FrontofshopFRONTOFSHOP
All my customer wants is the lowest price
There is no question that our mobile, online everywhere world, which allows anyone to put up an e-commerce site, has made consumers extremely price sensitive. Ian James of Retail Tribe investigates pricing problems for the PGA Pro
A
ny one of your customers with just the slightest technical competence can stand in your shop ahead of deciding on a purchase and review the price of the product they are interested
in on any number of online sites or even at other local retailers. When I talk about golf equipment and especially golf ball or golf glove
retailing with Golf Professionals, I hear a common theme- “With my customers, it’s price, price, price”. This leads to a discussion about margins being compressed, which it seems is the new fancy way of saying nobody is making any money. I acknowledge the challenge of price. I also acknowledge that for almost
every customer it is a very important part of any purchasing decision. There is no doubt that the consumer has easy access to competitive price information; retailing is a tougher business in many ways today then it was 15 years ago.
But let’s pause and examine what’s going on in the equipment category:
• If you do search online for the cheapest price online, it’s almost always a green-grass Professional dumping stock, oſten through eBay
• We have over 60,000 online equipment surveys completed by UK golfers from 2009 to 2013 with over 76% stating that price is NOT the most important priority when buying golf equipment
So the question is- Who is making the most noise about price? The PGA
Professional or the consumer? Whenever you’re talking about equipment, ensure the conversation is
dominated by a result (longer, straighter, more consistent, easier) and the need to match the golfer’s swing and requirements for a better result with the best technology and perfect fitting setup.
Now think about the physical engagements you have with your golfers
around equipment. How many of them come from proactive engagement you have created around a result? The biggest advantage a green-grass Professional has is in fact the green-grass! You should create results-based events that challenge either your golfers’ performance with a particular skill and piece of equipment, or your ability to improve their golf game. If you want to sell new Drivers, then run a 20-yard challenge, where you
commit to add 20 yards to a golfer’s tee shot in 20 minutes. Want to sell Wedges? Run a 30-yard pitch shot challenge on a Saturday and measure
• We have a new batch of surveys completed (nearly 30,000) in 2014, with over 84% saying that ‘Fit’ is the number one priority when buying golf equipment
• We took a sample from over 12,000 separate marketing emails, dispatched to golfers by PGA Professionals in the UK in 2013, and the words FREE or DISCOUNT or REDUCED were associated with the golf equipment discussed on over 70% of the occasions
8 SGBGOLF
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