From Bob Devitz, President and CEO, Legendary Golf Management
What's Missing at your Club?
Any of this sound familiar?
With economic times as stressed as they are, clubs and golf courses are certainly feeling the effects of the now “official” recession. In speaking with private and semi-private clubs each week I hear a continuing familiar refrain, “we need more members or we need more rounds”. With few exceptions 2008 has been an extremely difficult year for the industry and 2009 is not looking any better. An overwhelming majority of private clubs are experiencing more attrition than ever before and also have lower than historical new member enrollment rates. Most clubs will begin 2009 with far fewer members than they had at the beginning of 2008.
At semi-private and public golf courses, rounds as well as revenues are down.
And what are private clubs doing to adapt to the changing market conditions they are facing? Some are just hoping things will get better and assessing their members for both operating and capital shortfalls, in essence setting the stage for more attrition through these additional fees. Some are discounting and even giving memberships away. Some are lowering or just giving away dues.
Semi-private and public course are caught up in a discounting mode the likes of which I have never seen. Golf in Florida, for example, can be had in many destination markets at good golf courses this month for as little as $25 to $30 including greens fee and cart where a year or so ago $50 was a great find!
So, what are Clubs and Courses doing? Let me tell you what happens when my wife tries to book an event!
Despite these conditions, I am amazed at the response, or lack of response, my wife encounters when attempting to book events at both private and semi-private courses for Women on Course, a national organization dedicated to furthering the game of golf among professional women, especially those new to the game.
A Little Background
My wife is a tenured golf industry professional with 21 years of experience including 18 years in both Regional and National Sales Management roles for ClubCorp. When she first was asked by Women on Course to book and then host about 25 events in cities across the country, she thought, wow, what a great job this is going to be! Just research a few courses in each market to ensure they have the right facilities and location, and then make a call and surprise the club or course with new found revenue as well as prospects for membership, rounds, private events, lessons, and merchandise sales. However, what she found was Astonishing, bordering on LUNACY!
The group size she is booking is 50 to 60 professional women who work in the business community and want to learn golf for networking purposes. The day of the event is totally flexible. She asks for the slowest day of the week in the mid to late afternoon. She asks the club or course for 9 holes of golf for the experienced golfer, a one hour clinic and four holes of golf for the intermediate golfer, and a one hour orientation to golf followed by a one hour clinic for the beginning golfer. A private room is also required as well as chef's choice hors d'oeuvres. For this the club or course receives $2000 to$2500 in revenue plus all the contact information for the 50 participating women.
What's the response?
To get started, she calls the club and speaks with whoever answers the phone, explains that she is interested in booking an event, and in most cases is told that the message will be passed on and someone will call back. About 50% of the time she will get a return call within 48 hours. If she doesn't get a return call, she calls again trying to get in touch with the appropriate party, in most cases either the golf pro or private event salesperson.
When she finally does speak with the appropriate party, most people quote their rates and are flustered when the event she is booking is not a fit with the standard package they offer.
Instead of recognizing the outstanding opportunity and following up immediately with a “how we can do this” she typically gets a “why we may not be able to do this” response. Some of the more typical responses include:
We don't do 4 hole events
We don't do 9 hole events
Our outing rate is more than you have in your budget
I have to check with the board at our next meeting in 3 weeks
And, a course operated by a well known prominent east coast management company after getting the request called their corporate headquarters and asked if they were required to take business like this that hurts the club. Huh? Professional working women who want to take up golf and this course has a great opportunity to connect them and market to them not only for golf but also for outings, private events, dining, and merchandise and this hurts them???
Another private club, owned by a major national company specializing in private clubs, that had a horrible year in membership, saw no value in the contact information. What? Does anyone at this self proclaimed industry leader in private club membership realize that leads cost money, and even one new member is worth tens of thousands of dollars? Maybe so, but apparentlynot at this California property.
So, what's missing?
What's missing is a sales mentality and sales training! People taking the call are not excited. People getting the message don't follow up. People who do follow up are stuck in the “one way” we do things paradigm. And the result is a great opportunity is missed. If this is happening in 8 out 10 clubs my wife calls, I am certain it is happening similarly in many other clubs across the country as well.
Sales are key to success yet more time is spent on so many other things that sales take a back seat. Everyone at the club has to be on the lookout for sales opportunities every day! And I mean everyone! This includes not only the primary salespeople, it also means assistant golf pros, cart personnel, beverage cart personnel, bag room staff, bartenders, and any other person on staff who is in contact with members and guest. Each person's role is different but everyone has to be on the lookout and know their role in assisting in the sales process.
What should I do?
The answer is staring you in the face! You must have your entire staff trained in sales. And you can accomplish this in one of two ways.
1.You can do it yourself!
I am sure you don't need me to go into detail about the many years of experience and hundreds of hours of writing that go into producing real sales systems specifically for golf operations like yours to teach your staff the finer points of Preparing to Sell, Bonding and Rapport, Qualifying Prospects, Phone Techniques, Presentations, Overcoming Objections, Closing and Referrals and more!
It is difficult, detailed, time consuming, and easily abandoned as other fires come up at your Club. Or,
2. You can take the fast way, the easy way, the painless way to instantly improve your staff's performance and INSTANTALY have systems in place to train new people as they come and go for decades to come by becoming a member of The Missing Link staff training program.
As a member of The Missing Link staff training program, you'll receive a ready to use sales system each month. You'll get a training manual including an audio version, to keep and use forever as you build your own personal library of sales training materials for your staff. That way, your staff can learn every day just like they would if they were working for a large company that demands constant training and certification! Follow this link to get more information on The Missing Link.
So, what are you going to do? Sit back and wish, hope, and pray that things will magically change? Or take a proactive step today that you know requires a lot of time, attention, hard work and do everything you can to maximize your sales efforts in 2009 and beyond?
PS: Andrew Wood has an incredible introductory offer for the first 100 clubs to enroll in The Missing Link. And we are getting close to 100 motivated Clubs. Click here to learn more and take the step you know you must if you are going to succeed in 2009 and beyond.
PSS: Andrew and I have recently created Legendary Golf Management, the World's Leader in Revenue Growth. Check out our new company at www.legendarygolfmanagement.com. I am also providing a complimentary one hour operations consultation to the first four clubs who call me at 727-424-2434.
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