FrontofshopFRONTOFSHOP
Who’s your Flop ShotChampion?
So who’s the ‘Flop Shot Champion’ at your golf club? If you’re looking to sell the new Cleveland 588 RTX 2.0 or Vokey SM5 higher loſt Wedges to your golfers, then the best way to merchandise them is in the hands of a golfer attempting to play Flop Shots under some competitive pressure.
A
mongst your higher
handicap golfers, who scores the highest in your ‘70-Yard Pitch Shot Skills Challenge’? I’m assuming that you’ve put together an event for golfers to see how consistently they can hit a 70 yard target. If you have a good cavity-back wedge in your shop, then get those golfers who might be classified as inconsistent ball strikers and show them how they could benefit from that cavity-back wedge. Many of you are coming to the end of the season, for some that will mean closing. For others that will mean a much slower period as only the very avid come out in the wet and the cold. Running skills challenges like the two listed
above, which will take a golfer between 10 and 20 minutes to complete, offers you and your golf club a number of benefits: a) Every time you get a golfer engaged in a ball-striking activity, you’ll have the chance to sell both new equipment and coaching opportunities
b) Having the golfer down at the golf club means you have a chance to get them into your shop to spend money on your final clearance as you seek to convert stock into cash
c) Golfers at the golf club at this time of year is extra F&B revenue the club ought to appreciate
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d) These events should target golfers who might not be normal winter golfers – they can participate in a skills challenge for 15 minutes in relative climatic comfort. You are making it far more likely that this golfer will be back out next spring and it also gives you a chance to convert them into winter golf and a Galvin Green sale
We strongly advocate that you look at your
schedule, and incorporate ‘skills challenges’ into your programme of events. At various times of the year, you have the
chance to get your suppliers on board with prizes to add theatre to your events. At this time of the year you have any number of products you’re trying to clear from your shop, so your golfers can win discount vouchers on selected products at no real cost to you. So for your ‘Flop Shot Championship’, every
golfer who gets 5 balls within a 12-foot radius wins a discount voucher with an additional 20% off your clearance items. You can even offer discounts on winter
coaching programmes to those who participate in your challenge. That’s usually a period you have lots of slower time, and a discount that’s been ‘won’ means you’re not impacting your coaching pricing with a general discount. Scheduling skills challenges isn’t just an
activity recommended for autumn and winter. It’s something you should embrace for the whole year. We have to see golf as more than a 9-hole or 18-hole product. Most non-retired golfers become more time compressed as each year passes. We need to find ‘games’ that golfers can participate in that take less than 60 minutes. That might be a ‘Fast-5’ hole setup, but just as easily it can be a variety of challenges that you present golfers with.
One of our customers had such spectacular
success with a 9-hole setup when he challenged his ladies with a starting point on each hole that was a chip or short pitch, no longer than 40 yards (the event was called a ‘Chip & Sip’ to include wine tasting and a social), that it has become a regular weekly event. There are many ladies playing that event who haven’t yet taken on the challenge of any hole longer than 40 yards. Each one of
those ladies, besides having great fun, represents an opportunity to sell golf balls and gloves. They all need a putter and wedges and probably a bag. They’re all a market for the next level of golf coaching. And ultimately, they’re going to need a set of irons and metalwoods, if they can be managed along the pathway to better golf. And probably the biggest win for the PGA
Professional is the fact that the Club Management appreciate the extra revenue he has brought to the club. There is a coincidence of interests between
the golf club, the golf professional and the golf equipment and accessory suppliers. More golfers, playing more golf, is good for all of us. Skills challenges are fun. They’re quick. They get golfers down to the club. They lead to golfers investing more in their golf game.
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