer Prize Winners, Tony Award Winners and all of the marquis names we’ve had on the almost 200 (!) episodes of this podcast.

But some of the most enlightening guests I’ve had over the past few years have been the folks that you may not even know exist, but are single-handedly responsible for pulling some major strings in the Broadway biz.

And of those peeps is today’s guest, Ms. Stephanie Lee.

Stephanie runs Group Sales Box Office, now a subsidiary of Broadway.com, the largest seller of Broadway tickets to groups.

Ever see all those buses lined up on the streets before the Wednesday matinees?  Yeah, the majority of those are all because of the great work Steph does.

What’s just as interesting to me as the sheer volume of dollars and bodies that Stephanie deals with daily, is the fact that she does what Producers can’t do . . . she talks directly to the ticket buyers.

So she often has more insight into what our audiences want than we do!

That’s why I wanted to talk to her, and why I wanted you to listen to her.  So we popped in front of my microphone and chatted about:

• The most common mistake Producers make when trying to sell tickets to Groups.
• How you can turn a show around with the right group sales strategy (and a specific example of show that did just that!)
• How she balances her own enthusiasm for shows with what the clients want.
• The group sales buyer versus the single ticket buyer – what’s the difference in what they are looking for
• Where the group business is headed in the next twenty years.

We are not in the business of just making art.  We’re in the business of making and selling art.

And not many people know how to sell as well as Steph.

Enjoy!

• Click here to listen on our site!
• Listen to it on iTunes here. (And if you like the podcast, give it a great review while you’re there!)

This week’s #SongwriterOfTheWeek is Ryan Scott Oliver! If you enjoyed the outro music in this episode, go on over to https://ryanscottoliver.com for more tunes.

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