Seeking Pro Sales For The Holidays?

It’s the holiday season and while you would think that golf courses would slow down for special days such as Thanksgiving, the fact is that holidays on the courses are busier than one might think. When family comes into town, they want to go golfing. It may be a good opportunity, however, to try to boost pro shop sales.

With the right strategy, your pro shop can bring in some good revenue during the holiday season.

More and more, off-course stores have been taking a percentage of retail business away from golf couurse pro shops.. But course owners have several advantages that, if used properly, can result in a successful retail strategy.

Golf Business Magazine has come up with some ways to increase a course owner’s share to compete with big-box retailers:

Club Fitting
One major advantage golf courses have over off-site retailers is the ability of a highly trained staff to properly fit customers with golf clubs and then allow them to demo that equipment on the course and on driving range.

Perhaps offer custom clubfitting and a free round of golf with the purchase of a set of irons.

Selection
Although pro shops generally cannot compete with off-course golf-specialty stores in terms of overall square footage and the broad range of brands, they can stock the most popular selling and profitable brands in an attractive setting.

Creating an Identity
Most courses have developed an individual logo, which can be one of the keys to help differentiate pro shop items from off-course competition. Creating the best logo possible is worth the money because the club controls its use and it can be coupled with nationally recognized brands. Use your logo on all items sold.

Merchandising
Drawing golfers’ attention to merchandise through creative displays is an important part of retailing success. Remember, presentation is important.

Additional Sales Efforts
Send out monthly pro-shop specials to an e-mail database of potential customers.

Customer Service
Course managers agree the key to competing with off-site retailers is customer service. Know your clientele and what they like and are willing to spend.

To make staff more knowledgeable and ultimately better customer-service representatives, invites vendors to come to your pro shop and explain to front-line personnel why a shirt is worth $80 or why a club line is among the best available.

The most important thing is getting to know your customers and figuring out who they are buying for and what they want.

Take time to do that.