Golf Outings – It’s not really about the golf

Many folks organizing golf outings and events do a ton of things right but still never fill their field. They end up scratching their heads, depressed and second guessing their every move going into next year.

We all say the economy isn’t helping. We all know somebody out of work or doing the job of three people back at the office.

The fact is, golf simply takes a long time to play. Who has that time nowadays?

You can accomplish the very same thing… Networking, camaraderie, advertisers, sponsors, lunch, dinner, awards, raffles, auctions, banquets and more!

And here is the interesting part… golf courses actually are quite receptive to a 9 hole outing. You can get preferred times, virtually any day of the week and they can be at or near twilight times and rates so you can take full advantage of their fantastic dinner and dining room service.

Don’t forget to take a look at morning slots so as not to tie up the entire day for groups that need to get back to work.

Don’t take it personally, sometimes people don’t sign up for your golf outing because they simply cannot blow the entire day at the golf course.

Also keep in mind that playing poorly is brutal, 3 extra hours of misery isn’t helping anyone. Look at shortening the day. You will still make your money and players might just appreciate the shorter day.

How to find players for your golf outing.

SMT Golf Outing Services pretty much does everything for you. Games, gifts, prizes, employees, auctions etc. all we leave you with is securing golfers and sponsors. Oddly, everything that we bring to you is quite attractive to sponsors so that really only leaves you with getting golfers.

All you need to do is create a large enough committee to work with you. I am not talking about a bunch of Gold Medal busybody housewives or pompous egomaniac men. I am also not talking about experts in any particular field of party planning, food preparation or event planning experts.

I am simply talking about getting a bunch of people on your committee that are well connected or know a bunch of people. You know, the very same people that spend weeks sending out Christmas cards or are receiving them because they have so many people to on their list! The people that always seem to be involved in school functions, block parties, office parties, chambers of commerce stuff, rotary club etc.

In other words, I actually only want YOU to go out and find 3 of your personal friends who have the fattest Rolodex or personal phone book that you know of.

Friends of yours who are always on their cell phones or spend more time on Facebook than the law allows! Golf outing success is about WHO you know.

Now you ask your 3 friends to be on your “committee” and all that you and your 3 friends have to do is to EACH find 2 golfers to bring a team to your golf outing AND each find 3 of their personal FRIENDS that share the same traits that you have discovered in them to do the same. In other words, get them to work for you.

This means that YOU will have brought in 8 players to your event, maybe 12 if you have a team of your own.

This also means that each of your personal friends will do the same for your event. The total number of players that you and your 3 friends brought into your event is… 32 to 48

They don’t need to come to any meetings, they really don’t need to spend any time driving to discuss the event because that is NOT why they were asked in the first place. They just need to do their FRIEND a favor and each find a couple of their golfing friends to help them out and play the game they love.

Notice how I never made a comment on what the reason for the outing was? It is because nobody really cares! (sorry)

PEOPLE PLAY IN GOLF OUTINGS BECAUSE THEY ARE ASKED TO PLAY!

Golf Outing Raffle Prizes

I don’t care how big your golf outing is. If you are running an event to raise money for something, you absolutely need to have raffle prizes!

I am not saying that you need a metric ton of items by any means, but please do not fill whatever space you have on your raffle table with mindless donated crap.

Before making that mistake, realize that there are only three reasons people participate in raffles at any event from bingo halls to black tie affairs.

1.      They are quick, painless and require no skill to win.

2.      They are a nice simple way to support the organization with a few dollars.

And absolutely the most important one as I can prove to you any day of the week, if you ever stood at golf outing registration table for 20 minutes… People are looking to score something rather nice for a very small investment.

The question always comes up when you ask, “and would you like to buy any raffle tickets?”… “What are you raffling off” or “Where are the raffle prizes”? People want to know what is available and will spend accordingly.

The amount of tickets people buy is directly proportional to the perceived value of the items on display, and you should have the raffle items on display right at or near the registration tables. You can move them to the dining room later.

That being said… 24 silk screened beer coozies donated by the local Aflac Insurance Rep or 4 stadium seat cushions with the Loretti Brothers Pawn logo over on main street are things that you should just hand out as opposed to hope to lure paying customers into winning.

You are far better off going out and buying 3 nice pieces with your credit card at Walmart than having 50 pieces of donated junk. Again, those other pieces are what we refer to as…. “either they were gonna’ throw them out or donate them to someone else who will throw them out”.

The rule of thumb should be, if you would leave the prize in your car unlocked all night in front of your house and NOT worry, it shouldn’t be on your raffle table.

Golf outing raffles are arguably your largest source of revenue. There are some things that you cannot afford to have donated.

Having helped raise millions of dollars for charities the past couple of years, I cannot help but see so many of the same mistakes happening day after day, event after event.

So much effort and work put into an event on such absolutely trivial things. Things that others will handle for you, things that really mean nothing in the bigger scheme and things that will never even be applauded or cursed when the success of the event is eventually measured, as success will be measure with a $ sign in front of it. Not if JoAnne liked the signs at registration.

What color bags to hold player gifts? How many tables do you think we need at registration? Do we need duck tape? What happens if the wind doesn’t stop? Do the carts have roofs on them? Will Betty remember to bring donuts since she drives right by the bakery on her way to the course? Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. ……….

Upon arrival at the golf course, somehow, the registration tables are set up. Elves? The wind is less that you remembered on your driveway and while Betty, amazingly, didn’t bring the all-important donuts, she sent an “emergency text” to her daughter who is supposed to work registration to grab them on her way in. Sadly, she forgets your favorite pumpkin glazed, but what the heck, she is only a teenager. Damn that Betty for forgetting something that you talked about two meetings ago!

Idle chit-chat, laughter and camaraderie among volunteers is the norm as you see that your day has finally arrived without REAL tragedy and you all somehow feel a chance to breathe a sigh of relief as if the calendar somehow wouldn’t land on your special day because it knew you intended a golf event today.

Slowly you set up what you need at registration, you run into minor setbacks. The tables are a bit too close to the wall, only one outlet, you look for help unloading the goodies from your van now that you have some helpers and you look for hot coffee and the bathrooms.

Surprisingly, players stumble in sooner than you thought. OMG, you are not quite ready for them. The laptop isn’t on, the goody bags are not set up and the gal who is supposed to be SELLING raffle tickets and mulligans is talking with the girl in the golf shop about fall fashions.

No big deal… you figure that you and Betty’s teenage daughter can handle these 4 early birds. Computer is finally booted up, you get their names, check them in and usher them down to the teenager who passes them their goody bags and ASKS them, with a “Price Is Right Model” wave of her hand, “Would you like to buy any raffle tickets or mulligans?”

As they already have waited far too long to check in due to the registration table being unprepared for their arrival, they shrug off her “more than generous offer” to invest their money in her Cause and search out the coffee for themselves.

Opportunity and over $100 in revenue lost right off the bat. The teenager’s response is the typical… “whatever”.

And that is just one group! Certainly it will get better. The law of averages guarantees it. But registration lasts only 2 hours. Now it is time to play golf.

The volunteers that spent months and months getting ready for the last two hours of their lives at registration, lean back in their chairs, smile, breathe a sigh of relief and commend each other on a job well done, even though you are still upset with Betty and the donuts and it’st almost as smooth as you planned it for the past several months, well, except for the donut thing and that one idiot group that arrived 45 minutes before registration was supposed to start. You hear a muffled “whatever” from Betty’s teenage daughter again.

But it is far from over. There are no wallets standing in front of you any longer! All of your money is now whipping around the golf course in little white plastic carts. Yet these volunteers are sitting on their collective duffs in the clubhouse! WHY?

The golf course is smart enough to know where the wallets are for the next 5+ hours and they have literally sprung into action. There are two beer carts, ONE GIRL in each, actually chasing after the money, chasing down their customers. WAIT, YOUR customers! They have one goal in mind. Relieving them of as much of their money as they can, while your group is still milling around the registration table deciding on “important things” like…. Should you put the left over goody bags in Betty’s van because you have to go to soccer practice after the event, and is it O.K. if you toss out the rest of the fliers in the golf shop garbage can.

IF and when your volunteers finally do get out in your own little white plastic golf cart, oddly, the fun and camaraderie still remains the goal, but you brought a roll of raffle tickets “just in case”, and there are 3 girls crammed into the seat. The teenager just wants to drive the cart, the girl in the middle just wants to see how her husband is playing, but really doesn’t know what hole he started on and for that matter doesn’t know the layout of the course anyway, so she is just enjoying how pretty the course is while wondering what guys get out of this stupid game. The girl hanging off the end of the seat is hoping the teenager doesn’t hit another bump in the fairway or decide to make a sharp left turn, otherwise she will dump her bucket of 12 jello shots (which, of course, she has had to sample to make sure they were alright).

Whizzing past players with a half-hearted… “Wanna but a raffle ticket”? while they were putting really does nothing for SALES, but that is O.K., she is really looking for her husband’s group anyway. Once she finds him and realizes that he is indeed still on the golf course, she will feel better. After all, it has been a whole hour since she has seen him at registration.

And it goes on and on and on……all day long. “Oh, there he is… let’s go over there……..”

The fact of the matter is… SELLING is a VERB. It is an action. It takes some degree of effort. There absolutely is a huge difference between SELLING and “offering for sale” with a cursory hand wave toward a pile of items on a table.

Player Registration is a time when you literally get to see, 90% or more of your players and they have one thing on their mind. GIVING YOU MONEY!

They are not thinking about their putting, their next shot or the location of the beverage cart. They are not thinking about their score or who is riding with them in the cart.

DO NOT greet players and guests in a seated position. If you cannot stand for the short duration of the registration process, find someone who can. Other than in medical exceptions it is absolutely disrespectful to remain seated when greeting a guest, especially a guest who has paid more money than they should to be there AND a guest that you hope to get more money from. You would not do it in your home. Do not do it at your golf event!

Smile, introduce yourself to each player, reach out and shake their hand. Now you have formed a bond with them. They know your name and you know their name, they feel they know you and that they will be seeing you more than once this day. This is a good thing. They are now your friend, at least for the next 3 minutes if not for the day. It is harder for a “friend” to say no to a request, and make no doubt, you are getting ready to make a request of your new friend.

Literally pick up the item that you want them to buy. Hand it to them so they perceive ownership. Once they hold it, touch it, feel it, they will know that it is theirs. At the same time, in this case, raffle tickets, you tell them how much they cost. Tell them that you accept cash, check or charge and hold out your empty hand casually in wait. DO NOT ASK THEM if they would like to purchase them. They already have them in their fingertips. Those raffle tickets are theirs, you are now just discussing price and waiting for payment.

The very second that registration slows down because there are only 6 more players to register, leave, as there are more “wallets” outside than will ever be at your section of the registration table. Again, follow the money. Get a cart, grab EVERYTHING that you can to sell on the course, a money bag for making change and head right down to the staging area where all of the golfers are sitting.

Leave your fellow committee members behind. You do not need them. You are a grownup and this is business. And your business only will last for the next 6 hours.

Walk cart to cart, SMILING, laughing, talking, offering raffle tickets, 50/50’s, strings, mulligans, whatever you have, touting what the money will benefit for the day and thanking everyone that you come in contact with for being there supporting your event, remembering as many names as you can from 30 minutes ago at the registration tables.

If you are a guy, don’t do this job, go get a girl to do it. Sorry, but girls sell more than guys.

SELLING is a VERB….. Offering something for sale is a waste of time.