Community Partnerships Help Reach More Groups

Gun retailers can be much more than just stores. You can bring in a wide variety of community members by offering classes that could attract customers who may not otherwise see themselves connecting with you.

Many in your community — especially women — are in professions where they can be targeted as victims. You can be a resource and show them how to protect their lives and those of their customers, clients or patients. Even if they aren’t allowed to possess firearms where they work, you can lend insights into how they don’t have to be sitting ducks — cowering in a corner waiting to be rescued. And you can do these by stepping out of the box and creating strong community partnerships with other local organizations.

The Range STL

Elizabeth Starks, assistant training manager with The Range STL in Ballwin, Mo., talks about classes they offer that draw in a large audience of non-traditional customers. 

Teachers: The Range STL offers a Teacher’s Trauma course every summer, free to teachers. 

“It’s our basic tactical triage and trauma course, so a class that is typically $250 is free during the summer for teachers,” Starks explained.

And, that audience is primarily women.

“Last year, we held two separate classes and they both filled up,” she recalled. “It’s very hands-on, so in the classroom they go over things like tourniquet application, wound packing and Quick Clot. Then we’ll bring in our kids to role-play the victims. We make it interesting and it’s a whole new experience for the teachers.”

Starks reports the classes each held 16 students and drew all of them through regular advertising and word of mouth. 

Realtors: Often alone, realtors represent another category of customers you can welcome through outreach — but it will take some effort, Starks noted.

“I don’t think realtors typically look at a gun range for safety training,” she said. “It’s a course we can offer outside of the gun range so we can talk about the awareness aspect, and we can also do the physical hand-to-hand stuff. We offer the option to do shooting as well. So, it can be either/or — it just depends on what they want. We just want to be able to facilitate self-defense for whatever level or tool that they’re willing to use. It’s a fairly new course for us, but the students are primarily women.”

Republic Gun Club

At Republic Gun Club (Waco, Texas), Training Director Endri Kennon talks about their program partnerships that have been very successful in attracting new customers, as well.

Realtors

Like Range STL, Republic Gun Club has been successful in attracting realtors through its Realtor Safety class.

“It’s very popular,” Kennon said. “We have had people travel from all over to take our course. A lot of realtors go to difficult neighborhoods; they go out by themselves at night, sometimes in the middle of the woods. They don’t know who they’re meeting. What checks and balances do they have in place as far as communication and backup plans? Have they researched the area they’re going to?”

He shows realtors a website where they can type in the address they’re going to and it shows the crime statistics and what types of crimes are reported in that area.

“They have a better understanding of what they’re getting themselves into when they go show these homes,” Kennon reasoned. “I get a lot of feedback the class is very informative.”

College Students

Are any colleges near you? Freshmen, on their own for the first time, are more likely to have safety top of mind.

“Talking to Baylor [University] students about situational awareness is a big one. A lot of them come from out of state; they’re away from their parents for the first time and one of the biggest things about being on your own is knowing how to develop a good home plan,” Kennon shared. 

The class offers practical know-how, as well as the importance of situational awareness.

“They’re not worldly yet so they don’t know a lot of those things. I’ve had to replace screws, talk about how the window locks work, stuff like that,” Kennon shared. “So, we talk a lot about — how to build their protection plan and more importantly, situational awareness.”

He continued, “Waco is a big tourist area. We’ve got people from all over and we’ve got highways that run every which way, so they really need to be paying attention to their surroundings and staying off their cell phones.

Law Enforcement

Connect with local law enforcement. Even if they have a place they regularly train, invite them to visit your range anyway. Republic Gun Club has a strong partnership with law enforcement and Kennon reports a lot of officers come back for more training on their own. Make sure to let them know you are there to provide more in-depth training.

School Districts

Due to the required Texas Guardian Program, Kennon reports the biggest group requesting training is school districts. As with The Range STL’s Teacher Trauma class, since educators are primarily female, this is a huge audience to tap into. 

Being a Guardian is a choice, so teachers can’t be mandated to take the training and carry a firearm.

Kennon conveyed, “We’re taking educators who are passionate about education and the state has now mandated this Guardian program to protect the children on the campuses. Now we’re asking educators to do something they’re not comfortable with. That’s a huge responsibility and all of them take it seriously. Once they are finished with their initial training, they realize they want to learn a lot more, so yes, we have many teachers coming back in for more.”

Even if your state does not have requirements for schools, you can teach other classes such as the trauma class that The Range STL provides, as well as situational awareness and alternative weapons classes to help teachers feel more empowered in a bad situation.

Go To Them

Kennon explains how they have been reaching out to a wider audience.

“Last year we spent a lot of time traveling to different realtors, from Round Rock to Austin to Houston to Dallas, and passed out flyers.”

Since it’s a non-shooting class, it can be held in any type of conference room. Kennon said in addition to traveling to the requestor’s site, they also offer an option at their store, held in the classroom, with lunch provided.

For the Baylor students, Kennon travels to campus to meet with students in their comfort zone. Young, shy students may not feel comfortable walking into your store, but they’ll feel more comfortable and receptive in their space, with their friends around.

For the school district Guardian Training, Kennon shared that originally, they were the ones contacting the ISDs (independent school district) to let them know the training is available at Republic Gun Club because the schools were all trying to build a program from scratch.

“Now other ISDs are reaching out to us because they know what we can do, and how well we do it,” he smiled.

Brainstorm

Think about other programs or job positions that might be targeted. What groups would be interested in learning how to defend themselves when they may not be allowed to have a gun or simply may not want to have a gun? What audience will benefit from classes in situational awareness, alternative weapons or medical trauma?

Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

• Service organizations such as Soroptimist, Lions, Rotary, etc.
• Domestic violence shelter workers and clients
• Food banks
• Medical professionals
• Home health providers
• Home parenting instructors
• Chamber of Commerce business meetings

Don’t wait for them to come to you. Go to their offices and talk about what you can offer. Ask to be a speaker at one of their meetings. People don’t know what is available until you tell them. 

The Bottom Line: Helping More Customers

We already know once customers — especially women — connect with you inside your space, they’re likely to be return customers. However, connecting with them in their space will also make them much more comfortable to walk into your store or range, find the person they connected with and continue the relationship — a win for your business as well as the new audience you’re able to empower and serve. 

Read More Shooting Industry September 2024 Issue Now