#farmlinks

[straightbutterputters]

Want to play a really fun course and probably shoot your career low round? Go check-out Farmlinks at Pursell Farms. They sure know how to present par 3s out there. 😳 #farmlinks #pursellfarms #golfporn #top100 #alabamagolf (at FarmLinks at Pursell Farms) https://www.instagram.com/p/CS2Ulw_FTKL/?utm_medium=tumblr

[instagift]

Finding your “Cook them Dinner” Sales Strategy

By Nate Schmidt, InstaGift CEO

Last month I attended the Digital Media Summit at Farm Links / Pursell Farms in central Alabama; about an hour south of Birmingham. The event, put on by Founders Investment Banking, featured first-rate founders flown in from across the country to discuss a host of issues regarding fundraising, technology, and digital media. It was a world class weekend that would have been as much at home in the Valley as it was in Alabama. 

A highlight of the event was an inspired opening keynote where Farm Links founder David Pursell talked about the role Farm Links played in the Pursell Technologies sales strategy. The lessons from his speech were very relevant to any startup fighting to capture a market.

When David's began speaking, he came across very humble, with an “aw shucks, I’m just a guy from rural Alabama” self-deprecating delivery. I certainly underestimated the importance of what I was about to hear. I’m sure that many competitors of David’s made the same mistake over the years.

David explained that after college he worked in the marketing department for his family’s fertilizer business, Pursell Technologies, who made industry leading fertilizer. David showed us a bottle of the company's fertilizer seeds. They were blue; something about slow release with a multi-layered shell.

Golf courses were Pursell's target customer, and they had identified 15,000 or so potential customers across the US and Canada. Each golf course customer represented a five to six figure account. The problem David needed to solve was how to sell these golf courses on using his fertilizer.

He evaluated several strategies, and thought seriously about a traditional, boots on the ground sales approach. He considered hiring an outside sales force to blanket the country, visiting golf course superintendents and selling them on his superior product. I don’t remember the exact number, but he needed millions of dollars to support this sales effort, and at best would be doing the same thing as his competitors. He came close to going this traditional route.

Then he went a different, and inspired, direction. He used the millions that would have been sunk in sales to build a golf course. And he started cooking people dinner.

Over a decade ago, David built Farm Links golf course, which he describes as the “Disneyland of Golf”. The course, situated in a gorgeous and isolated part of central Alabama, lives up to its billing. It’s consistently rated as one of the best courses in Alabama, a state known as a golf destination (most notably via the fifteen or so courses of the The Robert Trent Jones Trail). As a golfer myself, Farm Links is one of the most scenic and best manicured courses I’ve ever encountered. It’s a golf Mecca deserving of pilgrimage from any serious golfer. David built Farm Links as a demonstration course, where he could show off Pursell fertilizer.

Having great fertilizer and a world-class golf course isn’t enough though... you need a strategy to turn those assets into sales. Each week David would invite 20 golf course superintendents to Farm Links, all expenses paid. He’d fly them to Birmingham, shuttle them to the course, house them in plush cabins, and provide each with their own private golf cart where they could tour the course and facilities. They'd arrive in groups of 10. The first group came on Monday and left on Wednesday. The second group would arrive on Wednesday and leave on Friday.

During the day they would talk fertilizer. On Monday and Wednesday nights, he’d send them to his parent’s house (located on the course) where his parents would cook them dinner. On Tuesday and Thursday, he’d bring them to his house (also on the course) where he and his wife would cook them dinner. To cap it off, he’d bring in his four daughters during dessert, and they would sing. David's sales strategy could essentially be boiled down to two home-cooked dinners and singing daughters.

Around 80% of the superintendents that came to Farm Links became customers.

After four or five years of this same process... fly in 10 superintendents, dinner at mom and dad’s first night, dinner at David’s second night, rinse and repeat, David sold his fertilizer business for close to a reported nine figures.

As I sat listening to his speech, there were things I could relate to as CEO of InstaGift. Much like David’s fertilizer, we’ve built a product, virtual gift card software, that is the best in the industry. Gift cards are a big market, and we can identify our customers, much as David could identify superintendents. The question we now face is how to reach this market. We’ve toyed around with hiring an outside sales force, and we may ultimately decide that’s one route worth pursuing. But after listening to David, I’m inspired to keep searching for our own “cook them dinner” strategy. All companies, startups and otherwise, should continue to look for a similarly inspired sales approach.

  PS. If you are a potential customer reading this post, I make a mean paella.

[geoffbarnett]

Road Trip to FarmLinks

[calebchanceyblog-blog-blog]

Farmlinks

Off to the farm today! Peace. - Caleb

[calebchanceyblog-blog-blog]

FarmLinks

"We want you to capture the feeling of FarmLinks. Sure, we have a golf course; but what does it feel like after you play and your just relaxing at the lodge? Or having a meal with your friend? Or those rare moments when you pause and take in the details of your surroundings? We want people to see that this place is not a show, but is very real to every person who experiences it." This is what was said to me when I first met with Joel Townley four weeks ago. Joel is one of the creative directors for one of the South's secret treasures, FarmLinks . From scouting to delivery, the project lasted about 2 weeks, and it has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my career. It opened doors in my shooting that had never been open, but when I stepped inside I realized that although it was a new room of experience, it was still in the same house. It was next door to my weddings, my family shoots, and even the rare ad job. This shoot opened my eyes to style. My style. And how it can translate to any subject matter. Until two weeks ago, I viewed myself as a portrait photographer. "I mostly take pictures of people", I would tell someone who asked. But last week I shot Apples Longhorns Steaks Bridges Golf Tees And yes, people So here's to FarmLinks; a remarkable place, that reminded me of a very important lesson: Always be remarkable. To see everything, click HERE. Tell me what you think! Peace. - Caleb

[calebchanceyblog-blog-blog]

FarmLinks, Round 1

This is an example of what I experienced last week at the wonderful world of FarmLinks.

[calebchanceyblog-blog-blog]

Peace

As I predicted a couple of weeks back, the last two weeks have been crazy busy and crazy amazing. Here's a little overview: I've been to Dothan, AL to get my wisdom teeth out; while Laura and I were in Dothan, her apartment burnt down; we got back to Birmingham and dealt with a bunch of apartment stuff, then we headed to Baton Rouge; Where we then got engaged (!); Then I headed to New Orleans to shoot a wedding; Then we picked up Bryan and Ashley's kid Noah, and we headed back to Birmingham; Then when we got in we had people over to my apartment for beers and Heim; then I got up and drove to Sylacauga, AL, for a meeting; then I drove back to Birmingham and went shopping; then I went to random music rehearsal; then Laura and I went to look at an apartment; then I woke up this morning at 4am and drove back to Sylacauga, AL to a place called Farmlinks where I'll be shooting for the next 3 days; then Laura and I will drive to Chattanooga, TN on Friday to attend the wedding of Melissa & Nicholas. ............... The polaroid that begins this blog post is a shot I took this morning at 6:30am. I was on the 17th green, and the ground was damp and soft. Birds were beginning to stir, and the air around me served as a chilling hint that fall was coming soon. If you were to take out a map and locate "peaceful", that is where I was this morning. Peace. - Caleb P.S. I don't have time to spell check