Golf Lesson No. 1: Turf Advantage

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.

“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

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???

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

by MrBusinessGolf on May 2, 2010

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.