Woman Gun Dealer Shares Secrets To Women’s Market

Successful customer relations are the cornerstones of a good business plan. You need to know your customer base and their shooting needs. Once a business establishes these parameters, the focus should be on customer service and client retention. Especially in the women’s market, customer service is the gun dealer’s most powerful tool, and a reputation for women-friendly staff can really increase your female customer base.

Stonewall Gun Shop and Pistol Range in Broadview Heights, Ohio, has the inside track on the women’s market, as it’s presided over by a woman. President and managing agent Diane Donnett has been at the helm of Stonewall for 13 years and says business is great.
“I’m doubling and tripling my business,” Donnett said. “We’re having a phenomenal year.”
Stonewall specializes in self-defense and target shooting firearms.

“The indoor range really brings people in. It’s phenomenal,” Donnett said. Because of the indoor range, Stonewall is able to offer a wide variety of classes including NRA courses and hunter safety courses.

When women come to Donnett looking for a gun, she always recommends they take a basic handgun class. She said the classes are attended, predominantly, by women and this makes the ladies feel more comfortable.

“It’s important for women to attend a class,” Donnett said. “You can’t explain recoil. Until they shoot, they can’t understand it.”

Donnett also stressed that classes give women a chance to try different guns to get a feel for what works for them.

“Women come to us for recommendations and I always tell them to take lessons and get educated so they know what they like. If everybody had the same taste, we’d all be driving Chevy trucks,” Donnett said.

Even after women take a basic handgun class, buying a firearm is still a big decision. Gun dealers and their staff need to draw on their expertise to determine a woman’s needs and how she wants to use the gun.

“A lot of women don’t know what questions to ask,” Donnett said. “You have to read between the lines. Is it for home defense? Are there children at home? Other adults? You almost have to pick out what they want. You really need to listen.”

Once the word gets out that your store is responsive to women’s needs, ladies will send their friends to you. Donnett said most of Stonewall’s women customers hear about them through word-of-mouth.

Its price-point and durability make the Roma Leather
purse holster popular with women.

The number one self-defense gun sold to women at Stonewall Gun Shop is the .38 revolver.

“The revolver is tried and true,” Donnett said. “You can shoot a revolver through a purse if you have to.”

Stonewall’s bestselling model is the Taurus Model 85 series. Donnett said this is a great starter gun for most women because of its ease of operation and low price-point. She also noted many women start with a .38 and then, as they get into shooting, move up to a 1911-style .45.

When it comes to buying holsters, Donnett said women have a different consumer style than men.

“Ladies research before they buy. They want to be educated before buying,” she said. “They’re not impulse shoppers. Men will buy a bunch of different holsters. Women make up their mind, buy it and use it.”

Stonewall stocks a wide range of holsters, including purse holsters from Roma Leather. Donnett said the Roma purse holster line is popular because they sell at an affordable price-point, she’s able to stock three or four different styles, and the purses stand up well over time.

“Women are looking at how much they’re going to use it. Not many women can afford a high-end $600 purse. You sell maybe one a month, but $20 purses really sell,” Donnett said. She notices about 5 percent of her customers go for high-end purse holsters.
Fanny packs are also very popular holster options.

Donnett said Stonewall is a family-oriented store and she encourages people to bring their kids to the range.

“We market to the whole spectrum,” Donnett said, “from kids up to grandparents.”
Donnett runs a series of summer specials designed to make it fun to come to the range.
“I was looking for a way to encourage people to shoot in summer,” she said. “I wanted to lure them back without taking a chunk out of their pockets. So I came up with summer specials like Ladies Day and Monte Carlo Day.”

On Ladies Day, women shoot free for the first hour and can bring a guest for $7 per hour — a substantial savings off the regular range rate. On Monte Carlo Day, shooters draw a number that represents a price range from free to regular price.

“Monte Carlo Day is very popular,” said Donnett. “My customers want me to do it year-round. They just love it.” Other specials include half-price range day, discount ammo day and a doubles day where shooters share a range stall for just $9 per hour.

Stonewall Gun Shop also hosts a special customer appreciation weekend once a year. This year’s customer appreciation weekend was held in September and featured a pig and chicken roast, free range time, door prizes (including a grand prize drawing for an FNH USA firearm), plus factory representatives were present with assorted guns available to test fire. Additionally, everything in the store was 20 percent off.

Donnett said she reduces the cost of the event by saving all of the free and reduced-price merchandise manufacturers offer throughout the year to use as prizes. Stonewall’s customers look forward to the event and really enjoy the day, according to Donnett. More than 173 people were fed this year.

The goal of the day is to reward loyal customers, Donnett said, but it’s also good for business.

“It’s not a ‘make money’ day,” she noted, “but, of course, I do make money. In two days, we sold $13,000 worth of memberships and we did $45,000 in sales.”

Donnett attributes Stonewall Gun Shop’s success to its outstanding customer service. She said they do a good job of serving the women’s market because they have women on staff and she works with her male employees on providing women with good customer service.
Donnett said, “The main thing with our place has always been customer service and having a smile on your face.”