Jamie Cundy keeps the winter blues at bay thanks to a cocktail of creative thinking, social media and hard work. Here he shares some of his ideas to help other pro shops to keep the tills ringing during the quieter golfing months.
Jamie Cundy is an Advanced Fellow PGA Professional and qualified Director of Golf who has been a professional for more than 30 years.
He has spent the last three of them at Henbury Golf Club near Bristol and, thanks to a substantial investment in transforming his shop and building an indoor studio, coupled with long hours, creative thinking and use of social media, he has built a successful business.
That creative thinking is evident from the decor in his shop and studio, the walls and ceilings of which are festooned with golfing memorabilia in the form of posters and flags from Open Championships.
Many of these have been obtained from the actual tournaments as the 55-year-old has coached at more than 10 Opens, two Ryder Cups, three BMW PGA Championships, and two Senior Open Championships.
“These are paid for but heavily subsidised - I don't get paid as much as I would as if I was coaching an individual. However, the Weducation Wednesdays and senior sessions attract people to the club and help them keep in touch during the winter.”
Weducation Wednesdays were introduced a year ago and, as well as enabling him to keep in touch with the club’s members, Cundy has benefitted financially despite the sessions being free of charge.
“We held the first one just over 12 months ago and sold about a thousand pounds worth of wedges,” Cundy said.
“That wasn’t the intention of the clinics – it was to get people together and give them the chance to improve their wedge play. In that respect, we had a wide variety of demo wedges available - Titleist, Srixon, Callaway, TaylorMade - and the sales followed.”
Equipment MOTs
In addition to Weducation Wednesdays and the senior sessions resulting in wedge sales, they have led to participants and other Henbury members opting for golf MOTs.
“We offer golf MOTs throughout the winter,” Cundy continued. “These come in two different packages – a full one costs £50 and one for £25. This includes cleaning a member’s shoes, trolley, and clubs, and is very popular.”
Club regripping
A potential spin-off from the MOTs for Cundy is the opportunity to regrip clubs if the grips are worn.
“Obviously, there's an income stream there and we do some promotions through the winter on gripping.
“It’s also a good way of getting into a conversation with people about their equipment, and, as with most things, we do quite a good job of just planting seeds.
“We would never push something onto people - we just plant these seeds along the way. It’s all about providing good services for people, which helps their loyalty and hopefully results in future sales.”
Social media and festive periods
The winter also affords Cundy the chance to capitalise on two or possibly three festivals – Halloween, Christmas and Easter – to offer deals and promote his business. In that respect, he is very active on social media.
“We use social media a great deal. We cover everything – Twitter, X, Facebook, Instagram. We also send out newsletters, internal communications and try and post at least once a day – it could be seasonal offers, a video we’ve created.
“We do some of the videos ourselves, others are done professionally. We work hard on social media and try and stay one step ahead of everybody else – planning, coming up with ideas. Having a creative mind is a good thing and we try and do things others don’t.”
Cundy’s most recent video involved Halloween and promoting some ‘spooktacular’ offers while future ones will focus on the Christmas period. These will be complemented by gift vouchers for equipment, clothes and lessons, and a social media campaign.
“We design all our own literature for that and it was all ready to go for October. We start pushing out all the social media content for that and, as we’re Foremost members and utilise their email marketing plan, we do special mails through them.
Competitive pricing
Cundy is similarly proactive in combating competition, either from online retailers or other clubs.
“We guarantee to beat any like-for-like quote and are very active on that side of stuff. As a result, I get a lot of customers from other clubs, especially for Ecco shoes as I’m the brand’s authorised stockist within a 30-mile radius.
“That’s a big one for me. We get people coming up from Devon to buy shoes just because of that exclusivity. I've been an Ecco stockist for 30 years and do very well with them.”
Cundy also does well with sales from female golfers, a legacy no doubt due to club having the largest women’s section in the south-west and his creative thinking in turning his pro-shop into a ladies’ boutique.
“We cleared every bit of men's product out of the shop for an evening last autumn and filled it with women’s clothing and relevant golf equipment.
“We also provided Prosecco and nibbles and about 60 women turned up. It was a huge success, so much so that the plan is to repeat it next year. It’s all about providing good services for people and planting those seeds.”
