FACILITIES - SUPPLIES - PEOPLE 11/26

Heckelman says, "It’s all about teamwork; that starts with the GM and TD being on the same page and with the same goals."

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Rich Neher & Rod Heckelman
October 26, 2026

Your Tennis Director Can Be Your Best Salesperson, But…

By Rod Heckelman


If a General Manager thinks their Director of Tennis isn't in the business of sales, they need to think again. In fact, a TD’s ability to sell themselves and their facility is a key trait a GM looks for when hiring. Knowing that they hired a TD with sales skills, they can begin mentoring this new addition to become an integral part of the facility's sales team. Every facility has its own unique market and customer base, and an experienced GM usually knows the best tactics and game plan to optimize everyone's performance. But hiring that new TD is only the first step, as they will discover.

In the past, the relationship between a TD and their clients was mostly teacher/student-based. They are also often responsible for tennis events, social activities, and overseeing the other tennis pros at their facility. That was an acceptable standard. Today, the TD’s role has added the art of sales. This means the TD can step up to address the issue of slow growth and, in some areas, the attrition in membership. In fact, many clubs consider the impact a TD will have on sales as their most important asset. This may not sit well with old-school tennis teachers, but in this current market, sales have become the lifeblood of a club.

Kyle LaCroix: HerThe worst time to start preparing for a Director position is when you see it posted.

By then, you’re late. Not necessarily too late to apply. But too late to build the career you wish you could put on the application. You can’t manufacture five years of relationships in five days.
Read the full story and be inspired.

In fairness, many fine tennis teachers/coaches want to excel only in coaching. They may not be well suited as the Director of Tennis or Head Pro, but their history of coaching in the community can, in itself, be an asset that attracts or retains members. If they have coached for many years, they probably have found their comfort zone by mostly focusing on their coaching skills. To ask them to actively be involved in marketing and sales can result in those veteran teaching pros being frustrated and possibly becoming disgruntled or unhappy employees. Let them be.

In working with the TD, a GM can help train them to appreciate the importance of aggressively addressing the new reality of slower growth and member retention. This teamwork between the GM and TD begins with an in-depth evaluation of the local community. Find out through research what the tennis enthusiast is demanding in their community. For that to happen, no one should know more about that subject than your TD. Do potential members want more casual play, better and fair access to court times, competition, instruction that is more physically demanding…the list goes on. Help your TD realize that they and the tennis staff need to start by focusing on what the market and the consumers are seeking, not what the coaches prefer to provide.

Once you’ve discovered what the consumer prefers, you can begin the process of marketing. Here again is where the GM can harness the influence the TD has on the local tennis community by having them organize and host multiple tennis venues. Again, these days, that is the new trend that potential members are seeking. They want to be provided with a diversity of programs as well as the current very popular tennis events. This is the result of the new type of tennis member who has an active life and many choices of entertainment. As a good example of adaptation to cater to the customers, imagine someone turning on the TV to watch the Olympics. Now imagine that they only want to watch the swimming. The networks very quickly learned long ago that they needed to provide access to all the events at all times that were being contested. That’s how the new tennis industry needs to operate. Only providing specialized programs, such as league play or only Live Ball, will not work for many new members; they want options and more access to meeting others to play with at their level. You will discover that providing multiple venues really hits home, especially with families that have children.

 The next step then becomes obvious…advertising. But advertising is also subject to the character of your community. To best understand that approach, the GM needs to team up with their TD and gather as much feedback as possible to design a strong focus group and discover the best and most impactful advertising methods possible. Remember, advertising is fluid and constantly changing. New technology has made that a hard fact. But guess what, here again a quality TD can make a difference. They can organize events for spectators with top-level players, even having a mixer that would provide an opportunity for any member to be on the court playing with those top-level players. They can host special events for organizations or large businesses and their employees. The number of different formats and events is as plentiful as the good TD can come up with.  

Jarrett Chirico, The Directors Club: The Directors Club is proud to welcome Greg O’Neil, the Director of Racquets at Rockaway River Country Club in Denville, New Jersey, to our global family of leaders! Greg O’Neil represents all the best qualities of a leader, leadership, experience, innovation, a commitment to his members, and an unwavering passion for growing the game. With more than 25 years of experience coaching and leading racquets programs, Greg has built an impressive career spanning tennis, platform tennis, pickleball, junior development, programming, staff leadership, and club operations.

Rob Norris: I speak to a lot of coaches and tennis business owners about the challenges they are facing, and quite often I recognise a lot of them because I’ve been through many of the same situations myself over the years.
One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that the problem people think they have is not always the real problem. A coach might think they need more players, when actually they already have enough enquiries coming in but they are not being followed up properly.

With advertising, remember to use a medium that will not only reach your potential members, but will best portray the image of your facility that you are promoting. For that to happen, include in that promotion the most positive characteristics of your tennis program and your TD. Maybe they have a great prior experience developing top players, or maybe they have had strong accomplishments as a player. Having that information disseminated via the GM is much more appropriate than the TD having to take on that task.

You need to know the best time of year to advertise your product. Usually, that is likely any time of year that is in transition, i.e., back to school, holidays, weather impact; those seasonal transitions need to be calculated into the timing of your promotions. One of the most common times of the year that is always transitional for buyers is in the late spring. As summer approaches, potential members may be looking for a facility that will meet their fair-weather needs.

Be on the lookout for micro trends that take place in your specific area and for your specific club. As an example, if you have a facility that provides indoor tennis, the beginning of a wet or cold season can provide your facility a leg up on membership sales. Possibly there is a local event that potential tennis members need to gear up for: the USTA league for tennis, summer tennis tournaments, or a social event that will attract a great deal of attention. All of these actions could serve as an opportunity to provide special programs when the demand is there. If your TD is on top of this, they will modify their instructional programs to attract players who are interested in these events.

Once you have your marketing and advertising programs on track, you better have a sales staff AND especially your TD prepared to capitalize. Most buyers will make their decision on their first visit to your facility. Will you have someone there who will be able to process that sale, or will they be referred to someone else they may not hear from for days? Do you have a trained sales staff? “Trained” is defined as understanding how to properly read a potential member and how to properly deliver a message that caters to that potential member’s needs. Not having your staff trained in sales, can make all the prior research and advertising meaningless.

Ignacio Berasain: Yesterday marked the beginning of a new chapter in my career.

I am incredibly proud and grateful to officially begin my role as Director of Racquets at Cohasset Golf Club.

For more than 14 years , I have had the opportunity to learn, grow and build relationships at two organizations that became much more than places to work.

Mike Knowles: He was perfect on paper. Lasted two weeks.

Luke Wade, The Community Creator resurfaced a great one from his podcast this week, and if you run a facility, it's worth your time.

The tennis industry has always had, and still does have, salespeople who are usually well-versed in the industry because of their own participation or involvement at their facility. They enjoy playing tennis, or love competition, and always, always, enjoy interacting with others. They need to believe in the product they are trying to sell, not because they have been told to, but because they really do believe in the tennis industry, as well as being very familiar with the programs that are being offered. This is again an important quality of a good T.D. They should always take the time to interact, engage, and educate the entire staff about all the tennis activities and lesson programs. This enthusiasm will come across in their interaction with the buyer. Instead of a person buying a membership, they are now joining a tennis program and becoming a part of the club made up of future friends and hopefully a great tennis atmosphere.

Most tennis programs will offer a package. The design of that package depends upon what you want to give away. Maybe a free invite to a group tennis lesson, another attribute a T. D. can provide. Whatever sales program you provide, remember to keep records and also feedback from your salespeople to find out what really works, or what did not work.

As you can see from this article, the growth of any facility will need to be a team effort. To help create that environment, the G.M. should begin with the T.D. From that point, it is invaluable to organize staff meetings with as many people on board as possible. This will create a collective effort, but also help the staff, no matter what their responsibility is or their perceived importance, get to know one another.

Karl Hale: Another Premier Racquet Clubs facility is on the way.

  • PRC Brampton

  • 6 tennis courts.

  • 6 pickleball courts.

  • 2 padel courts.

  • A 4,009 sq. ft. clubhouse.

And this is only the beginning. Premier Racquet Clubs is actively seeking partners across Canada and the United States to build, acquire, and transform exceptional racquet facilities.

It’s all about teamwork; that starts with the GM and TD being on the same page and with the same goals.

Rod Heckelman

Rod Heckelman's career started in 1966 when he began his 5-year role as a teacher at John Gardiner’s Tennis Ranch in Carmel Valley, California. Later he opened as the resident pro for Gardiner’s Tennis Ranch on Camelback in Scottsdale, Arizona.

In 1976, he took over as head professional/tennis director at the Mt. Tam Racquet Club in Larkspur, California, and added the title and responsibilities of general manager in 1982. After 48 years, he retired to work exclusively in helping others in the industry. 

In 2010, he was awarded “Manager of the Year” for the USPTA NorCal Division and the “Manager of the Year” at the USPTA World Conference. Rod has written several books, including “Down Your Alley” in 1993, “Playing Into the Sunset” in 2013, and most recently, “250 Ways to Play Tennis.”

He also produced the “Facility Manager’s Manual” and the “Business Handbook for Tennis Pros,” which is distributed by the TIA.