How To Draw Your Best Customers to Professional Golf Tournaments
Posted by Ron Amodio on Wed, May 04, 2011 @ 07:58 PM
Your organization has been a leader in using technology to stay connected with its customers while at the same time increasing overall efficiency. But it also recognizes the importance of meeting with its customers in person from time to time to stay relevant to their needs, let them know their loyalty is valued and minimize the risk of losing their business to a competitor.
For the reasons stated above, your company has decided to allocate a part of its key customer entertainment budget to a hospitality package for an upcoming professional golf tournament (e.g. PGA Tour, LPGA or Champions Tour event) in your area and has made it very clear to its account management team that they want to see a return on their investment.
One way top management will measure results is by tracking the number of key customers who were allocated tickets to the event against the number of those key customers who actually attended. Another measure will be the impact your hospitality programs have on customer retention rates and incremental revenue goals.
To ensure success, here are four ways you can fully leverage your hospitality benefits:
1. Pro-Am Spots
Offer them to your best customers who are avid golfers with mid to low handicaps. You can bet that they will clear their schedules to guarantee their positions in the pro-am.
For more on the subject, read sportscaster Ann Liguori's blog describing her recent experience playing in the pro-am at the Bob Hope Golf Classic.
2. Demo Day Club Fitting / Gift Cards For VIP Guests
Offer them to your best customers attending the pro-am so they can be used toward the purchase of new clubs and accessories. This will create a rewarding experience for your VIP golfers as the common sense club-fitting advice they receive will lead to an immediate improvement in their golf swings.
3. Tickets to Hospitality Tent
Offer them to your best customers who are avid golfers as well as those who enjoy the game but don’t play it. This provides the relaxed setting for your account managers to sit down with your best customers and basically find out how your company is doing from their perspectives.
4. Hospitality Tent Visits by Professional Golfers or Commentators
There are many ways to enhance the hospitality your company has purchased. For example, professional golfers or commentators from the event can be used to put your company’s best customers on the “INSIDE” of the tournament. Offer this opportunity to your best customers and their invited guests.
In a future blog, we will explore the area of professional golfer / celebrity recruitment and what to consider when utilizing their services.
If this article was helpful, you may also be interested in the following: 5 Keys To A Successful Sport Event Hospitality Program.
For a complimentary case studies report describing six creative and innovative ways companies are using VIP golf programs to win more business from their valued customers, click on the button below.
Photo Credit: Colvin Sports Network
