Two for One - Emanuals

Anyone purchasing either of these manuals going forward will get the other free. Just press either PayPal icon and I'll will email both manuals. 


When I first made "The Winning Golf Culture" and "Merchandise Buy Plan Guide" available no one had heard of Kindle and e-books were just beginning to rival print. I priced them to include printing, covering and postage. I have received requests that I make them available now as e-manuals and email them upon purchase. This post are the original testimonials and there are new BUY NOW tabs to the right and new pricing.

The Winning Golf Culture

Since making the Merchandise Buy Plan Guide available in July of 2009 I have had a number of requests to offer a manual of service and sales advice for those clubs attempting to raise the bar regarding staff and facility culture as I do with my clients.

I have written a 40 page handbook entitled “The Winning Golf Culture” providing tools and inspiration and taking advantage of the unique relationships that are a fundamental of pro shop retail to help you and your staff move forward in today’s market to wow your customers. It offers techniques employed by professional salespeople from approaching customers to cultivating their future business. The mind set and methods discussed have impressed every shop owner or manager as well the CEO’s and sales managers of companies in the golf industry that I have advised over the years.

There is no question that service is the most important and least expensive differentiator in the golf industry today and that great service that creates 'word of mouth' business is the result of a passionately created culture. All business plans and staff considerations should have this culture as their primary consideration. This manual is a timely pro-shop and golf facility management tool as well as an invalueable read for anyone calling on these shops and wanting to help them with their business. Here's what some leaders in the industry had to say about the manual.

One of the great things about Mr. Kirchner's Service Manual is that Craig shares his successful formulas for success. He does not stand on circumstance, nor hide behind his paid consultancy services with some secret messages. Instead, his easy-to-read booklet reveals his wisdom regarding service, initiative and plain ‘good sense.’ Craig shares his powerful sense of observation with examples of how we all benefit from customer care. We think so highly of his writings that we have made his manual required reading for all our employees...his insights are as useful for vendors as they are for merchants.

Richard White

President, Atlantic League of Professional Baseball

Strategic Marketing Affiliates

Craig Kirchner’s ‘The Winning Golf Culture – A Service and Sales Manual’ is inspiring to any PGA Professional who desires to take his or her service operation to the ‘next level’. It is one of the best things I have read in 30+ years in the golf business. It will be ‘required reading’ for my staff, present and future. After reading it carefully, it simply makes you want to do a better job providing service to your members and customers. Not only does the manual motivate, but it is enjoyable to read also. From this point forward, my entire staff will look for opportunities to create ‘wow factors’ each day. In the golf business, staff complacency can sometimes set in. Craig. Thank you for the wake-up call.

Dean Hurst, PGA

Bayville Golf Club

Head Golf Professional

Quite simply, Craig Kirchner gets IT! “The Winning Golf Culture” is a road map to a successful Golf Retail Enterprise. Golf Shops in America today are poised to succeed unlike ever before because their members, guests and customers believe and value the Clubs/Shops own Brand. That Brand is the sum of many parts, quite possibly the most compelling being SERVICE. That SERVICE element is completely under the shop’s control….it is the shop’s choice to make it important. Golf facility owners, GM’s, Professionals and Shop Managers can accomplish great things only if they raise the bar of expectations of their shop operations, understand their unique opportunity to compete, and execute as the best retailers in the world do every day. Craig can absolutely help them along that path.

Mark Killeen

Managing Partner

Pima Direct

The Winning Golf Culture’ is required reading for anyone in the golf business or the service business period. After reading the manual I feel like I could run a marathon. Craig inspires you with his stories and first hand experiences to be better and better with each customer interaction. His experience and superior knowledge has enlightened our staff and has made us aware that everyone’s WOW factor may be different and that our attitude will influence the desired results and for that we thank him.

John H. Marino

Head Golf Professional

Old Chatham Golf Club

Another home run for Craig Kirchner! This service manual is the blueprint for creating a culture of connection with the customer. Apply these principles and you WILL be more successful. And work will be more fun too.

Buddy Sass

Head Golf Professional

Ocean City Golf Club

The Winning Golf Culture

A Service and Sales Manual

for the Successful Pro Shop

Craig R. Kirchner

I am confident that this manual will provide your facility an incredibly competitive edge and fresh new outlook and therefore be money well spent.

For group presentations call me at 4443-309-3005. I look forward to hearing from you if you have questions or comments at craigrkirchner@gmail.com.

Merchandise Buy Plan Guide

Since putting the blog together in December of 2008 I have had a number of requests to offer a guide to the methodology I use to create buy-plans for my clients. I have written a 40 page guide providing, step-by-step, the thought process to formulate a buying strategy which will make your shop well merchandised but not over-inventoried. This buy plan technique is one which has impressed every shop owner or manager I have explained it to over the years and in my mind is bullet-proof in its ability to establish key shop levels. Most shops will be preparing to pre-book spring goods in August so I believe reposting the testimonials for this manual to be timely.

“At Kinloch Golf Club we have been fortunate to have Craig Kirchner as our merchandising consultant for more than five (5) years. He has assisted in reducing our inventory levels while enhancing the overall gross margins and increasing revenue substantially. Our professional staff has benefitted from his genuine and knowledgeable expertise in buying, display, inventory control and sales techniques. Craig can be an asset to any golf merchandising operation with his extensive background and product knowledge. I would recommend this guide to anyone.”

Phil Owenby

General Manager

Kinloch Golf Club

“Craig Kirchner started working with me over 4 years ago. At that time I carried an average inventory of $145,000 to generate $400,000 in sales. Today my average inventory is $85,000 and we still generate close to $400,000 in sales. There is no more inventory sitting in the "back room" and I have been able to adapt more effectively to the changing economic conditions. There is no doubt that the principles contained in Craig's Book changed my business significantly for the better.”

Buddy Sass, PGA

Head Golf Professional

Ocean City Golf Club

"A positive mindset accompanied by knowledge, experience and common sense are a formula for success in any field. Craig possesses and utilizes all these traits effectively in his approach to merchandising."

Mike Elliott

VP of Sales 

Greg Norman Collection

"For the last five years Craig and his methodology have been very instrumental in assisting us with both our golf shop buy plan and the LPGA Championship merchandise tent. His methods work and we have been able to increase our profit margins with his plan.

Richard D. Rounsaville

General Manager/Director of Golf 

Bulle Rock

"Golf Shops today have unprecedented opportunity to be successful. Economic dynamics are driving consumer behavior to be more demanding than ever of a value experience. That experience includes the presentation of the right products, at the right time with the right service in an efficient atmosphere. There is far grater value to the consumer in shopping for golf products in a golf shop where he/she can find properly targeted products that are easy to buy while being assisted by a knowledgeable staff member, versus driving to a mall and navigating a maze of shops with relatively no service in hopes of finding the right product. The key to a Golf Shop's success here is executing on this concept. While some shops most certainly do, many need help and Craig Kirchner has a proven track record of building successful golf shop operations. Now is the time for this industry to collectively pull itself up by its bootstraps and execute. I have used Craig's counsel and I highly recommend every golf shop who is looking for improvement do the same."

Mark Killeen

Managing Partner 

Pima Direct

Merchandising Buy Plan  

A Simple How-To Guide

Craig R. Kirchner

The cost for this e-manual is now $29.95 which will be e-mailed upon payment. I decided it was more practical and easier to deliver now in PDF. You can easily purchase this on PayPal (“BUY NOW” button to the right).

I am confident that you will find this guide to be easy to implement and money well spent. I look forward to hearing from you if you have questions or comments at craigrkirchner@gmail.co

Developing the Culture

3 Creek Ranch

This is a repost of a four part series I wrote a few years ago that broke down service and sales into the arrival, pre-service, shop salesmanship and follow up.

When someone mentions “exemplary service” as often as I do it is quite common to be quizzed about what specifically that phrase means. Does it mean simply being especially nice to customers? The obvious answer is yes, but exemplary implies pushing the envelope, always looking to make the member/ customer’s experience special in new ways without sacrificing anything that has proved itself well received in the past. Thinking outside the box is an important part of the culture that provides this type of service and should be encouraged as soon as a new staff member is brought on board. You never know where the next great idea will come from.

With this as mantra this posting will discuss the first of many hypothetical staff meetings where this attitude of team thinking is fostered. We will open the discussion with a preface on a particular area of the operation per meeting so as to keep everyone’s thought process focused. The introduction by this meeting’s team leader may sound something like this.

“Our customer has pulled his car to the bag drop. An attendant greets those in the car to the facility, assists them with their bags and explains what the next step in the process will be. This constitutes typical service. What can we do to enhance this part of the experience?”

The following ideas surface:

• It would be more personal to (whenever possible) be able to greet this member or customer(s) by name. 

At this point all the different tools that could be used to accomplish this are examined.

It is also important upon arrival to differentiate as much as possible between members/regulars and their guests with a particular warm welcome for the guest.

The best chance at creating a new regular and the most prospective new member is a wowed guest.

• It would be great if the greeter could volunteer not just to direct the customer to the next point of call but to accompany them and introduce them to the shop staff.

This is a nice touch and obviously depending on the operation the next stop could be to meet the caddy, the staff member managing the range or the locker room attendant.

• All of what we are discussing would be more seamless if we offered to valet-park the cars.

The attitude is once you are here we will take care of the mundane stuff and you will only have to remember the experience.

• If we start to valet the cars we could offer to wash and detail them while they play.

This is not as difficult as it sounds as it is subbed out to a contractor, takes a corner of the parking lot, is incredibly well received by most and of course has margin built in for the facility. This idea has the facility adding dollars per round before the customer has left the bag drop.

• Shouldn’t we be inquiring as early as possible if there is a particular beverage we can load into the six –pack cooler on the cart, we don’t have anyone play here who isn’t interested in hydrating or dehydrating as it were?

How many times have you waited until the fifth or sixth hole before the beverage cart makes an appearance? Maybe more to the point, once regulars are aware this service exists there will be no reason to bring your own.

• Should we inquire at arrival whether anyone could use balls, gloves, shoes or apparel so as to plant the seed and get them to the appropriate staff member to best help with their need?

Typically the first staff member exposed to the newcomer is a young person who either takes the bag from the trunk or retrieves it from the bag room and their conversation and social skills are often revealing as to the overall service attitude at the facility. While they should not sound scripted or rehearsed, they could be practiced, at the very least these young people should be at this meeting.

• We think of preparation to play as an opportunity to warm up at the range and to have the rules and peculiarities of the course explained; most people seem disinterested and even put off by me reading this recitation at the first tee, particularly if I am the first staff member to introduce myself and strike up a conversation.

This comment made by the Marshall working the first tee is making the point that while this is probably important to pace of play, etc. no one came here today to listen to the rules, they came for camaraderie, golf and a good time.

• We should explain to customers when they arrive what they need to do to depart. Many people get done playing and are confused as to what to do next. We could explain where they drop the carts or how to retrieve their car. It would also be a good time to invite them to spend some time with us at the 19th. 

Another seed planted and you can’t plant too many as it is really about total dollars per round.

• Shouldn’t we be providing a range attendant to help with the procurement of range balls and cleaning clubs. Maybe this is the fellow who can in a very friendly way mention some of the rules?

But this will probably cost more than we can budget - or maybe not with some vision. The point is that there are no bad ideas at this meeting and the young man who brought this up is obviously on board.

• We are already keeping a personalized golf ball inventory in the member’s locker and our locker room attendant is great at keeping up with the cleaning and polishing of shoes. Let’s suggest to the membership that if they purchase what we will call their locker outfit and turn it in with their shoes at the end of the round we will see to it that it is cleaned, pressed and hanging in the locker the next time they come out to play. It may or may not be what they wear their next round but it is there if needed.

I will not take credit for this idea. Gilbert Taylor runs the locker room at Kinloch and one of my favorite stops in my travels is coffee with Gilbert and sharing ideas.

Kinloch Golf  Club

The following stops along the extra mile will break up staff meeting topics into these areas of the operation; obviously no two facilities would necessarily have the same:

1. Arrival and preparation.

2. Pre-service – During the round – At the break

4. Shop Salesmanship

4. Post-play – Departure – Follow-up

None of the ideas presented at this pretend (Arrival) meeting were earth-shaking but all were thought provoking and would be fruitful at developing that culture that attempts to provide special enough service to be remembered, enjoyed and talked about by the most important part of the equation – the customer. In an effort to set your staff apart from the competition and have members/customers marketing your facility with word of mouth, mock meetings 2, 3 and 4 will take place over the next couple of weeks. The real key is to develop momentum at the meeting. Implementing ideas put forward by employees is as important as paying attention to the comments and criticisms of customers.