Target long-gun sales: jumpstart your rifle and shotgun business during tight economic times!

Shooting Industry, August, 2003 by Tom Gaylord

"Times are tough. The economy is in the dumps. People just aren't buying right now."

Does any of this sound familiar? Perhaps these comments have been made in your gun shop. Perhaps by you. Yes, the marketplace has lost a lot of its heat. Or has it?

Are there still good selling strategies for these tight times? To find out, we looked beyond the conventional wisdom of hunting-season sales promotions to identify tips and techniques that blast past the normal patterns of gun commerce. Not surprisingly, the best sales techniques center on the customer--not the gun.

Serving Customers Sets Sales Records

Mark's Outdoor Sports Inc. has operated for 23 years in Birmingham, Ala. Store manager Will Burke said it isn't the size of their store (between 7,000 and 8,000 square feet of sales space) but rather the traffic passing through the doors that makes Mark's stand out.

"We've set sales records in each of the past three years," Burke noted, "and every month this year has surpassed the previous month."

The shop's owner, Mark Whitlock, is proud that his store is one of the few in the country designated as a Beretta Premium Gun dealer.

"It's important to put the high-priced item in the customer's hand when you describe the features," Whitlock advises.

That advice works well at Marks.

"Shotguns are a consistent good seller, and, for us, Beretta outsells all others, with their Model 391 autoloader leading the pack. But, right now, any rifle chambered in the new .223 WSSM or .243 WSSM is hot. They shoot flat and people can't seem to get them fast enough."

Is the success at Mark's Outdoor Sports a continued reaction to terrorist threats? Not according to Burke. The largest number of sales this past April was in sporting rifles. Shotgun sales were also up, but rifles were the clear leaders.

"At the time, if we were about to go into a hunting season, 1 could understand it," he said, "but this record was set in April!

So, how does Mark's rack up such phenomenal sales of sporting rifles in a non-hunting month? Burke attributes their success to well-trained salesmen and the attention they pay to their customers.

"We have the most knowledgeable sales force I've ever seen. if they tell a customer something, it's true. They don't lie or waffle just to make sales," Burke said.

The store holds regular sales meetings every Wednesday.

"We try to focus on those extra things we can do," Burke said. "We try to call all our regular customers by their first names and to deal with them on a friendly basis."

This includes sending customers a birthday card.

"That puts the store name in front of them one extra time each year. On Father's Day, every man who walks in is asked if he is a father. Dad can enter a drawing for a fishing trip for him and his son to a top-end lodge," Burke said.

Customer Special Treatment

And that's still not all Mark's does.

They don't just sell rifles: they sell scoped combo packages with mounting and sighing services included. The shop's gunsmith personally sights-in the combo package at an outdoor range each Friday. On one Friday in May, more than 60 rifles were sighted-in, all from just a single week's sales.

Yes, there's even more service for customers.

Every year the store throws two free sporting clays events for registered customers. All the customer brings is a shotgun and ammo--the rest is on Mark's After the main event, a catered lunch is served to the 200 to 300 invited guests.

"Never underestimate a customer. Not everybody who buys a $5,000 shotgun wears a three-piece suit. That fellow in the blue jeans and cowboy hat will surprise you. We try to treat each and every customer as though our business depended on him alone, because it does!" Burke said.

Marks also works closely with distributors and manufactures to obtain the best deal, which they Call pass on to Customers.

"We buy whole lots of new guns that are closed out or discontinued," Burke said. "This is risky because hundreds of guns are involved, and we never know whether they will all sell, but it does allow us to offer some outstanding deals from time to time."

Small, Yet Dynamic, The Academy Pulls In Customer

Operating a large gun shop is nice, but most retail gun stores aren't at that level. And, most large operations were first successful as small gun shops.

In Northern Texas, one gun shop is small, yet dynamic. Located south Ft. Worth, the Handgun Academy of Burleson is owned and operated by Casey Peacock and his father, Larry. They've had their FFL since 1996, but most of that time was spent teaching handgun classes to qualify shooters for Texas concealed carry permits. It wasn't until 2001 that they opened their store on Highway 174.

"I wish someone would teach me how to sell more long guns!" Casey Peacock said when asked about his long-gun sales secrets.

In truth, the Peacock's long-gun business is successful. In shotguns, they've embraced the new Benelli Nova pump shotgun line.

"This gun has it all--good looks, a great price and the name that sells shotguns," Peacock said. "All my customers would probably like to own a Benelli M1, but most of them either can't afford it or won't part with the money right now. But they've all seen Tom Knapp do remarkable things with Benellis on TV, so when I show them a Nova priced at less than $400, you bet they buy it!