Kate Alter is the Golf Shop Manager at the Arrowood Golf Course in Oceanside, California.

Kate Alter on the importance of running team competitions to enhance productivity:

Team competitions are always a win for us in motivating the team to achieve goals! We recently ran a fun competition, where our shop team was split into two groups. Every team member had the chance to “win” a card out of a standard deck of cards by completing certain tasks off of a list, such as selling $150 in merchandise or selling two dozen ProV1s in one transaction, etc. Our team members were able to enjoy instant gratification from adding their card to their team pile, with participants checking daily to see what cards were in play!

Kate Alter on the business impact of running team competitions to enhance productivity:

At the end of a one-month period, both teams presented their best 5-card poker hand compiled from hitting their various sales goals to see whose hand would win. Our associates (it was leads vs. associates) won big with a royal flush. Our team thrives off of competition, so it was no surprise that we saw a significant increase over our monthly sales goal when we ran this fun poker game, to the tune of an 18 percent jump! The winning team won a swag bag of items from different vendors that we had held onto over time, sent at no cost to us. We all know the power of individual motivation, the impact that a one-on-one chat with a team member can have. But we can sometimes forget the impact full team competitions can have. This brought extra juice and was a win for both the sales team and the club at large.

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