John Beurskens, CMP, Assistant GM/Membership Director of Eagle Oaks Golf & Country Club in Farmingdale, N.J., posed this question to the group:

Who has had a local country club competitor eliminate its entry fee, and how have you combated this?

“If your competitor is giving it away, you are already winning the fight. Look, clubs that discount to zero are the easiest competitors if you are continuing to keep your club current. Competitors with no cash slowly degrade their product and attract cheaper members. If you’re competing against clubs with this kind of short-term planning, you will win in the long run. Keep the product good and market your long-term health and value.”
—Don Hunter, CCM, COO/GM,
Chapel Hill (N.C.) Country Club

“Our area was the first and hardest hit by the disastrous housing market collapse. The GM we had at the time spearheaded a membership drive program with no initiation fees and new members would receive monthly credits for term agreements. While there was an initial benefit of signing new members, this program became detrimental to the relationship with our charter and long-time members. After the credits for term agreements expired, the members who had signed up with them resigned.

We learned the hard way that this type of membership ‘incentive’ is destructive. It gives false hope of maintaining high membership levels and enrages the longtime members who have kept the club running since the beginning.”
—Becky Weeden, Director of Catering,
Brookside Country Club, Stockton, Calif.

“Zero-initiation fee clubs position themselves with a product not worthy of an initiation fee. You must have a barrier for entry so you have a barrier for exit. Enhance member value, improve facilities, have a strong strategic plan and ‘don’t cut out the cheese.’ The ‘cut philosophy’ places these types of clubs in a death spiral. Clubs that adopt these practices are cheating their existing members, undercutting the value of clubs in their market, and damaging their own brand.
Sticking with a strategy, especially when times are challenging, is a hard thing to do. It requires commitment to the goal, confidence in the direction, and the will to believe it is the right thing to do. Certainly, the tactics of how something is achieved may change as the occasion demands, but the overall objective must not be allowed to go dormant.”
—David Pendy, GM/COO,
Sunset Country Club, Sappington, Mo.