The Membership Marketing Experts: Capstone Hospitality
If the last two years have taught us anything, it is that nothing is certain. Things change, they evolve, and this is as true of the private club industry as it is of any other business. Even before COVID-19 dominated the headlines, private club industry trends showed that demographics were shifting.
Millennials have become more financially solvent and are starting their own families. The baby boomer generation is leaving the workforce and wants to spend more time on hobbies and recreation. These shifts mean that private clubs are seeing the priorities of their members gradually change to suit new realities.
Clubs who are able to navigate the ever changing landscape and keep current members happy, while filling the pipeline of new members, will thrive. Those who cannot adapt will struggle and fail.
The entire private club industry, especially golf clubs, saw a massive spike in new members in the wake of COVID-19. While 2020 marked an unprecedented surge in the popularity of golf and other outdoor hobbies like boating, thinking the COVID created bubble is the new norm is a recipe for disaster.
Clubs in all regions are reporting substantial year-over-year dips in 2022. This is a natural reaction to the market, rising inflation and the fact that for the first time in two years people are traveling, attending sporting events and exploring other activities.
This is not meant to instill fear in private club owners and operators, nor is it a pessimistic view of the current landscape. It is simply an example of the private club industry’s tectonic plates once again shifting. The truth is that hard work and a modern proactive approach will ensure that clubs can continue to thrive.
Even though many will point to the organic slowing of the race to join private clubs as a COVID-19 phenomenon, that is only part of the truth. The bigger reason is that many issues clubs face are totally self-inflicted.
Too often they have poor strategies for appealing to potential new members, or they have initiations, monthly dues and membership tiers that are confusing or not properly geared for profit. For those in the business of private and country club management, finding a sustainable, proven strategy for growing membership is critical for longevity.
Additionally, many Membership Directors and General Managers wear too many hats at a traditional private club and may not have the time or bandwidth to devote to cultivating the membership sales strategy necessary to revitalize waning membership. In this situation, it would be ideal for a club to bring in an expert with years of knowledge and the time to solely focus on creating a winning membership marketing strategy.
This is where Capstone Hospitality comes in. We know that a thriving and dedicated sales department is essential to a club’s long-term prosperity. This is true if you’re trying to sell golf club memberships, marina slips at a boat club or any business based on attracting members. Through years of success and studying how to generate sales leads, we have helped private clubs all over the country revitalize their membership sales and enter a period of prosperity and growth.
Meet Capstone Hospitality
We were founded in 2009 by CEO Brian Friederichs and our mission is to help clubs meet their potential so they can thrive. The key is ensuring that private and golf club membership waitlists are full and that clubs are getting the right types of members, i.e. those who will stay for years and make the club an integral part of their lives.
This conclusion is borne out of years working in the industry through various aspects of private and country club management and observing first-hand that clubs need not only a strong membership base to survive, but a reliable method to grow club membership. Private clubs frequently face attrition; therefore, it’s essential to have a tested, dynamic approach to sales that speaks directly to the potential members you’d like to target.
Take Membership Marketing to New Heights
Here’s how we work. Capstone Hospitality provides a complimentary assessment of a club’s current sales strategy, diagnoses the core issues and opportunities for improvement and then helps to implement proven sales methods to generate sales leads that penetrate untouched markets. The Capstone Sales Team, composed of driven, highly-trained professionals, accomplishes this by leaning on years of experience revitalizing the membership sales strategies of private clubs across the country.
The secret sauce is that we don’t do it from afar, we actually deploy a Capstone Hospitality representative to work on-site at our client partners’ clubhouse or offices. This ensures they understand your club's unique needs and become a part of the cultural fabric. These individuals implement our proven lead generation systems and do nothing but sell memberships all day.
Capstone Hospitality is nothing if not results-driven. We’ve sold over 10,000 new memberships and garnered over $30 million in new annual dues at the clubs we’ve partnered with. When it comes to initiation fees, we’ve sold over $35 million of them and see on average a 407% increase in initiation fees sold after the first year of partnering with a club.
Our experts understand what works and what doesn’t. You might be surprised at how often we see well-known clubs making common mistakes that are leading to a drop in new membership sales leads. Maybe your club has fallen victim to these common membership marketing mistakes and might be accidentally losing the revenue gains and financial stability that come with a healthy membership pipeline.
Not only do we have the data to back up our methods, but we also have an abundance of examples from successful clubs we’ve worked with to prove our strategies are effective.
Personalized Membership Marketing Strategies for All Types of Private Clubs
Understanding how to generate sales leads and add new members is only one part of the equation when it comes to a private club putting itself on the path to long-term success. Generating an abundance of new memberships for one year means nothing if a club isn’t able to replicate the process and continue to grow in the following years.
This is why Capstone Hospitality is more than just a few sessions of market analysis and consultations on how to generate sales leads. It’s a proven process wherein our talented sales team seamlessly integrates into our partner clubs and works with private and country club management to develop a personalized process for membership marketing and sales that will be effective for years to come.
Whether you are a golf club, boating club, social club or any other private member-based entity, Capstone Hospitality offers a dynamic team approach that will put your membership sales on the fast track. Our experts understand the club landscape, have deep knowledge of sales strategies and have implemented our proven methods at some of the top private clubs in the country.
Our executive team has 75 cumulative years of management and sales experience. These experts not only provide support and leadership, but have created a training program that fosters sales professionals of the highest caliber.
Finally, Capstone Hospitality’s Lead Generation Center is run by sales specialists who send quality leads to the representatives we embed at our client’s clubs. This helps the staff on the ground tap into untouched markets. We do so by using our proprietary lead generator programs housed in Capstone Hospitality’s headquarters. Clients get both the benefits of having a Capstone professional on site, as well as the full weight of the company’s knowledge and resources to guarantee success in growing their member base.
Maximize Sales with the Capstone Difference
The truth is that maximizing membership sales doesn’t have to be stressful. Allow Capstone Hospitality to perform the hard work; our tactics have proven successful time and again at clubs of all sizes in every region throughout the United States.
This isn’t a short-term solution either; we’re in it for the long haul. Many of our partnerships have been in effect for five or more years. Having a dedicated and strategic professional leading your membership initiatives, who is backed by a team of experts, is the best way to quickly and effectively increase your private or golf club membership sales.
Revitalize Your Club Today
If you could use support in the sales department to bolster your membership pipeline or assess the strength of your current practices, Capstone Hospitality is here to offer personalized feedback and a results-driven plan. This is your first step toward gaining a better understanding of private club industry trends and leveraging them for your club to generate sales leads that will turn into new members.
Take action today and reach out to Capstone Hospitality to evaluate how your current sales program could benefit from our unique approach. We’re happy to provide examples of our past successes with top private clubs so you can determine the best path forward to ensure a thriving membership sales strategy. Find out why partnering with Capstone Hospitality can revitalize your membership sales today and for years to come.