5 Ways To Engage & Inform The Newbies

Written By Mark Kakkuri

2020

If one of your team members excels at explaining the uses of a product without coming across as patronizing
to a first-time visitor, encourage him or her to interact with these customers — it could lead to a positive buying
experience, which increases the likelihood of repeat visits and sales add-ons.

Every now and then something happens in society that gets people thinking about the safety of themselves and loved ones, as well as what they’re going to do about it. Many times, these situations lead to a spike in firearms sales and the associated equipment. Additionally, many of these sales are to newbies — people purchasing a firearm for the first time.

Remember when you first became interested in firearms? When you purchased your first one? When you first visited a range? First fired a round? First hit a bull’s-eye? First took an actual class on how to be a safer, more effective shooter? All those firsts … and this may have been many years ago when there were fewer options. Now think of the choices someone who is new to firearms has today in the continued throes of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Problem With Too Many Choices

While the ability to have choices is great, what’s potentially difficult is the real possibility of being overwhelmed with too many of them. (And overwhelmed isn’t how you want to describe any customer.) Rather, you want to describe customers as engaged and informed, especially if they’re a newbie. And these days, there are plenty of them out there. They’re buying firearms like never before and they’ve got a lot to learn.

Here are five ways to engage, inform and hopefully persuade them to become long-term customers.

1. Make a first-time customer’s visit to your store as helpful as possible.
Clear and helpful signage. Friendly and patient staff. A well-lit and well-organized store. These may seem like good and obvious goals for any retail outfit, but you’d be surprised how easily these can degrade over time.

When’s the last time you looked at every piece of signage relating to your store — from the street to the restrooms — and thought about how new customers see it? How often do you join a salesperson and a customer just to listen to how the conversation goes? Ever drawn your store’s floor plan and noted how people flow through it, where the best-selling gear is located or whether there’s adequate lighting in every part of it?

Take all of this a step further: Is the signage consistent and clear, something that elevates your store’s brand? Do your salespeople know how long they should spend with an inquisitive or chatty customer? Could you provide any printed resources to provide the basics on firearms, gear and how to use them?

Customer experiences are multi-sensory, multi-faceted enterprises and potentially very intimidating for the newbie. Once you find out a customer is relatively new to firearms (and you should ask every single customer about their experience), thank them for visiting the store, ask them how their visit went and what one thing could have made it more helpful to them.

2. Encourage formal training by mini-training.
Even if you don’t offer formal training as a part of your enterprise, there may be formal training available nearby — an organization you could partner with through a mutual marketing effort. Or you could partner with local law enforcement and create something together.

One way to encourage sales of training is to do a mini-training right in the store. As a newbie is contemplating the purchase of a tactical pen or a concealment holster, take a minute to provide a snippet from a training course on how to use that particular piece of gear.

Mention the advice you’re giving comes from a course they can take.

As you provide some insight on the options and characteristics of how to use a piece of gear, focus on one particular move or use scenario. What you’re doing is providing a glimpse to the newbie of the myriad considerations at stake when using some of these products. Your goal is to be helpful to them (see #1) but also to get them thinking about the helpfulness of taking formal training.

Of course provide a brochure, business card or link to whatever training is available. If it’s available on site in your store, have the newbie sit in on a few minutes with the instructor and his or her class. Prep your instructors to be salespeople at this point as well, introducing themselves to the newbie and offering to answer any questions they might have at a later time.

3. Give hands-on, new product demonstrations.
Consider planning a more formal event or have a staff member on hand who is really good at explaining, in a helpful, non-condescending manner, why a new product may be worth a newbie’s consideration. The firearms industry has enjoyed plenty of innovation over the past several years. And yet, for example, we have more snub-nosed revolvers available than ever before.

Customer experiences are multi-sensory, multi-faceted enterprises and potentially very intimidating for the newbie.

A newbie might not understand why a snub-nosed revolver is still a viable self-defense gun; this is a prime opportunity to pull one from the case and explain its features and benefits compared to an auto-loading pistol. Similarly, gun-cleaning kits have come a long way. Have a place in the store where a customer can use whatever gun cleaning products you’re selling to actually clean a gun. Likewise, gun belts and holsters are great items to have a customer try on for size and fit.

If you’ve ever been to the SHOT Show or other firearms industry events, you know the value of vendors having their actual products on hand for others to see, touch and handle. Similarly, give newbies the opportunity to hear from you, watch you perform an operation with a gun or piece of gear and then try it themselves.

4. Help these customers ask the right questions and take time to answer them.

Sometimes newbies admit they don’t know what they don’t know. And most other times, you can just tell they’re in a tough spot. Whatever the newbie’s demeanor — even if they’re playing the part of know-it-all — take the time to help them with well-placed questions that subtly demonstrate their inexperience. But don’t do this with a condescending attitude or impatience. If anything, giving newbies your care and attention may turn them into safer, more effective shooters and eventually capable voices of reason in the shooting industry. Plus you’ll likely earn a long-time customer if you take time to help them on their journey.

Here are some good questions to ask any newbie after you’re introduced: What’s your experience with firearms and shooting? What do you think you’d like to learn next? How are you going to make that happen?

Simple but thoughtful questions like these bring out a newbie’s actual experience, reveal how they approach learning and training and see if there’s any type of plan in place to make it all happen. Make sure to take some time exploring each one and express genuine interest in their story.

5. Reinforce safety.
Some may argue the reinforcement of safety in firearms belongs in the #1 spot on this list. Of course safety is of utmost importance. But in those moments in the store when engaging a newbie, when there’s no gun in hand and you’re not on the range, you can work to integrate safety into every other part of their customer experience. So safety, in essence, is #1 through #5.

If the newbie you’re dealing with doesn’t seem to get it with regards to safety, then you can steer the conversation exclusively toward safety and help them out. Generally you’ll find this out in a product demonstration, perhaps when handing a newbie an unloaded handgun they’ve asked to see. Watch for places to chime in and reinforce his or her good gun-handling practices — or to gently but firmly point out where they erred.

Explain following the rules of firearm safety will go a long way toward their safety and the safety of those around them. Likewise, let them know following the rules of firearm safety will increase their comfort and the comfort of those around them.

In other words, safe gun practices are not only the foundation for increasing in general knowledge and skill in the shooting industry, but also how camaraderie grows around well-executed, responsible behavior.

Have a success story to share in educating new customers? Share with your peers! comments@shootingindustry.com

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