3 Keys to Selling Without Selling on the Golf Course
Why Overselling Kills Opportunity, and What to Do Instead
The golf course isn’t a pitch meeting. It’s a trust-building environment.
If you treat it like a closing call, you’ll lose the very advantage that makes golf so powerful for business.
Here are three essential insights to help you build influence without ever sounding like you’re selling:
1. Stop Trying to Be Impressive. Be Interested Instead
Most people try to prove their value: credentials, numbers, accomplishments. But on the course, no one wants to feel like they’re sitting through a resume dump between shots. Influence is built when people feel seen, not sold to.
What to do instead:
Ask sharp, sincere questions. Show real curiosity about their business, challenges, or background.
The most powerful thing you can say on the course might just be:
“That’s interesting. How’d you get into that?”
2. Let Them Discover You. Don’t Deliver You
The fastest way to kill momentum is to insert your offer at the wrong time.
Golf has a natural rhythm. If you respect the flow, you can say less and accomplish more.
What to do instead:
Drop one simple, high-value line that signals what you do:
“I help businesses keep new customers from falling through the cracks.”
If they care, they’ll ask. If they don’t, you didn’t oversell. Win-win.
3. Let the Round Be the Proof
The way you show up is the pitch. Do you stay calm after a bad shot? Help search for a ball? Keep pace with the group? Those small things say more about your character, and therefore your business, than any elevator pitch ever could.
What to do instead:
Be the kind of player people want to spend four hours with. Show emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and professionalism. That’s what builds trust, and trust is what gets you called back.
Final Thought
You don’t win people over by pushing your offer.
You win them over by being someone they’d want to work with, even if you had nothing to sell.
3 Keys To Selling On The Golf Course
3 Keys to Selling Without Selling on the Golf Course
Why Overselling Kills Opportunity, and What to Do Instead
The golf course isn’t a pitch meeting. It’s a trust-building environment.
If you treat it like a closing call, you’ll lose the very advantage that makes golf so powerful for business.
Here are three essential insights to help you build influence without ever sounding like you’re selling:
1. Stop Trying to Be Impressive. Be Interested Instead
Most people try to prove their value: credentials, numbers, accomplishments. But on the course, no one wants to feel like they’re sitting through a resume dump between shots. Influence is built when people feel seen, not sold to.
What to do instead:
Ask sharp, sincere questions. Show real curiosity about their business, challenges, or background.
The most powerful thing you can say on the course might just be:
“That’s interesting. How’d you get into that?”
2. Let Them Discover You. Don’t Deliver You
The fastest way to kill momentum is to insert your offer at the wrong time.
Golf has a natural rhythm. If you respect the flow, you can say less and accomplish more.
What to do instead:
Drop one simple, high-value line that signals what you do:
“I help businesses keep new customers from falling through the cracks.”
If they care, they’ll ask. If they don’t, you didn’t oversell. Win-win.
3. Let the Round Be the Proof
The way you show up is the pitch. Do you stay calm after a bad shot? Help search for a ball? Keep pace with the group? Those small things say more about your character, and therefore your business, than any elevator pitch ever could.
What to do instead:
Be the kind of player people want to spend four hours with. Show emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and professionalism. That’s what builds trust, and trust is what gets you called back.
Final Thought
You don’t win people over by pushing your offer.
You win them over by being someone they’d want to work with, even if you had nothing to sell.