Can your Membership director make a $100,000 sale?

How many exposures does it take before a potential member becomes a full-fledged member? 

Three, Five, or Seven? 

Even with drastically reduced or zero initiation fees now prevalent at all but the top clubs, the number is probably growing for most wouldn’t you say?

If you had to assign your Membership director a letter grade for their ability to sell memberships, how would they rank?

If memberships were $100,000, how good would you feel about them making the sale?

“I wish we could get $100,000 out of a new member....”

You do (already), you just don’t think of each new guest as a $100,000 sale...and therein lies one of the many reasons your membership roles are down.

“You are talking about the wrong club.  Our dues average $600 per month”.

Right:

$600 x 12 months = $7,200. 

Is it safe to say this member might bring a guest?  Eat a few meals?  Buy a few shirts or boxes of balls in the pro shop?  Is it safer to say that number is probably closer to $10,000 (or more)?  Probably.

$7,200 x 14 years = $100,800

What would happen if your Membership Director viewed every guest as a potential $100,000 sale and your club made it worth their while with a great incentive plan?

Would they suddenly start writing hand-written thank you notes to guests?

Might they give up after leaving one voice mail (with no call back) to a potential member and say, “I guess they weren’t interested in joining”?

Do you think they would consider starting a Facebook and/or e-marketing campaign to stay in touch with potential members on the off-chance they didn’t join on their first visit?

“That would be great to create those campaigns but we really don’t have that many visitors per month so I can’t really see the feasibility”.

Huh?

How many outings will you host this year with eighty or more players?

Could you assume that three or four of those players might be a good fit for membership just by their presence in your outing?  Why not?

“Surely you aren’t recommending I call or email eighty people every time we have an outing...do you know how long that would take”?

I do.  If you were able to actually speak with each guest, I’m guessing you would spend four-hundred minutes on the phone assuming each person took five minutes.  Is that a lot of time?  In the grand scheme of things, not really when you (again) consider each member is worth at least $100,000 over the life of their membership. 

What should the phone call sound like?

“Hello Mr. Smith, I just wanted to thank you for coming out to play in the XXXXX charity tournament on Monday.  My name is ____________________, I’m the _____________ at the club.  Do you have a few minutes to talk?  Great!  What I was hoping for was your help in evaluating our club as we are always trying to improve...”

You might ask:

• Was the tournament well run as compared with others you have played?

• What did you think of the course overall?

• Where do you normally play and how do we stack up against your favorite course?

• I know most people hate to be critical, but I was wondering, if you could improve one thing at the club, what would it be?

• We are always trying to get people like yourself as members of the club...there must be a reason why you haven’t joined in the past?

Be simple.  To the point.  And really listen to the answers they give.  Whatever they say is gold and should help you learn better how to position your club in the future.

If you are one of the .005% that will take up this challenge, you have to do it with the positive thought that is will, 1) make the club better in the end and 2) possibly gain new members.  If you think it is a “waste of three hours”, it will sound that way on the other end of the phone.

Separating yourself from the pack will require you to do things you have never done to get results you have never achieved.