There’s no way I could accurately count the, well, countless number of golf companies I’ve met during a 35-year professional life in this enterprising industry.
They’ve ranged from great to good, ample, below average and downright ugly.
It’s been a while since I encountered a group of professionals who undeniably fit in the great category. Notwithstanding, I would soon get acquainted with a company that squarely defines “overwhelmingly great.”
It started upon receiving an invitation to visit the Lightspeed Golf offices in Montreal. I generally knew of the company’s stellar reputation, but I wasn’t necessarily looking to grow my one-person golf business and golf marketing advisory shop. My dad’s family is from Montreal, so out of curiosity and love for the city’s people, I accepted.
I wasn’t let down.
Per usual, I asked Lightspeed Golf leadership to share why it believes its golf management software is No. 1 by leaps and bounds. What I received was a thoughtful yet succinct proclamation of its advanced automation tools. Moreover, the way it treats people as partners, not as their vendor, is an ethos that’s as genuine as the Hope Diamond.
“TLC,” the head of Lightspeed Golf blurted. What followed is a team thesis that golf courses come before company profit motives, and going the extra mile to help operators simply be in a better state of mind with healthy financial returns is Lightspeed Golf’s Job No. 1.
Outcome orientation vs. yourself as a sales master. Rare throughout business ranks, but true in this Montreal office. That Canadian hospitality is in high gear.
I couldn’t believe my eyes and ears, so I pursued an FBI-witness-stand line of questioning.
“We simplify courses’ operations, enhancing guest experiences and optimizing revenues as a competitive advantage with lasting year-over-year growth,” said a Lightspeed Golf manager who, like others on the team, formerly managed golf courses.
My retort: “As a former leader of a major, multi-course operator, all I wanted is for others to save us and make us money with little effort part. This way, our ambitious, on-site teams can focus on other operational and marketing essentials without back-of-the-house software worry.”
For starters, it turns out that Lightspeed Golf’s industry-low, credit-card processing fees offset four or five months of golf management software fees annually.
That’s huge, so prove it to me. And there it was, in black and white, a litany of golf courses from the world’s most famous to mom-and-pop operations with revenues in the $1M to $2M range. In Harvard Business School textbooks of acronyms, it’s SMB (small and medium size businesses).
When I was at Billy Casper Golf (subsequently, Indigo Golf Partners), we interviewed several golf course management software providers to service what eventually grew to 165 or so golf courses, country clubs, resorts and communities under our watch. Most interviewees were transactional, not selfless. By golly, be an advisor – many golf course owners risk their kids’ college funds to be in this line of work.
I found interactions with Lightspeed Golf to be trustworthy. With more than 2,000 courses thriving with its program, there’s not much it hasn’t seen. I threw scenario after scenario at the team, and its knowledge of how to curate software to help owners and operators of myriad shapes and sizes grow their top and bottoms lines is unmatched in my previously suspicious book.
After testing the granular waters, I somewhat belligerently asked if Lightspeed Golf held guiding principles and a vision for the company.
The core values were memorized: make it happen, make it together, make it human, make it about the partner, make it data-driven and make it matter.
And its vision also puts Lightspeed Golf in the proverbial Indy 500 pole position: lead and advance the sustainability of golf for current and future generations through transformational thought leadership, technological innovation and cultural practices like no other.
This team has its act together.
I left the City of Saints not only with scrumptious French food in my belly, but with a clear understanding how Lightspeed Golf is saint-like and expert in turning data into money for golf course operators. Yes, with its quietly powerful all-in-one software as an engine. Moreover, the company’s organizational structure is rife with intuitive compassion that’s a perilous anomaly in today’s world.
This reminds me of a powerful phrase that recently crossed my iPhone: as technology takes on more mundane and repetitive tasks behind the scenes, we will all have greater power to be more human.
I learned, first-hand, why course leaders are switching to Lightspeed Golf in droves. Bravo!