As a PGA Professional, you are already a respectedauthority on the game of golf. Club members andguests seek your advice to improve their game and pur-chase the equipment you recommend. Fortunately,economical resources are available that can help youfurther elevate your business by honing your merchan-dising skills.

Golf clubs are unlike any other business. Vastlydifferent than any supermarket or drug store, aclub’s clientele changes significantly from day today. Your club may host several corporate outingson Monday and Tuesday, Ladies’ Day on Wednesday,and club member tournaments on the weekend.Other days may bring a personal appearance from agolf celebrity or teams from local universities or highschools. In your shop, consider following merchan-dising best practices by updating your showcase dis-plays of golf equipment, apparel, and accessories totarget each day’s customers and turn their passionfor golf into dollars at the cash register.

After selecting products to highlight, the finish-ing touch is posting professionally-designed pricesignage. Often, that turns out to be a missed oppor-tunity. Lacking a tool to create signs with a consis-tent appearance, shop operators frequently turn toa word-processing program to create black-and-white signs. Others, knowing that the signage willchange the next day, resort to handwritten signs.

Retail signage, especially when produced incolor, conveys a sense of professionalism that notonly implies firm pricing, but may also allow you toset premium prices. Handwritten signage can be in -terpreted by customers as a chance to haggle pric-ing, with a negative impact on the bottom line.

Beyond the shop, other opportunities for pre-senting a consistent style abound. Consider creatingcourse maps with your club logo that highlight eachday’s hole placements, personalized scorecards, andthe daily weather outlook. To ensure these materi-als stand up to continuous handling and the ele-

ments, you can print them on waterproof media.Next, extend that same professional appearance tocoordinated signage for club events, daily restau-rant specials, sales flyers, and gift certificates. For-tunately, the technology available today greatlysimplifies the creation of on-demand printed mate-rials that are as well-groomed and consistent asyour club’s putting greens.

The problem facing golf clubs and shops is thatan easy-to-use method for creating professional,colorful signage that conveys this consistent ap -pearance from day to day and product to productsimply wasn’t available previously. Recognizing thispredicament, Lexmark retail industry expertsjoined forces to find a way to help.

They developed Lexmark Retail Solutions forGolf especially for PGA Professionals, golf clubowners and shop operators. A simple, affordablesolution for printing top-quality, full-color, customsignage in minutes, the solution includes a libraryof professionally designed templates that you cancustomize in seconds to incorporate your club’s logoand color scheme. The result is a consistent, color-coordinated appearance for all your signage, whetheryou are pricing sweaters and putters, or printingpersonalized golf cart signs with company logosand players’ names for the day’s corporate outings.

The versatility of an on-demand solution con-ceived specifically for the golf industry is alreadyhelping clubs worldwide. “There are three ways toim prove your profitability,” says Colin Clingan,U.K.-based Master Professional and Head of theBusiness Department at the UK PGA TrainingSchool for Assistant Professionals. “You can sellmore at the same price, sell at higher prices, orreduce costs. Lexmark Retail Solutions for Golfenables us to do all three.”

As a PGA Professional, you have an open doorto Lexmark retail industry consultants who canhelp you become an even better merchandiser.Through this special relationship, you can purchaseLexmark products and supplies at discounted pricesfor your club and for personal use. To learn moreabout Lexmark Retail Solutions for Golf, visitwww.lexmark.com/pga or call 877-LEX-PGA1. ■

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D O L L A R S & S E N S E

Boost Club SalesWith ProfessionalSignageOn-demand printing technology can help

improve your club’s profits

By Paul Merritt

Retailers, from giant chains to small corner markets, long agolearned that great merchandising is key to improving the bottomline. They know that displaying the right product in the right

spot at the right time – and with the right signage – can transform arespectable performer into a sales star.

Paul Merritt is

Lexmark’s Retail

Industry Director.

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