_July/makingthehardsell.jpg "Making the Hard Sell")
By Kyle Darbyson
The management of Maple Creek Golf and Country Club are adding new members the old fashioned way: by earning their business
The position of membership sales director at Maple Creek Golf and Country Club is a tough gig. For starters, the half-century-old club is situated on the east side of Indianapolis, an area marked by pockets of blight and high crime. What’s more, the club struggled through a succession of previous owners who sorely under-marketed the facility, leaving it relatively unknown in the city. And if that weren’t enough, dwindling membership numbers forced Dave Bego, its latest owner, to open up the Pete Dye-design to public play.
Maple Creek had essentially been running without a membership salesperson for years. “I was the head pro and did a little sales when I had the time,” says Jim Grossi, who now serves as general manager. With the club bouncing back and forth between private and semi-private, membership sales were becoming more important—and more difficult to sell—than ever. “Once I was elevated to general manager full-time,” says Grossi, “I knew I wouldn’t have the time to devote to sales.” That’s when Grossi and owner Bego decided to hire permanently for the role.
Conventional wisdom suggests they would have searched for a savvy veteran with a lifetime of experience. But the duo has never done things the conventional way. Instead, they tapped 28-year-old sales rookie Joe Lorenzano. That unconventional decision turned out to be one of the best they’ve ever made.
Lorenzano grew up playing on Maple Creek, eventually earning a scholarship to play Division II golf at Eckerd College in Florida. After graduation, he worked in the advertising industry, dabbled in writing, and accepted that golf would become a weekend pursuit. Then, a phone call from Grossi changed everything.
“He told me there was an opportunity at the club I might be interested in,” Lorenzano says. “The thought of getting back into golf excited me, and to do it at the facility I grew up on was even better.”
Grossi says he’s known Lorenzano since the young man’s high school days, remembering the long hours he spent on the range. “I’d always been impressed with Joe’s work ethic,” Grossi says. He also recounts his pleasant disposition, an attribute essential in the Midwest, where kindness carries a lot of weight. “We strive to create a friendly atmosphere here,” Grossi adds. “It’s a big reason for our success.”
Lorenzano admits he was a little hesitant to leave a good career in a field he was comfortable in for a job with a lot of unknowns. “But I was confident that with my enthusiasm for golf and the work ethic I’ve developed through it, I would be OK,” he adds.
In February 2014, Lorenzano accepted the role and started at Maple Creek. Grossi says the ambitious new salesman has impressed from the start, whether he was working seven days a week or helping out in other areas of the club. “It was immediately obvious Joe was willing to go above and beyond to help bring a member into the club.”
Knowing the importance of forging strong relationships, Lorenzano tried to find any way possible to get in front of people to talk about golf and Maple Creek. “When I walk away from an interaction with anyone, even if they’re not interested in membership, they might know someone who might be,” he says.
To this end, Lorenzano took his message to the masses, from community events to chamber of commerce meetings. “I even went door to door in some neighborhoods,” he admits.
Lorenzano considers any public player a potential member and works hard to convert. “I scan the tee sheet and try to make face [time] with them,” he says. Then, it’s a matter of finding something to build a relationship around. “I keep an Excel sheet of people that come through the door that tracks what their relationship is with people at the club, what they do for work, whatever I can get on paper that will help connect or sell.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the kid can flat out play golf. “His golfing pedigree was definitely one of the big reasons we took a chance on him,” Grossi admits.
Getting out and playing the course with prospects is the ultimate sales tool. It’s also a time when his age helps Lorenzano. “I’m quite comfortable talking to a lot of the young executives who are looking to join a private club,” he says.
And his hard work is paying off in a big way. In less than a year, Lorenzano has added more than 70 new members. That new revenue has the club on the cusp of a goal the owner has been trying to achieve for nearly a decade: taking the club back to fully private.
Bego has invested heavily repairing the clubhouse and pool, and even worked with Pete Dye to redesign the course. He estimates the club needs around 250 members to break even; currently, it’s at 235.
Lorenzano is confident the club will get to that 250 benchmark, but he’s also motivated by something else. “I want to prove wrong everything that seems to be in the news about golf and its decline.” The way Lorenzano sees it, the game that’s given him so much isn’t going anywhere, and his success at Maple Creek is a convincing argument in his favor.
Kyle Darbyson is a Vancouver-based freelance writer.