Golf Industry Reality Check 2014

Golf Industry Reality Check 2014

By Andrew Wood

Warning: What You Are About To Read You May Find Disturbing…The TRUTH!

True Leaders See Things As They Are, Not As They Wish They Where!

REALITY CHECK• Play is down

• Membership is down

• New people are not coming into the game

• With one exception (2012) the weather has been a negative factor over the last few years

• The people are not going to return in droves unless you help them! (Better sales and marketing)

• Disclaimer: You don’t have to believe me, most people would much rather NOT deal with reality but everything I will share with you, is true! Some of it of course is self serving but that does not make it any less true, I can back up every single point in detail! Feel free to email me your questions [email protected]

REALITY: A Stronger Economy is NO Guarantee Your Club Will Do Better!

Say it isn’t so?

• I am sorry but it is… a better economy alone is no guarantee your club will do better!

• People’s habits have altered

• People’s perceptions have changed

• People’s spending patterns have been interrupted

• Momentum is hard to break in either direction

• Most clubs have changed nothing in response except perhaps slashed operating costs and service and should expect nothing in return!

REALITY: The Past Means Nothing!

Forget The Past!• The world before 2008 is distant history comparing rounds,

revenue or membership numbers to then is fantasy!

• Budgeting on last year is also foolish!

• The only numbers that really matter are this years!

• Things are changing at an astonishing speed not just in the golf business but in all businesses, it’s keep up or die!

• If you want more revenue? Spend more on sales training and marketing, that’s what drives revenue not slashing costs!

REALITY: The Cavalry is Not Going to Save You…You Must Save Yourself!

REALITY: A Lot of Club’s Put WAY TOO MUCH Faith in 3rd Party Tee Time Vendors Like:

• Golf Now• Golf 18 Network• Group Golfer• Groupon • And others • None of them will save you in fact most will

help you into an early grave!

Reality: Most Club’s Were Too Lazy & Cheap To Invest Where it Counts When Life Was Easier!

To Lazy and Cheap to…• Build their own huge email database

• Generate a large facebook fan base

• Collect snail mails and phone numbers

• Invest in top of the line email delivery, website technology and good old fashioned sales copy

• Expand into Linkin, Youtube and other social media.

• To have someone create a professional integrated marketing plan.

• To train their staff how to sell! (they do this in other industries with dramatic results)

REALITY: Technology is as Important to Your Success as Grass!

REALITY: All Technology is Not Created Equal - Most Clubs Have Been Conned!

• If you are using Golf Now, Course Trends, Cybergolf or similar and YOU chose them, you have done ZERO due diligence comparing technology, email deliverability, list maintenance and lead generation, either that or you’re just plain stupid!

• That includes many of the large management companies, the cheapest solution is NEVER the best solution in any market! Do real due diligence and you’ll find using these guys would be like playing on Tour with persimmon woods!

• And that’s before you factor the despicable Course Trends re-marking scandal (This will open your eyes to reality pretty quick! http://youtu.be/Jl6JRPkLzZc and http://youtu.be/l2dT_Bol9-I )

• Trading tee times for services guarantees you poor technology and third class marketing advice!

• None of the above companies have any clue about social media

• Nor do any of the POS companies have any clue about websites and e-marketing… but they offer it as a service anyway!

Stop The Insanity!

Take Control of Your Own Destiny!

• Build a large database of prospects, emails, snail mails and social media fans.

• NOTE: They have to be real emails over 50% of the lists we get from the low end web companies are undeliverable! (don’t con yourself start with real numbers)

• OWN YOUR MEDIA then connect with customers through your own mini media empire

• Retool your products and services to meet the “NEW reality”

• Invest in the right technology

• Invest in sales and marketing

• Partner with real experts not people who claim they are experts

In What Universe Do Million Dollar Enterprises Spend 1% on Marketing?

REALITY: That Would Be None… Except The Golf Industry!

• You cannot make you goals fit your budget, the goals drive the budget!

• While I hate generalities lets go with 5% of gross as a reasonable marketing budget!

• So for each million dollars, pounds, euros or yen your club generates you should be spending at least $50,000!

REALITY: 50% Plus of Your Marketing Budget is Nothing but Maintenance

• And that’s assuming you have a real budget to begin with!

• It costs money just to stay where you are even if where you are has been declining!

• It costs more if you want significant growth!

• The good news is so few clubs actually understand this universal law that you will have an immediate advantage should you choose to act!

REALITY: Reaching Large Numbers of Golfers Costs Money

• It doesn’t matter what media you choose, media costs money that’s reality, the more people you need to reach and the more it costs!

• You must pay for website traffic• Social media traffic• Lead generation• And back end sales training and systems • If you are not willing to pay to reach large numbers of people you

have little to no chance of success

• The more people you reach and opt in to your databases the lower your future marketing costs!

Control Your Mini Media Empire

Did You Know You Own a Golf Magazine and a TV Station?

• Your website, Facebook, email and blog is your very own digital golf magazine

• Youtube your very own TV channel

• You control the content

• You control the experience

• You can engage, educate and entertain your customers or you can bore them!

• Watch this video for more details of this concept http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia3k6dXVhcw

REALITY: Sales Training Is The Simplest and Most Cost Effective Way to Increase Revenue!

REALITY: 99% of The Golf Industry Does NOT Invest in Sales Training of Any kind!

• Most people answering the phone at clubs couldn’t sell John Daly a beer never mind a membership!

• Because there is NO SALES SYSTEM in place 95% of the leads that are generated for membership, outings, banquets and play are squandered!

• Then these people say “The marketing doesn’t work!”

• If you start sales training you have a HUGE advantage over your competition because they won’t!

REALITY: Put a Sales System in Place and Watch Your Income Soar!

• Monthly sales meeting • Sales goals• Manuals, audio and video training • Back end CRM so all leads are followed to

their logical conclusion!• Reporting how many leads, how many sales,

closing ratio per income source!

http://www.clubindustrystafftraining.com/

REALITY: You Must Embrace Change

Think Outside the Tee Markers

• Think beyond the golf experience alone, way beyond..

• Think in five senses taste, touch, sound, feel and visual.

• Think “One Strategy” Watch this videohttp://lmgmc.com/make-your-club-be-the-one-they-choose/

• Look at alternate uses like foot golf

• Relax rules on everything from dress code to cell phones

• Free lessons and rental clubs for beginners

• Guarantee speed of play

Most Clubs Will do Nothing… What Will You Do Differently?

Change Your Marketing Focus and Strategy for the New Reality

• Market the health benefits of golf

• Market the social benefits

• Market the networking, business and professional benefits

• Market the keep kids off the street and off video games benefits

• Think of the entertainment value you provide not the “service” you provide!

• Redirect every dime you have at targeted Facebook and pay per click, nothing works faster or is more cost effective!

• Focus on quality content and back up every promotion using all media sources simultaneously in an orchestrated and integrated manor for maximum results

Success and Growth Can Be Found Even in a Tough Climate!

With The Right Integrated Marketing Plan!

• An integrated website, email and social media plan can instantly and cost effectively put your club on a different plane. Here are just a few of Legendary Marketing’s success stories…

• Seven Oaks, a private club in rural PA has 2,000 facebook fans and sold 155 memberships last year! (few private clubs understand Facebook)

• Seven daily fee clubs in St Louis increased play by an average of 7% in a market where play was down 15%!(They had a collective email data base of 75,000 names)

• Treetops has increased play from 62,000 to 94,000 rounds over the last three years, as their Facebook fan base went from zero to over 41,000 and their email database grew beyond 50,000!

Out Source That Which You Don’t do Well Including:

• Websites• Email marketing • Social media• Content creation• Sales training • Back sales systems• And integration

• But make sure you partner with REAL experts, POS companies may offer websites but they are NOT marketing experts

• Third party tee vendors may offer email marketing but they are NOT email marketing experts!

• Just because someone on staff knows how to post on Facebook does not produce an integrated social media strategy

Get An Exclusive Advantage, Partner With Us For Legendary Results – Limited to Just 100 Clubs

Worldwide! • It’s time to get expert help, be the only club in your immediate market on our proven

“franchise program”!

• Integrated social, website and email promotions that generate double or triple the leads!

• More timely and targeted emails that create more revenue!

• Custom graphics and content that creates better engagement increases, viral marketing and builds your brand

• Superior content that increases open rates and decreases unsubscribes

• Sales training that dramatically increases conversion

• This integrated approach creates consistent lead flow across all income channels watch this for details http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia3k6dXVhcw

The Business is Changing Fast Can Your Staff be Experts in Everything They Really Need to be ? Ours Are…!

Legendary Support Team• There is no possible way an on site employee even at a corporate level can

execute all the marketing initiatives you need, even at three to five times the investment.

• There are too many unique skills involved in the execution of an integrated marketing campaign in 2014.

• Outsourcing to Legendary Marketing gets you access to the specific talents you need!

• We do all the marketing for you… you run your golf course!

• Totally integrated custom programs from, just $1497 a month, that will cover all of your marketing needs!

Andrew Wood Is the World’s Leading Expert In Golf Marketing

C Contact Andrew @

Andrew@LegendaryMarketing.com1-352-266-2099WWW.LegendaryMarketing.comWWW.AndrewWoodInc.com

Other Resources:

http://golfmarketingbible.comhttp://cunninglyclevermarketing.comhttp://andrewwoodinc.com/#consulting