Chuck Will, a PGA Certified Professional, PGA Quarter Century Club member, and a past GRAA Top 50 Growth of the Game Teaching Professional, is the PGA director of instruction at the Chuck Will Golf Academy at Dulles (Va.) Golf Center & Sports Park.

Chuck Will on the importance of holding season-long demo days:
During May and June 2013, we scheduled a manufacturer’s technical representative for a demo/clubfitting day on Thursday evenings. We required any interested customers to make appointments with the representatives after the schedule was posted in the golf shop, on our Facebook page and on Google+. Even though we have all of the clubfitting tools on site, we encourage our customers and students who are contemplating new clubs to attend these one-day events, as the representatives may have a larger selection to try in their fitting carts.

Chuck Will on the business impact of holding season-long demo days:
Through monitoring our sales numbers and customer feedback, we discovered that offering customers the opportunity to be fit by different manufacturers on different days instead of all on the same day piqued more interest. There are a lot of golfers who are brand loyal and may only want to demo one company’s new products. Because the technical representatives had a little more time to spend with each customer, as a result of the scheduling policy, we found that once customers were fit, they were more apt to buy the clubs that day rather than waiting or not buy the clubs at all. Additionally, we offered special incentives for those who purchased on the day they were fit to help encourage sales.

If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email chuckwillpga@gmail.com