In every organization, the sales team plays a pivotal role in the success of the business. At ShowClix, our sales team bridges the gap between a potential partner’s needs and the products and services we offer to fulfill those needs. Today we are excited to introduce Jim Barczak, our Director of Sales and Client Relations, who brings over 20 years of ticketing industry experience in Sales and Marketing. If there’s a ticketing company you know of, there’s a good chance Jim has worked with them.
In 1991, Jim graduated from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York with a Bachelor’s Degree in Communication. All throughout college, Jim promoted bands, worked crew and security at local venues, and always involved himself in the music and ticketing industry. In 1991, he landed his first job out of college at Ticketmaster, where he started in the client services department, and became Promotions Manager after only seven years. He was part of Ticketmaster way back when ticketmaster.com first went live! He has also been Director of Marketing for Tickets.com, AudienceView, and Enta during his career.
In 2006, Jim was hired as VP of a Scottish startup company called Mobiqa, where he was responsible for North, South, and Central America, and assisted in landing some of the company’s biggest deals. Since then, Jim has held roles at Ticketfly, Tickethour, Paciolan, and OmniTicket Network, the company behind Disney’s industry-changing Magic Bands.
For almost two years now, Jim has been leading our sales team by implementing sales plans, identifying leads, and closing deals with promising partners. He also acts as another resource for our partners alongside our client services team, and works to make sure they’re well taken care of.
As Director of Sales and Client Relations, you get to highlight the ins and outs of the ShowClix system to potential partners on a regular basis. What is one feature that seems to surprise them the most?
This changes because our industry is constantly changing, but as someone who spent most of his career in marketing, I’m always excited to show people how our system works so well with various marketing tools using our Marketing Dashboard. We can make sure conversion tracking is set up and working flawlessly to help our partners easily track their marketing efforts, and attribute sales to the correct channels without dropping valuable information in the process.
At ShowClix, we support our partners throughout the entire event life cycle. How does the sales team collaborate with our client services and marketing teams to ensure top notch support from start to finish?
There’s a lot of communication and coordination going on at all times here. I’m constantly amazed at how dedicated and supportive the team is, and we tend to get along well with each other (despite how much time we end up spending together)! We have so many good people who genuinely care about our partners who are willing to step up and pitch in when necessary. It’s really fun to be a part of it.
You have about 20 years of experience in the event ticketing industry. What can you offer as advice to someone that is interested in a similar career path?
Learn as much as you can about every possible facet of the industry – it’s really hard to be a good marketer (or salesperson or executive, etc.) if you don’t understand what people within the organization experience day to day. You have to know what it’s like to have someone in front of you in the box office, or how hard it is to move groups, etc., to fully understand what goes into running a successful event or venue. This industry is pretty collaborative – there are lots of good people who are willing to mentor and give advice. Take advantage of that!
Working with events for as long as you have, what is one of the coolest events you’ve attended and what did you like most about it?
I’m starting to lose track since there have been so many that I’ve worked with, and also just attended as a fan. I think it’s really gratifying to see how the work we do all comes together. If I had to pick just one, I’d say August 1994, The Rolling Stones at the CNE Grandstand in Toronto. This was the Voodoo Lounge Tour, and, while admittedly not in support of their best album, my wife is a huge fan. It was the first time she saw them live and one of our first concerts together after we were married that year. She’s still pretty sure Mick was singing directly to her!
You are happily married with two college-aged kids. Does your family have any summer vacation plans before they head back to school?
Being from Buffalo, our summers are pretty short, so we definitely try to take advantage of it while we can! We tend to escape south to a beach at least once per year to thaw out over the winter (sometimes more when the snow flies before Thanksgiving), but we’re still planning on some family time this summer. My daughter loves the city, so we have an NYC shopping trip coming up to get ready for school. Hopefully we will squeeze in a more laid back beach trip as well to unwind before the fall semester starts, since that’s my son and wife’s ideal vacation.