Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. Marlin Model 1894 Leupold VX-7L Long Range Birchwood Casey Dirty Bird Keep your customers’ interest during the summer by offering a full line of long-gun and accessory products, like Marlin’s Model 1894, Birchwood Casey’s Dirty Bird Multi Color targets and Leupold’s new VX-7L Long Range scope. Hall runs a teaser across the bottom of the ad that reads, “Don’t wait until the last minute.” “It works wonderfully well,” he said. “The NSSF already has the ad done; all we have to do is modify it.” Check out the ad Hall uses, along with other ads from the “NSSF Original Outdoor Challenge” campaign. Visit www. nssf.org, click “Member Services & Industry” on the home page and then “Member Benefits.” For assistance placing commercials for your business, e-mail Dave Miles, NSSF’s director of promotions and advertising, at dmiles@nssf.org, or call (203) 426-1320. Tip #2: Hold A Long-Gun “Event.” “We do a summer expo every year in July,” Hall said. “We bring in as many long-gun companies as we can and have them set up on tables. Customers can come in and meet the factory guys and talk about the guns. We run specials on the guns, and if customers want to, they can even go out on the range and shoot them. It’s a way of getting people to act in what otherwise would be a dead time.” Greg Tropino, owner of GAT Guns in Dundee, Ill., has found success in focusing on target shooters. “We always make sure we have plenty of guns and ammo in .223 and .308 for our target shooters,” Tropino said. He noted, however, that with the decrease in places to shoot, sometimes focusing on target shooters is less effective than it has been in the past. To offset the downturn, Tropino permits rimfire and handgun caliber rifles on his 25-yard indoor range. Promoting .22s and other rimfire rifles is an important part of summer sales, says Tony Aeschliman, formerly of Marlin Firearms and now director of public rela- tions for the NSSF. “Those guns tend to get quite a lot of use in the summer,” Aeschliman said. “Rimfires are used for varmints such as woodchucks and ground squirrels and things like that. So run a varmint special on rimfire rifles for small varmint hunting.” Tip #3: Educate Frontliners About Accessories. “Selling accessories is really the job of the salesperson,” Hall said. “When someone buys a gun, if you just run to the register, all you’re going to sell is the gun. When you’re only making 10 or 11 points on a gun, accessories are a big deal. We pay our staff a commission based in part on the accessories they sell, because you can make a higher margin on accessories than you can on guns.” Besides the sales aspect of accessories, Hall said, you’re really doing your customer an injustice if you don’t sell him everything he needs — including a case, ammunition and cleaning supplies — at the same time he buys a gun. “And be sure you cover both gun-cleaning equipment for inside the house and in the field, because there are two different versions of cleaning supplies,” Hall said. Optics should be a part of accessories sales as well. “If you don’t cover all those things, your customer will get to the range and say, ‘I didn’t get that and I need it!’” Hall said. Tip #4: Create An Advertising And Promotions Calendar. “Here, it’s desert and it’s hot,” said Richard Sprague, owner of Sprague Sports in Yuma, Ariz. “It’s hard to focus on longgun sales when it’s 110 degrees outside.” Sprague’s solution is to create a calendar according to what’s going on durwww.shootingindustry.com Miles Hall of H&H Gun Range in Oklahoma City, Okla., has successfully used the commercials from NSSF’s Original Outdoor Challenge to draw customers into his store during the summer. 30 MARCH 2008