Drummond Golf is Australia's leading golf retail company, specialising in providing golfers with top-quality equipment, apparel, accessories, and expert advice. Founded in 1974 by Ray Drummond in Bendigo (VIC), the company has become a prominent player in the golf industry with 49 stores across Australia. We sat down for a conversation with Scott Gordon, the National Franchise Development Manager, to discuss the strategies and initiatives undertaken by Drummond Golf to establish its market dominance and transform the retail golf experience for its customers.
Scott talks about his journey with the business over the past eight years. Previously positioned in management roles within the petroleum & convenience market, Scott’s career took an exciting turn in 2015 when he secured a role at Drummond Golf; combining his passion for the game of golf and people management, it was a dream opportunity! “Working for Drummond Golf feels like working with family; it’s a great team!”
When Scott joined the business eight years ago, the team had limited training resources. Drummond Golf relied heavily on supplier sales reps visiting stores to provide product knowledge training.
Scott recalls, “The biggest challenge was the inconsistency of in-store training between stores depending on their location. Stores in the main cities like Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane would see a sales rep once every week or two; however, those stores based in regional locations might have been lucky to have a sales rep visit every 3 to 6 months.”
New products were challenging to upskill their teams on in time for market launches, “If we relied on a rep to come and train staff about the features and benefits, not everybody was getting the same level of service in an adequate timeframe.”
This presented an opportunity to find an online solution where everyone could receive access to the training immediately, providing employees with thorough product knowledge & sales skills to create a positive customer experience.
Scott started out creating his own PowerPoint presentations with voiceover commentary to support employee training. While this satisfied a need for the short term, there was overwhelming feedback from the business to provide a more effective training solution that was time efficient, seamless and easy to use.
The goal was to find a system that was interactive, predominantly video-based & taught theory in small bite-size pieces, so staff could complete the training during their shifts when they had downtime.
It was Jamie Cooke, Drummond Golf’s CEO, who introduced the RedSeed system to the business, ensuring training was created not only for team employees at the store level but right through to head office too. It was a key priority for Drummond Golf to embed a learning culture within the business that would support employee development & drive results.
The challenge throughout the last 2 to 3 years has been spending consistent time on training. With external factors, such as COVID-19, influencing positive growth in sales, training hasn’t always come first. While their franchisees' participation level can vary, Scott said, “Those stores that have built training time into their weekly roster and have invested time to grow their staff and training culture are very transparent to see within the RedSeed system. I can tell when they’ve logged on & sent workbooks: they're the ones that have become very successful.”
Scott is a big believer in franchisees training & coaching their teams for the future. “I think the important thing for our franchisees to remember is rather than them considering themselves to be the number one salesperson of their store; we encourage them to focus on developing their team so their staff are adequately resourced to be able to capture the sales that the franchisee generally would generate if they are absent or off-site.”
“It’s hard to quantify, but I do know that the stores that have engaged with the RedSeed training have built it as part of their culture. I have definitely seen an improvement in the average sale, the average profit and the ability to focus their teams on what is required as part of their employment.”
Through Drummond Golf’s internal reporting, Scott told us, “I can see a correlation between stores that have actually taken on board the sales training and have built this as part of their store culture versus those that haven't. You can see over the course of the four or five years that we've actually been doing it and improving. The reality is, the RedSeed system has really cool reporting functionality; getting the data from the system is fast & easy to use.”
Having the ability to coach and spend time with employees on the shop floor and provide constructive feedback on their interactions with their customers has been a game changer for Drummond Golf.
Scott referred back to a great example, where they employed an ex-chef in Western Australia who had no background in golf or retail but showed eagerness to learn and a positive mindset. This employee used the training available to build his product knowledge & sales skills, becoming a $1,000,000 salesperson within the first 12 months of his employment. Scott believes in the analogy, “Employ for the right attitude & you can train everything else.”
Going forward, the ultimate goal is to create a robust onboarding program with clear, streamlined learning pathways for new employees to complete before serving customers, as Scott refers to… ‘the keys to actually drive the car”.
Scott is well aware it’s a delicate balance in managing time spent on training across the business; however, he’s determined to continue to work with the store franchisees, ensuring positive engagement, staff retention & increased sales results!
Hot learning topics that Scott would like to expand on going forward are time management, diversity & harassment training. Whether it be RedSeed library content or bespoke content to Drummond Golf, the platform is ready to roll out to their entire team.
Drummond Golf's continued commitment to their franchisees is to provide the tools and support to provide exceptional customer service, embracing multichannel retailing and engaging with the golfing community to continue its position as Australia's Biggest Golf Retailer.
By investing in its employee training and development strategy, Drummond Golf has successfully revolutionised the golf retail industry, offering golfers an unparalleled shopping experience!
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