ATA Members Discuss 2019 Lessons, Share Changes for 2020

Redge Grant, owner of Archer’s Edge Equipment in Pretoria, South Africa

“We’re going to focus on maintaining current archers, so we don’t lose the business we have,” Grant said. “We want our archers to cross-pollinate into different archery disciplines. We hold days where they can shoot all archery activities, including 3D, field, target, indoor and outdoor, so everyone gets to try everything. We hope that exposure encourages them to get more involved in other disciplines.”

Read the ATA article “Help Customers Explore Archery’s Many Disciplines” to learn more about this concept. Then, consider offering classes and programs to give customers options. If you can’t host events, use partnerships to boost your business.

C.J. Davis, president of Montana Decoy in Hummelstown, Pennsylvania

“It [2019] was a strange year for us because we had a slow spring,” Davis said. “It picked up in the fall so we had a decent year, but that slow spring hurt us. I need to shore up that business and stop making assumptions. I must touch all my accounts, not just the big accounts.”

Davis also said it’s a constant struggle to find new customers, so he’s trying to sell existing customers more products. “That doesn’t mean instead of selling them 10 of one SKU I sell them 20, but rather I sell them eight of SKU 1 and eight of SKU 2,” he said. “I’ll try to get them to branch out into what their possible product selections could be, based on what we’ve learned from other dealers. We may have two dealers in adjacent towns, and one sells deer [decoys] well (while) the other sells turkeys [decoys] really well. They’re in the same environment, so they should both be selling deer and turkeys [decoys].”

Davis also wants dealers to use his products more often. “That always makes a big difference because they’ll get out, use it, see what it does [to generate exciting hunts], and talk about it with their customers,” he said. “Education and getting them to use it: Those are key things.”

Rey Cortez, archery coach and bow tech at High Altitude Archery in Longmont, Colorado

To improve business, Cortez reviews his complete process. “We value the entire customer-service experience,” Cortez said. “We want to ensure our customers have a good experience in our shop, know exactly and fully what we’re about, and that we’ll help them achieve their goals. We hope to develop each aspect of the customer experience so our customers have the skills and knowledge to succeed.”

Check out these ATA articles to improve your customer relations:

- 5 Things Your Customers Wish You Knew

- Technology Boosts Business by Connecting You to Customers

- 10 Customer Service Tips to Try Today

- How to Read Your Customer’s Facial Expressions to Generate More Sales (with Emojis)

Andrae D’Acquisto, owner of Lone Wolf Customer Gear in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

“We need to be better organized in manufacturing to fill all the orders we receive,” D’Acquisto said. “We left a ton of business on the table last year. We didn’t anticipate the demand for the product, so we’re expanding our manufacturing system to handle more volume in 2020.”