I’ve had the chance to work in a number of different positions within the firearms industry. I’ve done marketing for firearms manufacturers, worked for many years as a firearms writer and I’ve been the manager of a large “guntry club” range and gun shop.
My time behind the gun counter taught me that very few of the staff carry concealed on a regular basis. I was the only manager of the four managerial staff who carried every day and most of the sales staff went unarmed as well.
The range officers carried pistols with them, but they did so using battle belts and retention rigs that made them look like they were a plate carrier shy of shipping out for the Middle East after their shift. How they carried their pistols looked nothing like how the store’s customers carried their guns. As a result, practically no one in the store had any first-hand experience carrying a firearm on a day-in, day-out basis, yet here they were recommending defensive pistols to our customers every hour we were open.
A few years have passed since then, and I can see how this one decision stunted the sales growth of that store. The most profitable business unit at a retail store with a range is the training department. As there is no inventory to manage and no associated costs aside from paying the instructor and using a bay that might otherwise be rented to customers, almost every dollar that comes in is profit. The sales staff couldn’t sell the training, though, because they had never taken a class at the range. They couldn’t talk about the benefits of training because they had no experience being trained.
The same is true for another profitable sales line, soft goods. These are things like range bags, cases, holsters and other accessories. Firearms themselves have never had high markups, and since COVID, ammunition is much the same. That leaves soft goods and optics as the primary profits centers inside a gun store.
However, due to the fact that gun store employees rarely, if ever, use one on a regular basis, most gun store clerks can’t sell holsters because they don’t know the difference between a good holster and a bad one. The staff doesn’t carry because they haven’t made concealed carry a lifestyle, one that will bring in customers over and over again.
Motorcycle manufacturers understand the idea of lifestyle marketing. You could buy an economical small car to get you from place to place. It’s comfortable, safe and practical. However, it doesn’t separate you from the crowd, and it’s not fun.
Pretty much every gun store out there thinks they’re in the business of selling guns. They’re not. They’re in the business of selling fun, competency, peace of mind and good ol’ fashioned envy…four elements that are essential to lifestyle marketing. Let’s break each of these down a bit more.
First off, safely shooting a gun is fun. Lots of fun. The more fun you have shooting, the more you want to do it, so an emphasis should be placed on selling people guns which might be fun to shoot. Those guns don’t actually have to be fun to shoot, the customer just needs to think that they are.
Now let’s talk about competency. Shooting guns is fun, but shooting guns and hitting the target is even more fun. Gun stores need to learn a lesson from golf and fishing and do a better job at selling hardware solutions to the software problem of poor marksmanship. Again, though, that requires a sales staff who know what gear can make a difference in a customer’s results on the range.
When it comes to peace of mind, owning a defensive firearm is reassuring. I know I can deal with the threat of lethal force to my family, and that’s a tremendous dopamine hit. Good training and good gear can help augment that feeling of peace.
Finally, there’s envy. A large part of the market wants not only a gun, but a gun that is slightly better or newer than the guns their friends and neighbors might have. Cater to that, and upsell them from an entry-level AR-15 to something with some serious tactical street cred.
The good news is, there is one segment of the retail market which understands three of those four criteria…the high-end shotgun market. Peace of mind against lethal force isn’t a thing in their world, but having a shotgun that can match their level of skill is.
Places like the Beretta store in Dallas or Purdey’s in London sell a lifestyle of gentrified sport shooting. The guns are an accessory to that. Could something like Holland & Holland’s store in Dallas, or the Beretta Gallery in New York work for concealed carry? Possibly. The question is, is the world of firearms retail ready to adjust to fit the needs and wants of their customers?