Running a golf club is not easy. Although most are small businesses, the areas that make them up involve disciplines as different as agronomy and catering, not to mention retail. As in any business, the manager is the one-man band, the person who must have that 360° view, mastering or at least understanding every area in order to coordinate them so the symphony sounds right. But it has to be said that this is no easy task, and some areas tend to be easier to take on than others, depending on the manager’s profile or the club’s specific structure. For this and other reasons, clubs turn to outsourcing.

What leads golf clubs to outsource?

• Simplifying management
• Securing income
• Avoiding large investments
• Difficulty recruiting and retaining talent
• Reducing high fixed costs
• Seeking excellence: thanks to the improvement in service or management that a third party specialising in that activity can offer, and which would be very costly for the club to achieve on its own.

Most companies choose to outsource certain secondary areas such as security, cleaning or IT. In golf, however, it is also common to do so with areas that directly affect the user experience. The percentage of outsourced restaurants and academies is quite high. Pro shops less so, although it is rising, and in course maintenance it is also gaining ground.

In those cases, outsourcing is good practice as long as the provider does the job better than the company itself would, both because of its standards and because it knows the golf sector and how a club works. Otherwise, both the experience of customers and members and the bottom line can suffer.

What about other areas, such as sales?

Unfortunately, outsourcing sales is not very common, and not exactly because clubs have large sales departments. It is simply a question of structure: many clubs do not have a department, or even a sales profile on their team. And not because they don’t need one, but because:

• They “cannot” afford the costs
• They don’t “see” the need: although the course’s results could be better, they are not that bad (a financial comfort zone). This scenario is very common at mixed or members’ clubs, where selling green fees is not a priority (even though it represents a more than desirable income)

In these cases, it is usually the manager who takes on the sales functions, sometimes supported by someone on the team (secretary’s office, reservations), but:

• They lack the know-how (they tend to be operations-focused profiles)
• They lack time. A large part of sales work consists of anticipating and following up. In other words, the tasks are apparently not urgent, they are not fires to put out (so frequent in a manager’s day) and so they are left pending day after day (we know that, all too often, the urgent leaves no room for the important)
• It requires leaving the club to make sales visits, travelling to take part in trade shows or attend events. This is incompatible with a manager’s responsibilities, which demand their presence at the club almost daily (looking after members, meeting the team or supervising services, among others).

Result:

• The work is inconsistent, it doesn’t get the time it needs and, very importantly, sometimes when it does get done it is too late.

Financial result:

• Many green fees left unsold, many euros left unearned, which directly affects the bottom line.

Faced with this situation, the company may decide to hire someone. As the structure is small, what they can or are willing to take on is a junior profile who:

• Needs training and supervision.
• Has to follow a sales plan drawn up beforehand.

Therefore:

• Extra work for the manager who, as we said, lacks the know-how or the time for it.

Financial result:

• Better results thanks to the work carried out, but with room for improvement.
• More income, although there is still room to sell more.
• Resources have not been optimised (to get more out of the hire, that person is also used for administrative or support tasks). Once again, the urgent leaves no time for the important.

In these cases, when the company is aware of its sales potential and no longer settles for results that could be better —that is, it wants to sell more and optimise resources— outsourcing the sales area can be a good option, as it means:

• Having a senior profile with a reputation.
• Efficiency: through cost savings (money and time).
• A change in company culture.
• Professionalising sales.
• A good reaction from buyers (with the product entering the market actively).
• Partners more willing to work together: when they have a known, permanent contact, when communication is fluid, when there is a sales mindset in handling bookings and incidents.
• Greater reach: thanks to the external company’s resources.

Although the benefits are considerable, the fear of outsourcing, of losing control over actions and the club’s reputation, is understandable. That is why it is important to understand that outsourcing is a strategic relationship, in which both day-to-day matters and long-term goals should be approached exactly as if the outsourced area or the consultant hired were part of the team. In this way we also contribute not only to better club management but to a consistent external image, so the company does not look fragmented (especially if it has several outsourced areas).

To finish, and going back to what we said at the beginning: if we turn to outsourcing to seek excellence in other areas, why not do the same in sales? As we have seen, placing our trust in someone who knows the market and its players, who brings visibility and generates sales, will be the best investment we can make for our club.

Are you thinking about optimising your sales? Have you considered outsourcing them?
We are here for you to talk about whatever you need, whenever you need it.

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