Page 22 - GBC spring 2018 eng

YOUR UNDERUTILIZED SALES TEAM
Most golf courses would say that they don’t have a sales team in place. A sales team seems like it should be a team who is making cold calls, taking potential members on a tour of the facility, explaining how a golf tournament is held at your course and attracting new leads.
The truth is that every golf course has a very underutilized sales team at their course that they’re already paying. That sales team is in the form of your website and email con rmation follow up.
Think of the forms on your website. Do you have any? Does the form information go to your personal email where you have to follow up on the lead? What information does the follow up con rmation email provide?
With a little effort, you can turn your website into a powerhouse by using your words to do the selling for you. The best part about using this method is that the entire process can be automated! That’s right. You are already paying for a huge sales team that works 24/7, but you haven’t given it any materials to do the job! It’s time to make that change.
WEBSITE AND EMAIL CONFIRMATION
Take some time and write down the process that you use to sell any type of event at your course. Think about the questions that people ask you, images that might be helpful in explanation, pricing guides that you send out and map out the journey someone takes before a sale.
Using that customer journey guide, gather bite-sized information that should be fed to someone as they are planning an event at your course. Each email should contain one to three pieces of information to prevent overwhelming your golfer. Put your website to work on sales by setting up this automation.
When someone lls out your form (with a clever CTA), they should receive a con rmation email that includes words that show the personality of your course and answers to the most important questions that are asked.
One to two days later, send another email that includes a Sales Video, discussing your pricing and giving them a tour of what the event will look like when using your facility. Follow this with another video ve to seven days later.
Depending on the nature of the event, you will continue feeding additional information to your potential lead every ve to seven days until they either opt-out or you close the sale. Most times, three to ve emails should be enough to accomplish a sale.
Golf course owners and operators have tons of valuable information that becomes very powerful when you put it on paper. You know tips to planning a successful golf outing, mistakes people make when planning a party, how to x a slice, ideas to shave a few putts off of a round, how to pick out clubs for young children, what wine pairs with a meal. The list goes on and on.
Share that information using your words and casual leads become buyers.
YOUR BOTTOM LINE
Selecting the right words to communicate with your golfer creates the rst impression of your facility, increases sales and builds your brand. Simple changes to your website and email con rmations can make a world of difference to your bottom line. Words have power. Use them to your advantage. Golf
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Golf Business Canada