Karl Bublitz, a past South Florida PGA Section Golf Professional of the Year and Bill Strausbaugh Award winner, is the PGA director of golf and club operations at Grey Oaks Country Club in Naples, Fla.

Karl Bublitz on the importance of hosting daily demo days to boost equipment sales:
Our daily demo days have vastly improved our membership’s golf experience, and have dramatically increased our bottom line. For the past eight years we have devoted one of our assistant professionals solely to equipment sales, meaning they are out on the range at least four days each week (from approximately 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.) with our launch monitor, demo equipment, and fitting carts, helping everyone with their own equipment, and exposing them to newer and potentially better options. The key to this initiative is finding the right assistant to put in this role: Someone who not only knows his or her stuff and is well-versed in the equipment industry’s latest trends, but who is also extremely personable and approachable. At Grey Oaks, when our assistant isn’t hosting a demo day for a particular brand of drivers, or coordinating a club repair day with a grip company, or fitting somebody for a custom set of irons, he’s walking up and down the range, engaging our membership and offering them a helping hand with their game. We maintain a file on each member we work with, tracking every conversation, so that we always know the direction they have taken their equipment. For our members, having this equipment expert right there on the range has been invaluable; for myself and our staff, having the opportunity to build such meaningful, interactive relationships with our membership has proven to be the real benefit.

Karl Bublitz on the business impact of hosting daily demo days to boost equipment sales:
There is simply no more effective way to sell equipment than to get it into players’ hands and let them experience it for themselves. Despite our club’s high volume of play, our equipment sales were not what they should’ve been until the first three years of this program, when we saw our sales skyrocket from approximately $150,000 annually to $550,000 annually. As an added bonus, by proving to our members just how dedicated we are to improving their games, we have also seen our instruction and club repair revenue increase by more than 50 percent.

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