The 1990’s, like every other decade, has its own marketing and promotional buzzwords. Here are three phrases that may help you in promoting your own programs:
1. "Zero Defections" is a punchy way to express a goal that increases player retention awareness on many levels: membership, staff, players on a team, players in a USA Free-For-All lesson program, or juniors in a junior development session.
2. "Data Mining" is another hot buzzword to share. You’ve heard of mining for gold? Well, data mining is much more of a sure bet. Through creating, maintaining, and analyzing data, everyone in the tennis industry can benefit. If you’re not computer savvy enough to set up your own system, you may be surprised to learn how reasonable and valuable it can be to hire a consultant to come in and do it for you. Who knows? You probably even have a player at your facility who would be happy to help you out in exchange for a few lessons.
3. The last buzzword or should I say buzz phrase emphasizes the tremendous value of relationships. The phrase is "Relationships = Loyalty = Profit." This one requires no explanation.
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Let’s now share some ideas from Billy Pate, men’s tennis coach at Georgia’s DeKalb College, about college tennis and the role of the teaching professional. DeKalb College is currently ranked #3 in the United States in the NCAA Junior College Division II rankings. Implementing some or all of these ideas can definitely give a teaching pro increased recognition and success with advanced juniors of high school age.
1. He feels that generally speaking communication between both the teaching pro and the college coach has a lot of room for improvement in the U.S. Think about it. It would benefit both groups tremendously to have increased two-way communication. Any teaching pro working with competitive level juniors needs to have on-going dialogue with college coaches to be of maximum service for his or her students. An example which most teaching pros may not be aware of is that NCAA Division I schools can offer up to eight full scholarships to women and 4.5 scholarships to men.
2. Billy also stresses the importance of high school tennis players learning how to play competitive doubles before they enter college. As far as doubles is concerned, he offers one specific tip which he feels should be an automatic part of all high school doubles - that there are only two moves for the net player to make when their partner is serving - a poach or a fake. Period.
3..Additionally Billy explains that most college teams require a more intense conditioning program and it would be a great service to college tennis-bound high school players if they were more prepared physically before entering the college tennis arena.
4. As far as attitude is concerned, Billy offers a tip that I like very much. He has his players write down their top 10 excuses for playing poorly. Then he gets them to agree never to use any of these excuses verbally on the court. He says that by eliminating excuses they will focus on the positive and better see losses as an opportunity to learn.
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I wanted to also share in this issue a new league which has been formed by the Georgia Tennis Association, one of the most dynamic sections of the United States Tennis Association. They have inaugurated a doubles league they call the "Up-Down League." The uniqueness of this league is that one of the players is able-bodied and the other is a wheelchair tennis player.
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The progressive Georgia Tennis Association has also made a recent decision to start a new competitive group for eight-year-olds and younger. The uniqueness of this match-play group is that it will be coed, open to both boys and girls who will play against one another in competition. Although they will not be playing for rankings, there will be prizes awarded. Stay tuned for reports on the results of this creative experiment from a tennis state with over 11,000 junior players regularly competing in the regular age divisions.
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Now finish this issue’s list of ideas with highlighers from Gregg Presuto’s presentation at the 1997 USPTR International Symposium on "Marketing your Munchkin Program." Gregg directs a very energetic program on the East Coast and shared six reasons for his ongoing success.
1. To get the program started, he suggests holding a tennis carnival event and promoting it in local nursery schools and playgrounds.
2. A parallel activity he is very enthusiastic about it is promoting tennis birthday parties to the parents with focus on the entertainment value of the activity.
3. As part of every program he makes sure to give a free T-shirt with the club name on it to every child. A side comment he made is that it is often possible to get these T-shirts free of charge from a manufacturer or sponsored by a local business.
4. As far as helpers on the court are concerned, he emphasized that program directors make sure they are super enthusiastic. Instead of eight dollars per hour, pay them ten, and make sure you get the right person.
5. As prizes and additional giveaways, he suggested stickers, as they are very inexpensive to purchase, yet something special to the children.
6. At the end of the final session, bring the children together and have a raffle where all the kids win something. For the parents, he stressed the importance of distributing a feedback sheet on the progress of each child with personal written comments from the professional.