Summertime Sales
Use Events To Build Connections During Slower Buying Season
The annual Kevin’s Game Fair, which celebrates its ninth year this fall (Nov. 6–8),
attracts hundreds of people from throughout Georgia and neighboring states. Rather
than being a traditional sales event, the Game Fair raises money to support Tall Timbers
Research Station. It enables Kevin’s to be viewed as a “destination” by guests and elevates
the store’s ties with its local community and hunters.
Traditionally, sales are slower in summer. A special event — whether it includes food, music or promotional pricing — can bring in customers and improve sales ahead of hunting season and year-end buying.
Mal Madsen, CMO of Modern Warriors in St. George, Utah, shared her events are usually based on a holiday.
“We like to center our sales around the patriotic holidays,” she said. “Also, since we’re in Utah, we like to celebrate Pioneer Day [July 24] with an in-store-only sale as well.”
Madsen takes advantage of holiday themes when she builds events around those times.
“A lot of the time, we’ll play off of the history of certain holidays,” she added. “Sometimes we give away products with purchases instead of just a percentage off all items. We also lean on our rewards system, offering double points back on certain brands or making points worth more during a certain time frame.”
Giveaways also do well in the store, Madsen added.
“Because we’re in Utah, we have to use raffles that are tied to a value from purchasing a product, but we can often get brands to collaborate with us on this, too,” she said.
Most promotion is done through email marketing.
“We can advertise on Instagram stories, but we never mention events in posts on the feed or they will be removed by Meta,” Madsen noted.
Manufacturers and distributors often help Modern Warriors with their sales events, but Madsen advised it’s best to plan well in advance of the date.
“Sharing our stories on social media to [the manufacturers’] respective accounts helps, but anything like that needs to be arranged and approved ahead of time with the brand’s specific social media or marketing directors,” she explained. “We’ve also planned email blasts on the same day with brands so we’re targeting both audiences simultaneously.”
Summer sales planned for 2025 are fairly typical of what Modern Warriors does every year, according to Madsen.
“For summer, we’re planning a sale on Memorial Day and Independence Day,” she confirmed. “Those are the only holiday-specific sales we have for this summer. We’ve also started planning sales around Amazon Prime Day [historically held in mid-July] since many shoppers are already online that week.”
Benefit: Kickstart Hunting Season
At Sports World Hunting Headquarters in Tulsa, Okla., Owner T. L. Denton said her store holds one summer event each year.
“It’s a promotion to start off hunting season, so we have it in August,” she said. “We ask all our reps to come in to tell the customers about their products.”
Product lines include firearms, accessories, ammunition, safes and everything else she carries in the store; about the only thing she doesn’t carry is a lot of clothing.
One thing that makes the event unique is the reps who fill in as sales associates and wait on customers.
“The customers can talk to them,” Denton noted. “The customers love having the reps wait on them.”
Denton recounted the rep for Benchmade brings along his engraver so he can engrave the Benchmade knives customers purchase.
Customers wait for this event every year, Denton shared.
“We’ve had it for many years,” she said. “I’d say about 30 years. We always have a really good turnout.”
Most of Sports World’s advertising for their summer event is through radio.
“We use a little TV,” Denton said. “Facebook doesn’t help us much anymore, but we do use Instagram and a lot of radio.”
Value Of A Charity (Rather Than Sales) Event
Kevin Kelly, owner of Kevin’s Fine Outdoor Gear & Apparel in Thomasville, Ga., takes a long-game approach to special events.
Instead of a sale, he holds an annual charity event benefitting Tall Timbers Research Station, a privately funded research organization that focuses on pine woods conservation and bobwhite quail management in the southeastern U.S. He doesn’t sell anything at this event, but uses his annual Game Fair as a time to build relationships with both customers and providers.
The result is Kevin’s national reputation as a “destination.”
To participate in the Game Fair event, customers must purchase a ticket; it’s not open to just anyone who walks in.
“It’s a sellout event every year,” Kelly shared. “All the proceeds go to Tall Timbers’ quail research. We start off with a special dinner and cocktail party on Thursday night at the Marriott in downtown Thomasville. We call it the Quail Bash.”
During the dinner and cocktail party, they hold a short live auction and have a band for music and dancing. On Friday morning, participants convene at one of several internationally known historic quail plantations in the Red Hills area around Thomasville.
“The first event of the day is at 8 a.m.,” Kelly said. “We take our guests on a two-hour ride through the plantation on wagons and discuss quail habitat, and why quail hunting in the Thomasville area is the best in the world.”
Biologists share their insight into many aspects of quail conservation, including pineland management with controlled burning, plants important to quail habitat and how burning keeps those plant species healthy.
Following the wagon ride, the actual Game Fair begins.
“We have 50–60 invited vendors and underwriters on the grounds,” Kelly shared. “It’s a meet and greet. We have 400 to 500 people there. Then at about 12:30 p.m., we have an outdoor catered linen cloth ‘super lunch.’”
Following lunch, the biggest pack of foxhounds in the U.S. — located in Thomasville — comes for a visit. Several car companies, including Grenadier and Range Rover, have outdoor vehicles on display.
“All kinds of gun and shooting sports vendors are there,” Kelly said. “There are events for the ladies who don’t shoot or hunt. We also have one of the finest Lab trainers in the country. He brings his Labs and puts on demonstrations. Someone also comes from Ryglen English Cockers in Illinois.”
Guests can watch dog demonstrations, see artists at work, talk to liquor distillery representatives or taste wines.
“That evening, we have a private sit-down dinner on another plantation,” Kelly said. “Wine stewards come and teach guests about the wines. After a great dinner, everyone gets a good night’s rest.”
A Community Affair For Thomasville
Saturday, the town of Thomasville opens its doors to Game Fair guests. Thomasville is known for its antique stores and historic sites such as the Confederate Prisoner of War Camp, Birdsong Nature Center and bike trails.
“Thomasville is unbelievable on Saturdays,” Kelly noted. “You get a taste of the South and how things were in the 1800s when it was founded. It’s a nice, American town. Plus, the county here has a shooting facility that’s among the best in the U.S. This year, we’re planning to host a breakfast out on the gun range on Saturday morning that’s optional. For people who want to do it, we’ll have some gun people out on the range.”
People travel from all over the country for the Game Fair, Kelly said.
“Not only do people come for a really nice event and to touch and taste what we do here, but we’re able to give back to someone who’s working all over the Southeast and beyond trying to restore wild quail back in places where they haven’t had the habitat to do so,” he relayed. “This gives us a national presence with ranchers and quail conservation people.”
This connection has brought guests from Texas, the Carolinas, Kansas and many other areas with an interest in quail to Thomasville and Tall Timbers.
“It’s a win for everyone,” Kelly continued. “Our event is for people to enjoy the day, have a good time and maybe buy something from the vendors. This is an event that will create customer friendship between them and the Kevin’s organization and our family. That’s the value I get out of it, and what has set the pace for what we do. We don’t want you to just come buy a box of shotgun shells and leave: We want customers to realize the value our business gives to our community and to the whole country.”
Don’t let the summer resign your sales to the doldrums. Plan a special event to connect with customers and brighten your bottom line.
