During the summer, your store doesn’t have to be deserted. You can draw crowds,
like this one at Sprague Sports in Yuma, Ariz., by carefully timing your promotions.
These dove hunters are lined up to make purchases at a July promotion, even
though dove season doesn’t start until Sept. 1 in Arizona.

In the gun business, summer often means a slump. Hunters generally aren’t making many purchases, long-gun and accessory sales are in the pits and your bottom line looks like it’s six feet under.

“For us, summer is when sales are really at a low point for long guns and accessories,” said Miles Hall, owner of H&H Gun Range in Oklahoma City, Okla.

What can you do to make the most of long-gun and accessory sales during slow periods? Different retailers take different approaches, but they all have the same goal: To promote long guns and accessories in their stores to create sales.

Tip #1: Television Is Your Friend.

“You’d be amazed how inexpensive television advertising can be,” Hall said. “And if you have a consistent presence on the tube, it brings a lot of legitimacy to what you do. There are a lot of TV stations that are pretty negative about guns. But they have to pay for their high-dollar anchors, so they need advertisers.”

Buy TV ads and you make the stations your friends, Halls says.
“When you buy ads on TV stations, they’re no longer vehemently anti-gun because they’re getting paid by us,” Hall said.

Think you can’t create a television ad? Fortunately, you don’t have to.

“The NSSF has a wonderful TV spot we use for long-gun sales,” Hall said. “It features Doug Koenig — who is a real talented shooter — and it shows the energy and the excitement of deer hunting. It’s a great commercial to promote long guns.”

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 relations 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 #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 long-gun sales when it’s 110 degrees outside.”

Sprague’s solution is to create a calendar according to what’s going on during different periods of the summer, and find ways to promote guns and accessories around those events.

“For instance, May to early June is the application timeframe for some of our fall big-game hunts,” Sprague said. “So we get people thinking about big game during that time period, and do some long-gun business as a result of that.”

Also in May, Sprague holds a Marlin rimfire sale for 10 days.
“It’s still decent outside then for some target shooting,” he said.

As the weather begins to warm up, Sprague starts thinking about bringing his customers indoors.

“In June, we do a Father’s Day promotion,” Sprague said. “Generally we work with one of the major manufacturers on that promotion. Lately we’ve been working with Smith & Wesson, and since they now have long guns in their lineup, we feature that line.”
In July, the average temperature in Yuma is 108 degrees. Again, Sprague turns to some of the major manufacturers, particularly Springfield Armory, Bushmaster and Mossberg, for promotional support for events held indoors.

“We do a big sale with Mossberg and call it our ‘Mossberg Preseason Sale,’” Sprague said.
In August, it’s still high summer, but the gun-selling season starts to pick up.

“By then, hunters have gotten the results from the Arizona fall hunting draw, and they’re starting to think about what they need,” Sprague said. “Plus, dove season starts September 1, and hunters have that in mind. We start focusing on all of that in the latter part of July.”

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.

Tip #6: Hold An Open House.

“Get reps in from the various suppliers such as gun companies, and rep groups that handle ammunition and all sorts of accessories,” Aeschliman said. “Have an open house in the middle of summer and give away a lot of door prizes. This is a good time to push accessories, particularly if you can get reps in. Sometimes, especially if you’re a larger independent retailer, you can even get reps to come in and work in the store for a weekend. That creates a lot of interest and a lot of traffic.”

One retailer who is particularly successful at this type of event is Kittery Trading Post in Kittery, Maine.

“Every year they have September Fest,” Aeschliman said. “They give away door prizes every day, give out free sodas and popcorn, and have people doing all kinds of demonstrations. That generates a tremendous amount of customer traffic.”

Summer may be slow, but it doesn’t have to be dead. Take advantage of these tips from the experts to improve your bottom line and make some summertime money.

This Feature Article is sponsored by:

DPSM
www.dpmsinc.com

Hardigg Cases
www.stormcase.com