Story Links
June 16, 2004
Editor’s Note: Mac is on vacation, and reporting from White Sulpher Springs, West Virginia and the Greenbrier Resort.
Down time…. vacation…a break from the 4:30am alarm. A chance to get away and regroup. A time to go for a run and think about something besides pre-game shows and game opens.
An opportunity to play golf. And relax.
However, in our business there is really never a day when we aren’t promoting the University, talking about Al Groh’s recruiting class, or searching for that one account that will put us over the top. It goes with the territory, and like the coaches it’s just something we do. Don’t get me wrong…I love it. Representing a school like Virginia makes one proud. Plus, I only own two shirts that don’t have the v-sabre logo. Our coaches constantly recruit, re-design practices, discuss strategy, recruit some more, and very rarely put their livelihoods on hold. We on the marketing side are no different.
Take this past Sunday for example. My good friend and football spotter Jimmy Casella and I were about to win the Birdwood Golf Course Member-Guest. We were in the lead with about four holes to play in the midst of a second day, two-man scramble -10 under par 62. Our opponents – two good friends and golf rivals – wanted to talk football recruiting right before I addressed a ten foot left to right breaker that would have put us up three shots with four to play. I’m trying not to choke my brains out and they want to know how many wide receivers we will get in our 2005 class. The good news is that Jimmy and I won, and after the round I held court with about three or four people on the coach Pete Gillen search for basketball assistants while trying to figure out what to do with a $100 gift certificate.
Deciding to see the Greenbrier Resort for the first time, my wife and I traveled west for a little “R and R”. A friend of mine who played football at Wake Forest in the early nineties, Tryg Brody, is the director of sales here. Let me go on record…when you receive an invitation to visit The Greenbrier…do it. I have been a lot of places, but The Greenbrier makes Pinehurst look like a Stop ‘n Go. Despite Sam Snead’s death, he still strolls the grounds. The hotel is first class and the service here is second to none. Everyone remembers your name. I’m playing golf today with Tryg and a corporate partner of his. My first thought? Why isn’t this guy an associate of ours?
Well, guess what…. while I’m enjoying the Jack Nicklaus re-design and a place where the 1979 Ryder Cup was held, I will be conducting business. Yes, business…you know, the four-hour sales call. Corporate golf consists of the four-hole introduction…the five-hole fact-finding mission…the four-hole pitch and the five-hole close. While I’m attempting to develop a swing thought and keep my ball in play I will be trying to uncover this man’s budget and give him four or five reasons why he should be spending money with the Cavs and the radio network. It just happens. We can’t help it.
It’s a sales sickness.
Ask any Wahoo coach. Check their cell bill, follow them around for a while, and you’ll witness people who constantly find ways to win. They get to know travelers on airplanes sitting across the aisle. They talk with people in restaurants, they draw up defenses on cocktail napkin, and while putting gas in the car or taking the kids to the swimming pool, they make that last minute phone call to a prospect who might be wavering between UVA and Notre Dame.
I understand there are other professions in the same boat. Doctors go to cocktail parties and find themselves feeling someone’s shoulder or looking at their neck. Attorneys get cornered into answering questions about property or a driveway fall. While standing in a grocery store line, insurance people end up explaining the $500 deductible.
So, I hope I get through it today. I hope I have the resolve to play golf at one of the world’s finest resorts, soaking in every bit of history and beauty, all the while representing UVA and gunning for the close.
I also hope Roy Cress, my tax guru, reads this.
Can I write off golf balls as long as they have a corporate logo on them?