For a few days now, a way of expressing the feelings that I am feeling lately, regarding the situation in the golf industry, and how the final client feels frustrated at not being able to have their material at the same time that normally it used to be delivered in the past.
This article I can guarantee that I do not feel like writing it at all. If you know me and I think someone knows me, they will know that in my life I always go with the truth ahead and I don't like the comments made by the rest, in order to look good and that the player or client does not say anything, and wait for your sticks to arrive.
Well, I think that today is one of those days in which I decide not to take it anymore and tell the truth about what is happening with the golf industry in 2020 once we have come out of the confinement situation. I made a very risky decision that was with the great help of Abel Jimenez (Golf Negralejo Manager) to organize the HCC XPERIENCE 2020 2.0, which, thanks to you and many of you who came again, was a complete success, to you, THANKS FROM MY HEART.
Problems come once we send worksheets and quotes to customers, and 95% of customers approve their quote and we get orders going.
What is happening in the market that no one has explained to me?
Well, something very simple that 3 or 4 months with everyone unemployed has destroyed it and that we are suffering the consequences now, and that the industry is seriously damaged.
These have been the SURPRISES that have brought me:
First surprise, the manufacturers of golf clubs had practically nothing in stock.
An order that in a maximum of 2 weeks was in our studio and entering to be put into production, our surprise is that today, October 28, many products have still not arrived and it is sad that the future of our work is uncertain, since I am working all day on the tightrope of knowing if the product is going to arrive or not. If you have read correctly, or NO, because really living since the end of June with uncertainty and doing the 120% every day is something that I did not expect.
Second surprise, the delays, why are they generated?
Here I think that with this you are going to tie up many loose ends. You will have noticed that the golf market as well as other markets depend directly on China. Well, this is where the problem of everything begins. COVID-19 has caused the industry to come to a complete stoppage since March, at the time of manufacturing, but not at the time of sale. Therefore, the warehouses have been totally affected and the stocks have been completely pushed to the limit, to such an extent that the production that reaches the different countries from China is nothing more than covering the gaps in the orders made by all members of the industry. .
But the surprise is not the stoppage of orders, in China many factories on which golf manufacturers depend have gone bankrupt and therefore have stopped providing service. The problem without components there are no clubs and without clubs there are no orders to ship. CONSEQUENCE, the manufacturer sold, the store sold, with a product that does not know if it will arrive and the customer angry with the store.
I am going to give you an example that you probably do not know but I think it is good that you know and then you will not write or call your trusted business and blame them or hold them responsible for the material not arriving. This case that I am telling you about is totally real and it happened to us on our website 3 days ago.
I explain the case. We received an order for a TaylorMade SIM 10.5º driver with a UST The ATTAS shaft in Regular in 60 grams. As you will understand, the order arrives and we have the shaft in stock and the grip, but not the head. When I am about to order it on the website that TaylorMade enables us to facilitate orders, what do I see on the delivery date? Scheduled delivery 03.21.2021, and I'm left blank.
Telephone contact with the client and after not understanding that we cannot do anything, we return your money and we explain that we cannot do anything with respect to the loft you want, WE HAVE NO POSSIBILITY TO HAVE THE PRODUCT.
I can give you another example with Mizuno if you want, the truth is that no brand escapes, it also happened with Callaway, with Wilson Staff, and other brands that we have on the website and even with a small brand worldwide like Evnroll, the which we distribute and have problems receiving products, have also suffered the consequences, despite manufacturing directly in the USA. It's something we have to live with right now and we try to make our clients understand the current situation.
Third surprise, the famous and already established, TELEWORK
As I told you at the beginning of the article, I wrote it today, October 28, 2020, in Spain the pandemic is wreaking havoc on businesses and all companies worldwide, but in Spain we are trying to have a controlled normality.
Well then, Did you know that many people who work for companies continue to work remotely?
Imagine a factory and the offices of any golf brand, where to maintain a safe distance instead of having 200 employees they only have 75, the productivity of 200 people, of course, is not the same as that of 75. Consequently, everything The work that there is sometimes with the 100% of the staff generates delays. Imagine when not all of them and especially many of them are teleworking at home in their country and not in the country where they live and work. Believe it or not, it is more common than usual in golf brands. Well, this is what is happening throughout Europe and the market is saturated and companies do not have stock to continue serving normally.
This is another factor by which the industry continues to suffer and will continue to suffer delays.
The service and customer care that we give to all our visitors on the web is very complete and totally personalized, which makes us be honest, many players do not understand the situation and how their leisure or hobby is retained when a company usually always meets deadlines. Oh, and all this without neglecting the agenda I have of fittings and construction of material and repairs for clients from the Balearic Islands and the peninsula who come to live the HCC XPERIENCE.
As I told you before, I prefer to be SINCERE AND HONEST, rather than receive information from other sources and then it is not true. We talk to all the salespeople in the industry, both in Spain, Asia, the United States and Canada, and the friend problem is completely widespread.
Fourth surprise, what will happen to the Christmas campaign?
This is a topic that I am writing to you as a premonitory, I anticipate the Christmas campaign at the industry level as disastrous in the sense not of sales but rather that the golf shops themselves will be able to assume a level of sale of their stocks but after the three kings, the problem is going to be that the brands will not have any product to sell and probably the delivery forecast for new products is between the end of February or mid-March.
And what do we do so far? …… INTERESTING HUH?
I am going to give you my opinion because I believe that the industry must change radically, since what is happening is illogical, I am going to situate you and I am not going to name names.
We are in a very peculiar situation in which the brands have practically no stock in their warehouses and instead of maintaining the prices that they set so that the battered golf businesses can survive, which have had a very bad time during the confinement, someone He decides to make aggressive offers in order to liquidate his stock and the amateur golf player who knows how the golf industry works in this country, waits until this moment arrives to buy a product that he likes but does not know if it will work for him. right or wrong, but it's cheap. This, as much as it hurts us, we have caused it.
This is the main error that we found in Handmade Custom Clubs, clubs that came out cheap and that players cannot play correctly, IT'S CRAZY. In the end, if they want to play their product that they liked in conditions, they will have to invest much more money than the discount that the store gave them in order to play it correctly and get a return on it.
In HCC We do not sell cheap material, but at market level, but what we do sell is a service that no one in the country is currently providing. We build custom golf clubs with the highest quality standards and we never negotiate with prices, and less with the knowledge of our work team.
The WORTH and our VALUE PROPOSAL, is very clear, to ensure that the player has the clubs that are best adapted to what his golf needs and I am very clear on that, if that is not the case, it is better not to leave your signature. All the clubs are assembled in our 100% studio and from 0. And I can guarantee that the process is not done in 5 minutes.
My VALUE proposition is something that no matter how much prices go down, it will not go down, but rather the opposite, living an experience like the one that hundreds of players live a year is not a free gift.
I will give you an example, you have a problem and a lawyer has to help you. Do you think that the lawyer gives you his work, his knowledge and his time, in order to make you come back? He will charge you, just like a plumber, an electrician, etc. That is your value proposition and that is NEVER GIVEAWAY.
With this article I want to ask you to understand and know that…
- PATIENCE
- THE STORES ARE TIED HANDS AND FEET OF THE MANUFACTURERS OF THE MATERIAL.
- CUSTOM CLUBS ARE NOT BUILT IN ONE HOUR. IT REQUIRES TIME AND DEDICATION.
- DO NOT BUY FROM ANYONE BECAUSE THE PRICE IS CHEAP, remember the saying "CHEAP IS EXPENSIVE".
- GET READY FOR CHRISTMAS BY MAKING YOUR FITTING AND YOUR ORDER NOW!! (Much to my regret that will not be a guarantee that you will have your material on time)
- IF YOU VALUE THE MONEY YOU SPEND, YOU VALUE THE SERVICE AND PERSONALIZED WORK MORE THAN THE SALE OF THE HERD.
I know and am aware that I am not writing this article to make friends, but rather to fulfill the purpose of my blog. Telling the truth, teaching clubs to measure and that you learn to be less and less wrong with your material.
If you liked this article and found it interesting, please share it, your friends and fellow golfers deserve to know and understand what is happening and what is to come. If 2020 has been hard, gather strength at Christmas because in 2021 curves will come.
© Miki Rapado ®, 2020
