October Retail Feature: Head PGA Professional, Jack Heginbotham
Long Ashton’s Head PGA Professional and experienced retailer, Jack Heginbotham, opens up about his strengths and weakness when it comes to running his pro shop, adapting in a changing environment, plans for growing the business and winter goals.
Jack’s Journey
Based in the West Country, Jack Heginbotham trained at Wells Golf Club, before spending three years as the club’s Head Professional. Six years ago, Jack took over as Head Professional at Long Ashton Golf Club and set about modernising the pro shop. Having expanded the coaching offering to meet the needs of a large membership base, established a successful retail shop and custom fitting service, Jack is now making plans to take his pro shop to the next level.
How do you see the relationship between the club and pro shop?
PGA professionals are integral to the success of any club. Changes I see are largely driven by broader shifts in the golf industry and, as long as we are delivering for the club, we’ll continue to play a crucial role.
Where do you get it right?
When it comes to running the shop, it helps that I’ve always been a numbers person. I won’t go a day without looking at the cashflow and am always on top of invoicing.
I check the monthly Datatrac reports from Xpos, mainly to see how the brands we sell are performing across the industry. It’s a challenging course here at Long Ashton and we tend to attract golfers who appreciate the technicalities of their equipment. I’m always happy to see we are still selling the leading brands and it’s important for our golfers to know we’ve got this covered.
What holds you back?
Time management. I’ve been guilty of placing pre-books off the cuff, which has led to mistakes and leftover stock, at times. When I have time to plan for meetings, and break the sales reports down to the finer details, such as sizing and colours, I’ll make the right buying decisions and then it’ll pay off the following year.
An integral part of being a PGA Professional is spending time with members, answering queries and generally getting to know people. It’s essential to have a consistent presence in the club. The downside of that is that there are so many distractions throughout the day, it’s difficult to do what you need to for the pro shop. I’m a great believer in taking time away from the club in order to plan better for the business.
What do you rely on to run the pro shop?
We switched to the Xpos cloud software earlier this year and I’m delighted with it. “Life-changing” might sound silly, but being able to work from home has meant I’m so much more flexible. I can even spend more time with my family as I can log in at convenient times.
The new software makes it much easier to manage everything including accounts, invoicing and customers, and I’m considering a loyalty programme for next year.
Working with Xpos is invaluable. The software is constantly evolving, which means my business stays ahead of the curve as well. It’s an independent company and uniquely placed when it comes to the wider industry. As a result, we get great insights from the team and it’s good to work with people who enjoy crunching numbers as much as I do.
What are your aims for this winter, and beyond?
It’s important not to sit still and I’m putting time aside to make plans for the pro shop. This includes another refit, new responsibilities for the team, checking Xpos reports more regularly, and making the most of the technology available to us.
Long Ashton Pro Shop Next Level Strategy
Plan for Growth
I’m going to make a buying plan for the year ahead which will identify key brands right down to the last chocolate bar. Margin will be a big focus.
Looking at my reports now, I can see where I’ve sold a lot of units but haven’t made much profit. As a team we all need to appreciate the difference between turnover and margin and see the difference that discounting makes. Taking time out to plan what we are going to buy should ensure we are giving shop customers what they want and minimising discounting will keep margins strong.
We are fairly reliant on hardware and, while I want to continue to grow this, I also want to boost our clothing offer. When we’re selling hardware, we should also be selling the peripheral items.
Team Tactics
I have a fantastic team and am fortunate to work with three PGA Professionals, Tom Maggs, Matt Turner and Kobe Adams, who are all involved across different parts of the club.
Another new thing will be team away days where we all go off site and cover everything from budgeting, buying and Xpos training. I’d love it if the team had more responsibility when it comes to buying decisions, setting targets across departments, and how we tackle slow moving stock.
The beauty of coming up with ideas over the winter is that we’ll be raring to go come the spring. I hope we can then top these up with regular weekly meetings.
Customer Engagement
Xcaddie gives our members an extension of the pro shop experience and we’ve had some very positive feedback. If someone wants to know their account balance, we ask them to download the app. Because they can access it from home, it’s meant members are more on the button with their balance and competition winnings.
The Xcaddie app was the incentive to take golf lesson bookings online, which was one of the best things we’ve done and works seamlessly in the app. My objective this winter is to boost user numbers and make sure Xcaddie becomes a real hub for the pro shop.
Xpos users are invited to switch to the new cloud software this Autumn and Winter. For more information about the incredible benefits of Xpos online, visit www.xpos.co.uk/cloud-benefits/ or email cloud@xpos.co.uk to book your slot.