By Vanessa Salomons, Director Of Retail at Monaghan Golf Group

7 Steps To More Revenue

'Tis the season to begin coming up with your Golf Shop Promotional Plan for the new year. So lets get started… first of all what is a promo plan?

A promotional plan contains a detailed strategy for expanding your business. This plan is not just about your retail discount programs but also about your grand marketing scheme for your retail operation. This plan should include your annual event days, your pop up shops, your monthly features, sales, markdown calendars, product launches and your member/customer in shop incentives.

Build it and work it and they will shop.

Figure out a budget - Make sure that you allocate a dollar amount to making your promotional plan work. The more you have the more lavishly you can plan your promos (things like giveaways, wine and cheese evenings and props for the shop can get expensive). NOTE: You can still have a great promo plan with little to no dollar – you just have to get creative and utilize resources like our vendor relationships (everything can be negotiated).
Establish a timeline - Since most golf shops are not open the entire 12 months out of the year use a plan that works best for your situation. Try to have one promotion per month to keep your plan clean and attainable to deliver on.
Identify your target clients - Include a detailed description of your ideal client base in the plan. As you target your market, you must also determine your product price because you cannot effectively promote your product if your target clients cannot afford to buy it. You must consider who will be purchasing the products that you are promoting. You cannot be everything to everyone.
Product placement mediums - Decide where you intend to place your product and your advertisements, and write a list of the mediums you plan to use. Member e-blasts, social media, website, print etc. are all examples of how to get your information out to your clientele. NOTE: If you are not using social media to promote, you are truly missing out on the least expensive way to get the word out about what you are doing.
Set a Goal - You must set a revenue or sales-based goal for your promotion based either on a dollar amount or on a percentage increase in revenue (how many units do you plan to sell, how much in revenue will this bring in). Make sure your goal is attainable.
Involve Your Employees - Write a list of the specific responsibilities that each department or employee must undertake as part of the promotional plan. Your team needs to understand what it is that you are doing from a promotional perspective. A great way to work the plan is to make specific staff responsible for different promotions. Set up a meeting in the offseason for key staff and get them to pick which promos they want to be responsible for promoting. You must provide the framework and do the follow up with them.
Work your plan and evaluate it every season - Some promos will work well to carry on to the next year and some won’t. Numbers don’t lie so be sure you are tracking your successes.

Point number 7 needs to be reiterated. WORK YOUR PLAN! Far too many times we get busy and forget about these plans so keep it simple. Like anything else it’s the execution of a plan that will gain you the benefits. Over 80% of plans fail because of the lack of execution. Executing a plan done right is a disciplined process.