OPINION – Tony Clark CEO of PlaneSWING Golf

    PlaneSwing in Action
    Leveraging your assets makes “Plane Sense”

    Tony Clark is a former golf professional, and the owner and CEO of PlaneSWING Golf. Here he writes that while it is important that club professionals invest in teaching and fitting equipment, the pro must also have a logical and realistic plan in place to ensure a return is made on the investment before they sign on the dotted line…

    Whether we are talking about pro shop staff or capital equipment, it makes sense to consider how you can maximise a return on any investment. To expect to know every leveraging option is unrealistic but with a little thought you’ll be amazed at the additional revenue opportunities that exist, that are right in front of you.

    Analysing the skill-set of your team and finding out what they enjoy will give you some indication of the in-house talent. The younger members of your team will likely be very familiar with social media and the technology side of the business. You can harness this by allocating them a project that will give them an opportunity make a valued contribution, and at the same time add to their personal development. Consider allowing them to set up and manage your Twitter and Facebook accounts, or to develop your e-commerce. If this involves some training, then make that investment in them.

    Happy customer: Stewart Davies (right) head professional at the Cotswold Club in Oxfordshire, with his PlaneSWING
    Happy customer: Stewart Davies (right) head professional at the Cotswold Club in Oxfordshire, with his PlaneSWING

    Many people invest in capital equipment (swing analysers etc…) paying in excess of £5,000 without planning how this investment will pay back and when. This can be a costly mistake. I recommend that pros work with suppliers to understand how to generate a return in the same way that they learn how to physically use the equipment and deliver the service.

    At PlaneSWING, we pride ourselves on freely providing pros with a revenue generating programme based around PlaneSWING, designed to deliver a realistic 10 times return in year one (£4,000 for just a £332 investment!) and a recurring income. Of course this doesn’t happen on its own, but it can happen overnight and will happen if a pro implements the programme.

    The first step to achieving a return on such an investment is to tell your customers about it, and what it means to them. In the case of PlaneSWING, it’s a powerful kinaesthetic learning experience, a rapid improvement in their game and a greater understanding of the swing plane and how their swing performs.

    Using the PlaneSWING programme and our marketing materials, pros will see an increase in clients, additional lessons and additional retail sales.

    Never underestimate the power of combining your investments. PlaneSWING, PowerSTANCE, FlightScope, V1, TrackMan etc… they all add real value to each other as they show powerful ‘before and after’ data to your clients and contribute to the club fitting process.

    I’d encourage pros to seek suppliers that provide educational and commercial support and there are some other great suppliers out there including Swing Catalyst, MIA and Golf Swing Systems.

    Finally, utilise all the resources at your disposal – much of it comes free – whether it be from TGI, Foremost, Retail Tribe the PGA or magazines such as GOLF RETAILING.

    Here’s to a successful 2014 for all of us!

    Further information on PlaneSWING

    T: 01604 830880

    E: onplane@planeswing.com

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