Looking for a new approach to promote your product or service to golf operations? 54 can help you understand today's quickly evolving B2B world. While the old stand-by approach of print advertising coupled with face to face meetings may still work, the new guard in the golf world have discovered inbound marketing. Today, online content about your products or services is what convinces someone to choose your product, before you have even spoken to them. Buying behaviors have changed. The B2B golf professionals at 54 have the solutions to help your business adapt. Contact 54 to learn how we can help you reach decision makers at golf operations. email: info@engage54.com Phone: 844.360.5454

2. how the trade magazines that hit your
mailbox have shrunk in page numbers
over the years or how some have
disappeared altogether. This shift is
a direct reflection of the changing
buying behaviors of the B2B landscape
across all categories, the golf
industry included.
For years, a company selling a
product or service to golf operations
followed a familiar formula for closing
its share of business: Run some print
advertising for awareness, show up at
the trade shows and meet prospective
customers for drinks and a little golf
or fishing. This formula is still popular,
but for most in the golf space that
approach to relationship-building
and product awareness isn’t producing
the results it once did.
Two factors are at work in this new
reality — the internet and the inevitable
retirement of the “old guard.” There
are now more millennials than baby
boomers in the B2B buying funnel.
These younger decision makers have
grown up with digital technology, and
they’re utterly reliant on it for virtually
all of their decision-making. We are
in the midst of a great transition in
B2B golf marketing. Those who get
it right the fastest stand to reap the
greatest rewards.
This e-book is a quick-read primer
to help you understand effective B2B
marketing. While today’s buyers rely
on modern digital technology, their
journey through the buying process
is still predictable, controllable and
measurable — which gives those in the
know the upper hand.
CustomerService
WarrantySpecs
COMPANY REPUTATION
SatisfactionRatings
QualityScores
BuildQuality
CustomerReviews
We are in the midst of a great transition in
B2B golf marketing. Those who get it right the
fastest stand to reap the greatest rewards.
Perhaps
you’ve
noticed

3. The New
Sales Paradigm:
Today’s golf course decision
makers have more access to
information and are more
self-directed in the research and
due diligence they engage in
when evaluating new products
and services. In a recent survey
by Forrester Research, 74
percent of B2B buyers reported
that they conduct more than
half of their research online
before making an offline purchase.
Success in this new reality requires
adjustments to marketing and
sales strategies as your old
approaches will continue to
become less and less effective.
Increaseleadsanddrivesalestogolfcourses
The golf industry traditionally relied on outbound marketing — cold calling,
paid ads, direct mail, etc. We bought access to prospects and then begged for
attention. It may sound counterintuitive, but the first step to increasing sales
and growing your customer base in today’s marketplace is to STOP SELLING.
Seriously, stop thinking of yourself as a marketer or sales agent, and start embracing
the value-added approach of inbound marketing.
Inbound marketing strategies have taken hold for a simple reason: Today’s
prospects are 70 percent through their decision-making process before they
even reach out to a sales rep (SiriusDecisions). By the time you are in the picture,
your prospect pretty much knows if he is going to be your next customer based
exclusively on what he has learned online. Your website and the online content
about your products or services carry the sale for the majority of the buying
process. By the time you speak with the prospect, chances are he has already
formed deep opinions about your company and your product — as well as your
competition’s offering.
Today’s prospects are
70 percent through their
decision-making process
before they even reach out to a sales rep.
RECOGNITION OF
NEEDS
• Buyer recognizes
a problem
• Buyer defines
range of solutions
• Buyer determines
decision criteria
• Buyer assesses
alternatives
• Buyer identifies
and resolves
• Buyer negotiates
final terms
• Buyer implements
chosen solutions
EVALUATION OF
OPTIONS
RESOLUTION OF
CONCERNS IMPLEMENTATION

4. TERMS
WARRANTY
FEATURE
BENEFIT
When you become that valuable source of information — and
not the one pummeling him with sales pitches — you’re establishing
an effective, long-term B2B lead generation strategy.
In the first stage of the buyer’s
journey — Awareness — assume your
prospect has little knowledge about
your company and your product offer-
ing. Your goal during the Awareness
phase is twofold: Help your prospect
understand he has a need and that
your offering will address that need.
Your instinct at this stage may be
to talk about yourself — your products,
their attributes, your company and its
history. It’s human nature to talk about
ourselves. But it’s a mistake. Instead,
your emphasis should be on the
potential customer, specifically his
needs and pain points.
Howtoboostbrandawarenessamong
golfcoursedecisionmakers
Awareness:
Understand that your prospect may very well be on
the fence, assessing if he needs outside help at all.
He is researching resources to help
make an informed decision.
NEEDS
CUSTOMER
YOUR
OFFERING
YOUR
OFFERING
In the following chapters of this e-book, you will learn how to
impact decision makers at each of the three major stages of
their buying journey — Awareness, Consideration and Decision.

5. Deliver The
Right Information ...
The methods used to deliver the content will depend on what channels your
target audience engages with regularly. Most prospects will turn to Google — publishing
content through a blogging platform is key, as is your website. Consider other
channels to deliver helpful content to your target prospects including:
Email LinkedIn Twitter Instagram YouTube
... Right
Where Your
Prospect Is Looking
• E-books
• White papers
• Guides
• Blog articles
• Infographics
• Tip sheets
• Checklists
• Videos
• Testimonials
• Press
Today, 72 percent of buyers
turn to Google to research solutions
to their problems. Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) is vitally important
to ensure your content is at the top of
your prospect’s searches. Make sure
the educational content you create (a
list of good content vehicles follows
below) is optimized for search terms
your prospect might look for:
With the leadership call complete and the alignment
of your goals and values verified, you now have access
to explore more of the proprietary Spring-Green
system which supports our strategic partners.
Marketing and Operational
Support — the two linchpins in the
Spring-Green model — are the
focus of this stage in your journey.
Your interactive call with the
Marketing team will cover:
Just imagine, adding all the complexities of another business to your
existing business — and your life actually gets simpler! Scaling your business
without the stress is possible because of our Operational Support system.
You will speak directly with the Operational Support team and gain a clear
understanding of how this business will integrate with your current business,
how we support you from the start and beyond, and what your role as owner
will look like.
Experience the Spring-Green advantage
from the people who create it.
3
S T E P
Peel the onion.
Systems that help find,
grow and retain customers.
An industry-leading
direct mail program.
Online marketing programs.
Our national call center
that helps maximize
sales and delivers a seamless
customer experience.
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INDUSTRY REPORT

6. Even at this early stage in the
buyer’s journey, you should be
gathering information about
their needs, pain points and
interests. Marketing automation platforms
like Hubspot, Pardot and Marketo track user behaviors
and score leads based on actions such as webpage visits,
the emails a user opens and the content they download.
If you aren’t working with a platform,
you can still gather data on your prospects.
One way to do this is to require users to
input their information into a short form to
access valuable content like e-books and
white papers. Based on the topic of the
content downloaded, you’ll have some
insight into their interests and pain points.
Send me
information
Subscribe
Email updates
Gather Insights

7. By the time a buyer moves to the
Consideration phase of his journey, he
has an awareness of what is causing
pain or standing between him and an
opportunity. He is actively looking for
solutions, researching and comparing
all available options and methods.
He’s asking questions.
Questions like: “I know we need
to sell tee times online. What are my
options? Which option best fits our
budget and integration needs?”
If you want to make it
to the golf course decision
maker’s short list of
possibilities, you need to
help them answer their
questions and develop
trust in your brand.
Relevant content should be provided
in the form of webinars, videos, e-books,
case studies and guides.The content
should be gated behind lead capture
forms on your website. The content
they engage with should tell you where
they are in their buyer’s journey, and it
can be used to inform the nurturing
activities you deploy to move them
closer to making the decision to
choose your product or service.
To reduce the sales cycle, these
leads should be nurtured through
emails that provide additional relevant
content to help them and establish trust.
ContentForThe
ConsiderationStageIncludes:
• Product/service data sheets
• Videos
• Demonstrations
• Case studies
• Webinars
• Email nurture campaigns
The prospect is still using online
searches to shop and compare their
options. Create blog content that
compares your solution to others in
the marketplace. You don’t have to
call competitors out by name but you
can. Optimize the content for searches
that might be conducted at this stage.
The content on your website should
answer commonly asked questions
and address common objections
buyers have to choosing your solution.
Email drip campaigns are critical for
staying top of mind as the prospect
moves into the Decision stage.
Content Delivery for the
Consideration Stage
Differentiatingyourbrand
inacrowdedmarketplace
Consideration:

8. of B2B
buyers
rely more
on content to research and
make B2B purchasing
decisions than they did a
year ago.” - DemandGen Report
It’s time to make a decision. Buyers
know the solution they need and are
looking for validating information
and/or endorsements to make a final
choice. Their questions become
more specific.
At this point, golf course decision
makers will be researching supporting
information to make sure they make
the right final decision. Your association
with industry experts and public relations
professionals can be a powerful
influencer. Prospects are likely to
be swayed by what credible sources
have to say about a
product or service.
Free trials, demos,
webinars, case
studies and vendor
comparisons are
also important.
If you didn’t already pick up the
phone and attempt to make contact
with them in the Consideration stage,
it’s time to make that call. Use the
conversation to gather very specific
information regarding the prospect’s
needs. Provide customized information
based on what you learn. Share this
information as you hand the
prospect off to the sales team to
ensure a smooth transition.
The role of marketing in this final
phase is to support sales. Strong
customer testimonials and case
studies can help to gently push the
lead across the finish line. Buyers want
solutions but they don’t want to be
sold to. Help to crush any remaining
barriers that might exist between
them and the purchase with content
such as ROI calculators and cost
breakdown guides.
As part of setting the sales
team up for success, you also
should set expectations as far as
what they will experience after the
purchase. Simplified processes or
implementation plans and user
guides can get prospects thinking
beyond the purchase and minimize
concerns about long onboarding
timelines and complicated functionality.
Howtosellyourproducts&serviceswithoutselling
Decision:
“67%
“Iknowoftwoonlineteetimeproviders
thatthemajorityofgolfersuseforbookings,
butoneisflatfeeandtheotherhasabarter
programandrequiresustoswitchtotheir
POSsystem.Whichisbestforus?”
Although this is the third
and final phase of the buyer’s
journey, your job is never done.
Content should be used to
build the trust necessary to
move a prospect from lead to
buyer to long-term customer.
When deployed as part
of a comprehensive marketing
and sales strategy, quality
content will get the vendor
into a long-term relationship
with the golf course customer
more quickly.

9. You may very well be thinking:
“Wow, this is all so new and unfamiliar.
Content and automation platforms
and e-books and white papers … it’s
too much to think about. Besides,
we’re doing alright.”
Adapting to a changing marketplace
is never easy. Considering how rapidly
today’s marketplace is changing, it
can be downright overwhelming to
think about transitioning away from
what is familiar. But even if your business
has not begun feeling the effects of
the new B2B paradigm, it is just a
matter of time.
Think about it. We all trust the
same sorts of digital resources outlined
in this report to guide our daily buying
decisions about electronics, appliances,
autos, restaurants and so on. It’s
delusional to think your customer is
not using the same tools right now to
make business decisions. It’s time to
get in the game.
Are you equipped to do it on your
own? Consider it this way: A young
golfer comes to you desperate to
make his game scholarship-worthy.
Do you tell him to wing it and hope all
the mysteries of the swing and course
management solve themselves? No,
you steer him to a golf professional
for help.
The B2B golf professionals at 54
are ready to help you elevate your
marketing game. Visit, call or email
to learn more: engage54.com,
844.360.5454 or
info@engage54.com.
Readytosucceedwiththesenewtools,technologies
andtechniques?
Trust a B2B
golf professional.