Safety & storage: there's a huge demand for products that protect firearms and the shooter. Are you meeting your customers' needs? - Safari Series Gun Safe

Shooting Industry, Nov, 2002 by Max Mckenzie

Heavy Duty Security -- Selling Safes

"Selling safes is smart business," said Susan Conroy of Heritage Safe. "Any dealer who sells guns should also sell gun safes and security products. It's easy for a dealer to make a 30 percent margin on safes. We have dealers who say if it weren't for the gun safes they're selling, they would have fallen on hard times. There's a high demand for quality safes, and dealers can make great margins."

Mike Goschinski, owner of Fin Fur & Feather Outfitters in Ashland, Ohio, said carrying safes is a lot of work, but it's profitable.

"Selling safes lets me provide my customers with a product they can use to lock up guns and valuables. It reduces their liability a huge amount," he said.

The key to selling safes, and to making those higher margins, is knowledge. If you're going to sell safes, you need to educate yourself about their features, what safes are on the market, and which ones will best meet your customer's needs.

"Most dealers find they need to inventory a variety of models," Conroy said.

Some full-sized gun safes are "built heavy," Conroy said, and are designed for maximum protection of firearms and other valuables. Others are much lighter and provide less security. There's a market for both types, depending on the customer's needs. Customers who purchase heavily built safes often use them for more than just guns.

"They use them for documents and other valuables as well. People find that they're useful for storing a lot of things," Conroy said.

Goschinski agrees.

"Both gun owners and non-gun owners use safes," he said, indicating he has quite a few customers who come in strictly to buy a safe.

"For these customers, we order safes with 'Executive' interiors from Heritage, which means they have full shelving," he said. "These represent only about 5 percent of our sales, but we do get guys who come in just to buy a safe for items other than guns."

These customers include coin, knife and book collectors, and people who collect baseball cards and NASCAR memorabilia.

To help dealers make sales, most safe companies offer training. This knowledge translates into more profits.

"We've found that dealers who are really well trained and know a lot about safes have double or triple the safe sales of those who don't take the time to train themselves and their salespeople," Conroy said.

Goschinski said educating his staff has significantly increased his safe sales.

"We have good, dedicated employees who know what they're talking about," he said. "We make sure we take care of the customer to the fullest, and give him the best possible service at a reasonable price."

Making Deliveries

One of the biggest challenges of selling safes is how do customers get safes delivered.

"When you sell something like this, one of the customer's most common objections is, 'How am I going to get this in my house?'" Conroy said. "If the dealer can provide adequate safe delivery, the sell-through is much greater than if he says, 'We'll sell it, but you'll have to pick it up yourself.' When the dealer offers delivery, that overcomes a huge objection of the customer's."