American Golf or...

pokerjoke said:
As has been said its a saturated market and to be successful in any business you have to offer excellent prices and excellent service and imo my local AG in Exeter do that.

They also have really

Good luck in your venture but it sounds to me your doing something wrong or not enough at this moment in time.
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We are actually doing quite well at the moment I am just looking for ways to increase our customer base and taking customers away from AG and to here seems like a logical way to do that.
 
My local AG is attached to the best range in the area bar none. This gives you the best facility to hit clubs with decent balls and watch ball flight. The staff are friendly, non pushy, and, unlike a couple of local independents, have no bother whatsoever with you taking a couple of clubs out to the range to have a hit with as part of your practice session. The staff are there when you need them.... and not there when you don't, rather than hanging over your shoulder looking for every opportunity to earn some commission. The range of equipment they offer is extensive and unless you want an unusual shaft option then they will pretty much have something suitable for every level of golfer.

Whilst they are not necessarily the cheapest, they will usually throw in a couple of sleeves of balls or gloves with a purchase of decent £££.

Nothing wrong with AG whatsoever.... they are a welcome part of the golf retail environment which would be a lot worse off without them.
 
I used independents when getting clubs, purely because the specs I have aren't readily available at most places, including AG. Also very spoilt as I live nearish to Silvermere, and their club selection and fitting areas are excellent - no need to go to AG.
 
Perhaps the tone needs to change, a little abrasive against AG. Maybe a simpler question would be "what attracts people to AG", without putting them down in the same sentence. Then you can understand what drives people to them and adapt that to your own business.

One of the obvious thing that comes out of this already, to me anyway, is how important staff are and staff training. The like or dislike for AG often comes down to how someone has been treated when they have entered an AG shop, any shop frankly. You need to play the long game, get good staff, make sure they know how to deal with customers, welcoming but not over powering, and then your reputation will spread. It seems obvious but many retail places, cars being a stand out one, get it so badly wrong.
 
American Golf is closest golf shop to my house. I very rarely buy things out of it other than balls. I get most my stuff online cause its cheaper.
 
Marshy77 said:
Yes I totally get all of that but the sales pitch was just too much on Sat, before it's been ok and I do like AG and will continue to shop there.
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It'd be interesting if you could recall what you did to prompt another approach each time or if the guys were just asking 'bodies' "how can I help you"

i.e were they actively watching you and responding to the buying signals you made, checking prices tags, touching the goods, comparing sizes, maybe a swoosh of a club etc etc

It's just possible you initiated all or some of the approaches yourself
 
Surely it's a no brainer

1. Price
2. Range

As someone pointed out American golf is the Tesco/asda of the Golf world.

In recent years company's like lidl have got a market share so you need to become lidl
 
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Lord Tyrion said:
Perhaps the tone needs to change, a little abrasive against AG. Maybe a simpler question would be "what attracts people to AG", without putting them down in the same sentence. Then you can understand what drives people to them and adapt that to your own business.
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Perhaps a little abrasive against AG due to personal experience in the local (Stoke on Trent) branch. I know a member of staff from AG and he is told he must try to sell 3 items to every customer that walks through the door. Either way I'd like to attract more people here, so what is it that would make you look elsewhere other than AG? BTW, here in Stoke we have a large number of courses and golf shops so AG certainly don't take all the market share, they just happen to be the closest shop to here (bar a couple of small club shops)
 
Lord Tyrion said:
My local AG is in Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne. The staff leave you alone unless you ask for help. Not at all pushy but actually pretty friendly. Pushy is clearly not a training style, perhaps it relates to each individual store manager.
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I can vouch for that shop as well, their conputer system had messed up my click and collect order so ot wasn't processed when I arrived at the shop. The staff couldn't do enough for me and sorted it out plus more.
 
I haven't used AG for a long time. The last time I bought anything from them was off their stand at the 2015 Scottish Golf Show. Nothing against them but I haven't really needed anything that I couldn't get cheaper online.
However, when I came to buy my new irons I decided I would try and support the Pro at our club. He arranged the fitting for me at Callaway in St. Andrews and matched the AG pricing plus a bit.
Our local AG is fine, non-pushy and some good iron pricing. However when I got fitted at the Scottish Golf Show on the Callaway stand this year it turned out the fella doing the fitting was actually from AG and his fitting was totally different than that done by the official Callaway rep.
 
KDR - I have never had the experience up here so that must be a local thing.

What they do well is offer a wide range. You need to match, or come close to that, specialise in certain brands perhaps (I'm guessing you already do this). Become a centre that people are attracted to. Offer services better than they can, eg better fitting, friendly and knowledgeable service. Don't be pushy, encourage people to whack a ball into a net. Make people feel comfortable.

Work social media heavily, every day, all forms. Not just pushing products but matey chatter about golf. Get a coffee machine. Make people feel they can come in, peruse and talk about golf in a friendly, relaxed fashion. Sales will follow, word will get around. Look at us one here, we love to talk all things golf. Get your shop to be like a forum, without the childish bickering of course.
 
KeeleDrivingRange said:
The clue is in the title..I'm sat in a driving range talking about what makes people go into certain golf shops. I can't understand how this isn't about golf. :fore:
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I can't understand, even on the internet, where it's practically impossible to determine a persons intentions by their text, you couldn't detect the sarcasm in my post :D
 
KeeleDrivingRange said:
Perhaps a little abrasive against AG due to personal experience in the local (Stoke on Trent) branch. I know a member of staff from AG and he is told he must try to sell 3 items to every customer that walks through the door. Either way I'd like to attract more people here, so what is it that would make you look elsewhere other than AG? BTW, here in Stoke we have a large number of courses and golf shops so AG certainly don't take all the market share, they just happen to be the closest shop to here (bar a couple of small club shops)
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I am not too far from where you are based and the Local AG that I visit is probably an equal drive from my front to door to yours as is theirs (Albeit the opposite direction) I have purchased from Newcastle's AG previously but the experience that I have recently had from AG at High Legh has been as good as i have had. I recently went in to just browse over some new irons and I was offered a free fitting session. I used the Mizuno Swing DNA, Used multiple heads with different shafts, lie board and they had flightscope aswell as hitting into a range so i could see flight and shot shape and such. I was under no pressure whatsoever to purchase, and didnt as i was waiting for pay day. I did go back two days later, and I was knocked off 30 quid for price match and had free multi compound grips thrown onto my irons as well as a thanks for going back gesture.

So i went back and bought a putter from the same chap. in the past 2 weeks ive spent nearly 800 in there and the service has been impeccable.

What would you do differently to bring customers in that AG dont?!
 
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KeeleDrivingRange said:
Perhaps a little abrasive against AG due to personal experience in the local (Stoke on Trent) branch. I know a member of staff from AG and he is told he must try to sell 3 items to every customer that walks through the door. Either way I'd like to attract more people here, so what is it that would make you look elsewhere other than AG? BTW, here in Stoke we have a large number of courses and golf shops so AG certainly don't take all the market share, they just happen to be the closest shop to here (bar a couple of small club shops)
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Superb advise/training, why would you target anything less!

Regardless of what someone buys just about every item in any shop invariably as a product that compliments it/works with it or simply an add-on item to the first

just as examples :
Leather golf shoes, leather golf shoe cleaner
Golf Trousers, golf belt
Golf ball, golf tees

The list is virtually endless, so that's two items taken care of

Golf is also a sport with a large consumable range of products that will naturally need replacing over time or through use i.e balls, gloves, tees etc

So there's your third item, targeting anything less than 3 is actually disservice to your customers

Guy wears his new shoes gets back home to clean them and remembers he doesn't have any leather shoe cleaner and has to make a second trip to get the very item the lazy sales staff couldn't be bothered recommending in the first place!
To top it all it was only when he was on the 1st tee he remembered his glove was just about done in and he meant to get a few when he was in the shop but forgot... if only that guy in the shop had asked how I was doing for gloves!!!
 
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