Here is a simple but
powerful rule – always give people more than they expect to get.
- Nelson Boswell
If your goal is to
improve the retail salesmanship of your staff you need to reflect on and
perhaps redefine selling. If you believe that any effort to sell anything is
tantamount to “carny” hard sell at the amusement park you will never instill
the self-respect that needs to be present in your employees to want to get to
know people and move merchandise. If we define salesmanship as engaging a
customer in conversation there can be no misunderstanding that retail
salesmanship equates to hard-sell. Well trained respectful retail salespeople know that listening is as
important as talking when it comes to presenting the product and matching it to
the customers’ needs. They know that building trust and creating relationships
leads to sales, and that this starts with understanding the customer or member
as an individual first and then as a prospect, customer or guest.
The major difference between Golf Shop Retail and other retailing
is what I refer to as the Intimacy factor. The finite number of frequently
visiting members and or regulars who are there to play golf, expanded by their
guests is an intimate customer base. This is obviously more pronounced at
private club’s shops than it is at daily fee facilities but most daily fee
courses built in the last decade market themselves as providing a “country club
for a day” experience. The point is we are not talking about providing superior
service to the general public so much as we are creating relationships with
avid golfers who are regular visitors to our golf course and shop and who are
often as not the more affluent people in the community. This factor is only
limiting if misunderstood; it is actually an incredible leg up.
It is easier to acknowledge someone and strike up a conversation
if you know their name, their occupation, the rest of their foursome and their
handicap. It becomes even easier if you know their likes and dislikes, the
clubs they play and the beer they drink. You can personalize this visit by
knowing their birthday, their wife’s name and everyone feels special if you ask
about their kids. Jack Mitchell who wrote “Hug Your Customer” talks about being
able to name his top 250 customers and in many cases mention their dog by name
when they enter his domain. Capturing, retaining and then learning to use this
information to enhance your customer’s experience should not be considered
above and beyond but rather standard operating procedure for your staff and a
fundamental of the culture you are striving to create.
Consider the following experience:
“Mr. Smith, good to see you again. We have some lockers set up for
your guests and the Titleist ball that you play are on sale. By the way, how is
your boy Kevin doing at the University of Michigan? Is he still on the golf
team? We just put out some of those Adidas shorts he likes so much. When your
friends show up I’ll check them in and send them up to the range. I am really
looking forward to meeting them.”
Now consider an alternative typical occurrence:
Mr. Smith walks in to the shop and has a tee time in ½ an hour
with three friends who have never played this course which is Mr. Smith’s
regular stomping ground. The assistant pro behind the counter asks Mr. Smith
his name and tee-time even though he has played there twice a month for the
last five years. “Is the rest of your group here yet? Please see to it they
check in and that will be $100 each for the tee time. Report to the starter,
show him your receipt and he’ll get you on the tee.”
These incidents could as easily take place at private as well as
semi-private or daily-fee pro shops. Mr. Smith A is impressed, bought his son a
pair of shorts, himself a dozen balls and is going to make sure to introduce
his friends to the staff. He will probably tell anyone who will listen about
the way they take care of you at his course of choice. Mr. Smith B is not
impressed, as a matter of fact that evening he runs into Mr. Smith A and
decides over drinks to change up his regular haunt.
Capturing and retaining information to be used as in the Mr. Smith
sample above can be as simple as asking for a business card or jotting some
notes and adding to a file but retaining customer information is much easier
than it used to be when good retailers kept card files or hand written rolodex.
Thirty seconds in the right computer screen and Mr. Smith is becoming a
relationship instead of a greens fee.
Both Mr. Smiths made their tee times for themselves and their
friends a week ahead of time. Your staff is looking forward to their arrival
and impressing them and their guests with proactive service or they are missing
an incredible opportunity. It should be standard operating procedure to prepare
for arrivals with as much of a personal touch as is possible. If the
understanding of the staff/customer interaction at your facility is that they
take the money for the tee time and go back to whatever it is they were doing
when they were interrupted ala Mr. Smith B then you (the Leader) are a poor
captain of a rudderless ship.
The leader and staff that serviced Mr. Smith A realize that in
order to continue to effectively Wow customers we need to capture, retain and
learn to use pertinent information about pertinent regulars.
Possible specific actions:
- Challenge each shop associate to create a customer
profile of all the existing members/regulars that they have developed a
relationship with. This can be done individually but more effective is
electronically with Excel or specific software that the entire staff can
access.
- Discuss at all staff meetings creative ways to use
these profiles.
- Challenge each key staff member to develop at least one
new relationship and profile per day. At clubs this may seem like a finite
number that would be quickly exhausted but it isn’t when you consider
guests of members.
The point is any
conversation is better than ‘may I help you’ which typically elicits a ‘no’ and
the shared interest in the game makes this easy to initiate. Customers expect
to be acknowledged and engaged in conversation by a friendly, smiling, upbeat
staff that has been educated to point out value, features and benefits. They
look to be professionally attended to, for product to be attractively displayed
and they look to be sold. The days of the “hang it and hope” mentality are over
- the hope isn’t being fulfilled. The consumer, no matter what his station in
life, knows how much harder he is working and how much more knowledgeable he
has to be to make ends meet and expects similar effort before deciding to get
out his wallet.
It is human nature to
want to talk about something you are confident you know a lot about and to be
shy and vague when you don’t. It is important in any kind of selling to know your
product. Most golf shops have a limited enough inventory and finite enough
number of skus that this should not be difficult, but it does require a
commitment on the part of the Leader to educate accordingly. It should never be
assumed that your staff knows your product unless they have been given the
opportunity to receive the appropriate information. Good retail sales people
who work strictly on commission can strike up a conversation on any item in
their domain. All assistant pros and most shop help are working in golf because
they love the game. Translating that energy and love into service and sales is
the challenge.
