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Everywhere you turn, people are tightening their budgets. To be in business, you always need to make sure that your top-line revenues exceed your bottom-line expenses, otherwise you won't be around for long. This business fundamental is the same for you in planning your golf outing. Whether your event is to reward your clients or employees, or is a corporate or charitable fundraiser, your budget needs to reflect your goals. How do you manage this important task effectively? Write down your goals and explore your options.
How much money do you hoWpe to raise? What is your anticipated ROI from holding this corporate golf outing? How much should you spend on giveaways? Do we need to provide lunch or do we spend more on dinner? Do we do a sit down or buffet? Public course versus private? What is our ultimate goal, and how are we going to get there? By devoting the time at the beginning of planning your event, the next steps of the process are much easier. However, as in any good plan, you need to have options because inevitably, you will encounter some roadblocks. Whether it is budget reductions, course conflicts or sponsors pulling out of your event, by identifying your goals, developing a plan, and exploring your options, your path to the event will be much smoother. Here are a few quick pearls of wisdom to help you:
Pick an attractive course to have your event, then identify two other courses that meet the same criteria.
- Talk to the pro about your event, solidify the date and negotiate the price.
- Find out what else the pro can do for you.
- Ask the question: "Who else (golf course) would you recommend we contact to consider booking our outing?" This lets the person you are talking to know that you will consider other options.
- If additional concessions are made to you and you are satisfied, you have secured a better deal. If you are not satisfied, call the other courses you have identified or have been referred, and start the process over.
Ask for a couple of free foursomes that can be used as giveaways, prizes or to entertain VIPs of the event or sponsors. If they don't consider, they don't want your business. This is an excellent way for the golf course to showcase its property to potential new members or to garner future business from players or outings.
Get the pro involved by asking him how or what he suggests to improve the event-day experience. Pros are an excellent resource as they have exposure to what has been successful in past outings. Plus, it is an excellent way to add value. If a pro can donate his time to a pre-event group lesson, the participants can benefit, and the pro can possibly find new students.
If the course you desire is unavailable, ask the pro to recommend an alternative course, and the name of the person to contact. Maybe the course will be available next year, and he looks good to his counterpart by helping her secure your event.
Golf is an excellent medium to get people together. Golf course staff realize that the outings and events segment of their business is vital to their revenue model. Both the planner and the golf professional have their own needs to be satisfied to make their efforts succeed. By exploring the options available to both parties, a mutually beneficial outcome can be obtained. Take the extra time to prepare your game plan for attaining your goals, and remember to keep your options open. In the end, the positive impact of the reduced stress will help your event, and those involved with it, achieve success in 2009. Good Luck!
Brad Seybert is president of Golf Event magazine. |
