Tee Time

Everyone knows business and golf have become inextricably linked. But some entrepreneurs out there shanking, slicing and signing up clients could use a few lessons to bring their business games up to par. We know of one entrepreneur, for instance, who signed up for a golf tournament on the condition that she be paired with a certain potential client. One small handicap: She’d never swung a golf club in her life. She did land the client (even though she lost the tournament), but we wouldn’t call this the best course of action. In light of this, we’ve put together a guide to doing business on the links:

Golf Lesson No. 1: Turf Advantage

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When it comes to cutting business deals, not all golf courses are created equal. Experts say some greens have a reputation for being very green indeed – they’re the hot spots that industry moguls and high-level executives choose for closing important business deals. William Hallberg, a Golf Digest course evaluator and author of The Rub of the Green (Ballantine Books), suggests you consider the plentiful business opportunities at the nation’s five most high-powered courses:

* Congressional Country Club, Bethesda, Maryland. This is the course of choice for politicians and deal makers from the nation’s capitol.

* Olympic Club, San Francisco. Local business executives enjoy its beautiful views and excellent club house and restaurant.

* New Orleans Country Club, New Orleans. This is a favorite among this region’s oldest families and wealthiest residents.

* Bethpage State Park Golf Course (Black), Bethpage, New York. High-rollers from the city flock to the area’s most magnificent golf course.

* Bel Air Country Club, Los Angeles. This is the place to be seen for movie industry execs and business heavyweights.

Golf Lesson No. 2: Pairing Up

Once you’ve settled on the best place to tee off, it’s time to learn the art of pairing, says Gretchen Kihm of golf course management company American Golf Corp. in Santa Monica, California. One strategy: Partner your potential client with whomever is closing the deal. Bring along your longtime customer Joe and new client John to complete the foursome; they can be called on to offer unique perspectives when needed.

Golf Lesson No. 3: Soft Sell

Whether you’re trying to drive in business with loyal customers or prospective clients, the best advice is to use a delicate touch. Even if your objective is to close the deal today, don’t begin talking business after the first practice swing. Professionals always play a few holes first, Kihm says. When you put your sales hat on, strive for a casual tone. Keep business talk to a minimum; experts advise talking shop no more than 20 percent of the time.

Golf Lesson No. 4: Good Connections

For M. Ann Padilla, president and CEO of Sunny Side Inc./Temp Side, a Denver staffing resource company, golf isn’t about making deals. It’s about making contacts. “The idea is to get to know someone you can do [future] business with,” says Padilla. For instance, Padilla claims talking on the golf course with one client about potential ways they could improve their relationship eventually increased her sales from this client by 70 percent.

Golf Lesson No. 5: Let The Games Begin

It’s time to play a few rounds. When you’re on the course, observe carefully, then cater your sales pitch accordingly. Someone’s golf game can reveal his or her derision-making sells, motivations and more. And if your opponent’s throwing his or her club in frustration, don’t bring up important business matters.

Finally, while golf courses furnish fertile grounds for deal-making, remember that golf is just a game. Enjoy it. In the end, only you can decide the best way to bring in business on the greens.

Friday quotes….Enjoy!

“Give me the fresh air, a beautiful partner, and a nice round of golf… and you can keep the fresh air and the round of golf.”
Jack Benny

“It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits in baseball. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course.”
Hank Aaron

How did you make a twelve? I had a long put for an eleven.
Clayton Heafner

New Course added to the Blue Goose Nation

I want to welcome Searcy Country Club to the Blue Goose Nation.

Personality Matters in Golf

Carl Jung told us in 1924 that the goal of personality is wholeness, meaning that if we tune into what our own personality tries so desperately to tell us, we will improve everything in our lives, and happily, this applies beautifully to golf. Your own personality type determines:
* Why you like certain golf clubs and avoid others
* Why you prefer the long game or the short game
* Why you prefer to play with some people and not others
* Why you prefer familiar courses or new, different ones
* Why you like to practice or don’t
* Why you like to compete or don’t
* Why you hate slow play or fast play
* Why you get distracted, frustrated, and off your game on the course.

While we all have special qualities in our personalities that make us unique, we are amazingly predictable when we just focus on our strongest traits, and fortunately those traits are observable and easy to identify. I have followed Jung’s model of the 4 types by defining 4 types of golfers. Which one sounds most like you? Just knowing which is most like you will unlock the ability to significantly improve your mastery over your responses on the golf course and improve your scores.

The Challenger Golfer
Competitive
Strongest Trait – Dominance
Need to control their environment and results.

The Social Golfer
Play for Fun
Strongest Trait – Extroversion
Relationships and interaction are important, life is a happening, never mundane!

The Technical Golfer
Perfectionists
Strongest Trait – Conformity
Being right, accurate and meticulous are important.

Traditional
Play to relax or as occupation
Strongest Trait – Patience
Harmony, security and stability are important.

Which personality do you have???

Friday Golf Quotes

Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose.
Winston Churchill

I have a tip that can take 5 strokes off anyone’s golf game. It is called an eraser.
Arnold Palmer

Golf always makes me so damned angry.
King George V of England

The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.
Billy Graham

The Future of Golf Is With Business Golf

by MrBusinessGolf on May 2, 2010

The Golf economy sits squarely on the Business Golfer shoulders.

Golf Economy Structure

The spectrum of the golf economy spans from one side being the everyday recreational golfer, who plays once or twice a year and spends just a couple hundred dollars a year on Golf, to the PGA/LPGA Tour Events, where the elite of golf play almost year round and pump Billions of dollars into the economy.

What is tying the both ends of golf economy together is the men and women who play golf as part of doing business; businesses that add golf to their conferences; business people who play business golf as part of their travel; the teaching professionals who teach golf as part of their business..and the list goes on.

Currently, the middle of the golf economy is sagging since many business people have either not gained any guidance on using business golf correctly or are sitting around wondering how to get a ROI out of golf.  The failure of Golf to help maintaining interest or purpose for the business golfer will eventually cause Golf to be a luxury only a very few people will be able to afford.

Many would argue the future of golf is with the junior golfers and they would get no debate from me.  However, every junior golfer has a parent that supports them and if that parent is in peril of not being to afford the basic needs of life then justify the cost of golf would not be something they are going to do.  The economy of golf and the cost of golf depends on the business golfer for stimulation.

The money business golfers put into the golf economy help keep the costs low for the recreational golfer and sets up a purpose for being a sponsor of a PGA/LPGA event.  Without the millions of business golfers all around the world playing business golf there would be no place for the everyday golfer to go to affordably play golf and no sponsors for the professional golf tours.

Lets help the golf economy and the business world by playing more business golf.

rainy Monday morning to start of the week, going to make some magic happen today for Blue Goose Golf!
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Your dream golf course you would like to play

New Book about Business Success with a Golf Theme

Plugged
by Kristi Barr

If you’re a golfer you know the word “plugged.” A golf ball gets plugged when you hit a high shot, that lands hard in the wet grass and buries itself in the turf. The ball is stuck deep in the mud and while it looks bad, it really isn’t. That’s because if you know the rules you’re allowed to pull your ball out, clean it off, and place it back on the grass.

Business people everywhere are plugged, too. Stuck in their old ways of doing things and not aware how to dig out and get the right things done. Once again, you gotta know the rules.

That’s why I recently co-authored Plugged, a golf themed business fable. There are so many connections between success in business and success in golf that combining the two was a natural, and the fable format let us tell a powerful story with enormous take-away value.

Plugged tells the story of Chet McGill, a sales manager thrust into a leadership role, just as his biggest customer is under attack from a competitor. And at the same time, Chet’s playing in a golf tournament with his customer’s decision-maker…and that decision-maker wants to win. Oh, and did I mention that Chet can’t putt his way out of a paper bag?

Talk about a pressure cooker. Along the way, Chet learns three important lessons that guide him to the right path, for both his business and golf crisis:

Prioritize—focus on what matters most.

Adapt—see change as an opportunity.

be Responsible—take ownership of the outcome.

These lessons form the acronym PAR. It sounds so simple, but as Chet learns, sometimes to get what you want you just have to go back to the basics.

It isn’t easy. Businesses run on inertia and the phrase “that’s just how we do it” echoes down the halls of corporations everywhere. So how can you dig out and get the right things done?

Start by creating a list of your top priorities. Build it collaboratively so there’s buy in, then communicate it so you get the entire team focused on the things that truly matter. And let the other stuff go.

The next step is to foster an atmosphere where change is seen as progress. Most people don’t like change, but in today’s environment, those who don’t adapt will pay a very dear price.

Finally, everyone on your team has to take personal responsibility to own the outcome. In this world of “team work,” this is a quantum mindset shift for most people. Only once each partner takes personal ownership for achieving the ultimate goal will the entire team cross the finish line in first.

As a business consultant I have created two downloadable tools to help companies and individuals discover where they stand relative to PAR and create a roadmap to success. These are available for FREE at www.PluggedTheBook.com. So shoot for PAR and you, too, will dig out and get the right things done!

Krissi Barr is President of Barr Corporate Success and can be reached at (513) 470-8980 or at Krissi@BarrCorporateSuccess.com.

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