On the relationship between marketing and empathy in the golf industry
In the golf industry, marketing and empathy are much more related than many companies imagine. Today, it is not enough just to sell a service or promote a resort; the real challenge is to understand people, connect emotionally with clients, and build lasting relationships. That is precisely where empathy becomes a strategic tool within the marketing of a golf course or resort.
Throughout my professional career I have met many profiles, colleagues with very different characteristics regarding the role they played. Very capable people derived from the world of operations, and others, however, very commercial, derived from the hotel world. The golf industry continues to become more professional, just like the tourism industry, we see more and more master’s degrees or specific master’s degrees for the management of golf complexes and resorts, which undoubtedly categorizes this sector and places it among the regulated professions in the world of work.
Is training enough?
Do you remember genotype and phenotype? Below, we will try to dissect the different profiles we can find in this industry, and we will see if training is really necessary, or if, on the contrary, other qualities are needed:
The aggressive profile:
- Is analytical
- Uses empathy for purely commercial and result-oriented purposes
- Categorizes their clientele based on the production achieved
- Is direct and their vision of the relationship is based on the short term
The passive profile:
- Is not analytical
- Limits themselves to responding to their clients’ requests
- Does not categorize their clientele, measures everyone equally
- Does not have a short and long-term vision of the commercial relationship
The commercial consultant profile:
- Has a global analysis of the business to be addressed
- Although they analyze their clientele, they provide each client with what they are looking to obtain
- Practices active listening
- Has a medium-long term business development vision
Between these three profiles we can find not only differences, but the evolution that society and the market demand of this type of professional. In the same way that psychology and marketing are associated through neuroscience, basing their advertising campaigns on “feelings”, in the subject of marketing there is a tendency to adopt emotional actions and techniques to achieve what today is called “engagement”, which is nothing more than achieving the “fan” effect in the product or service you are marketing.
Why do we talk about involvement in this professional matter?
Because we are making a mistake if the profiles we have in our companies are dedicated solely to selling services or products. In many of the actions in which I have coincided with company colleagues, I have seen very diverse attitudes, and from my point of view, erroneous.
Something as simple as handing out the business card at the very moment of the first contact with the client, formality or commitment? Our client perfectly sees our sales intentions, we are showing them our most unpleasant cards, which are our production goals.
The 90-10 rule
I have a very clear rule from the moment I start a commercial relationship with a client, until I transform it into a “professional-personal” relationship.
The 90-10 rule in my conversational content:
- 90% of the conversation I have with most of my clients is based on trivial, cultural, and work aspects.
- The remaining 10% we talk about business.
How to achieve the necessary empathy?
Of course there is no fixed rule to achieve this goal. Being empathetic is an exercise that everyone dedicated to providing service must practice, and this applies not only in operational and commercial positions, but also in managerial ones.
We have to keep in mind that we interact with people, they have senses and perfectly detect any attitude we show, whether natural or, conversely, forced and sugarcoated.
From my point of view, we all have a line of conversation that we are passionate about. The moment we start a conversation with someone, we perfectly detect their “likes” and “dislikes”. It is as simple as identifying the line of conversation that excites our client and applying the 90-10 rule.
This topic truly deserves a more professional and detailed development. Explaining it in this way portrays the intention to simplify the definition of a profession that can never lose its sensory, sentimental, and human character.
And what do you think? Do you apply the 90-10 rule?
