Marketing is competitive for all businesses, and one of the most difficult, nuanced parts of competition lies in selling yourself. Marketing yourself or your product in a traditional environment can cause pressure, but a nontraditional environment can help you relax and think positively about landing a job or sale.
One of the best nontraditional environments to sell yourself or your product is the golf course. A great number of professionals play golf – in fact, it’s assumed in some fields. If you’ve never played golf or have done so recreationally but doubt it can help with your business, allow us to teach you to use golf as a marketing tool.
Increase Your Socialization
A big reason so many professionals love golf is that it gets them out of the office and focused on something fun. Golf places business professionals outdoors in the fresh air where they’re likely to make small talk before asking interview questions or negotiating deals. Golf is competitive, but your main opponent is yourself. That is, each individual in a golf game wants to win while improving his or her individual scores. This type of competition lets potential buyers or coworkers see your potential to focus, capitalize on strengths, and learn from your mistakes.
Show Off Your Risk-Taking Skills
Golf is challenging because you must calculate every move to get the best score per hole. This is quite similar to business – to make the best deals or produce quality projects, you have to follow instructions but take risks at the same time. Knowing how to do this is valuable in any position or field, especially those involving inherent risk or meticulous attention to detail.
Learn to People-Watch
A golf course is a place where the most professional people tend to drop their masks. Watching how other people play golf can show you how they may act in the office and whether you want to work with them. For example, an interviewer might decide not to hire someone he spoke to on the golf course because that person lost his temper after losing. The head of a department might decide against putting a new employee in charge of a project because she relies on flukes or pretends to understand rules that confuse her. Use golf to observe the people around you, finding strengths to emulate and weaknesses to avoid.
If you would like to learn more about how golf can influence your marketability, join us at Course Connections this year, where we will put these principles into action.
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