Arnie Raised the Level of Competition

Raising the bar and competing at a higher level can have a lot of benefits. From 1985 to1990, I was the president of Laurel Valley Advertising. The firm was a full service ad agency owned by professional golfer Arnold Palmer and sport’s agent Mark McCormack. I had the good fortune of being with Arnold at various golf tournaments including some on the Senior (now Champions) Tour. I was also involved in organizing the Bay Hill Member Guest each of the five years I was associated with the Palmer Group. One of the things a player received when he registered for the event was a pocket-sized program book that contained a list of all the players and their handicaps.

On the first day of the tournament, I walked out on the first tee to speak to Arnold, at which time he recruited me to help with a situation that had occurred. One of the golfers had challenged Arnie to a little side match and that started an avalanche of other side matches. Arnold needed me to keep track of them all in his program book. There must have been at least eighty side matches! Mr. Palmer was going to have his work cut out for him because the vast majority of those golfers had hefty handicaps so he would be giving a considerable number of strokes. Arnold was very gracious. He knew what a big deal it was for those guys (many of who were meeting him for the very first time) to say they took him on – win or lose. He didn’t turn down a single one.

Playing against Arnold Palmer brought out the best in many of the golfers on that day. I could see the enthusiasm. Most spent extra time on the practice tee and putting green. I’m sure they were as focused as amateur players could be. Perhaps, for the first time, strategy became part of their game. But on top of all of that, I believe it was one of the most fun and memorable games many of them had ever played.

Competing in business is very similar. If you want to take your company to another level, set your sights on some “wish list” clients. Make sure you’re ready for the game with a marketing strategy that can make those clients a reality. You might be surprised, to find out, how much fun and memorable this challenge really is.

If you want to talk about a winning marketing strategy with convergence marketing, please feel free to contact me.
Phone: 724-522-9990, E-Mail: wmyers@dxadvertising.com.