Our world is constantly changing, and today’s modern firearms dealer is anything but immune to those changes. Demographics shift, purchasing abilities go up and down and trends come and go—and if you’re not making the necessary adjustments to meet those challenges, your product is going to sit on your shelves and your business is going to suffer.
This is precisely why NSSF has an educational track devoted exclusively to driving sales in its SHOT Show University Lineup. We’ve already told you about expert business professionals Larry Mersereau and Gene Marks, scheduled to speak on topics such as digital marketing and market differentiation and content marketing. Now NSSF has added well-known firearms retailing veterans Doug VanderWoude and Miles Hall to the Drive Your Sales Lineup as the featured speakers for the all-important Power Promotions session.
In this session, VanderWoude and Hall will show retailers how to drive sales and increase margins and turns with a number of unique promotional ideas that the pair have developed over their combined 60-plus years of experience in the firearms industry.
“It’s not often the an FFL dealer gets to engage with successful, veteran retailers like Doug and Miles,” said Randy Clark, NSSF Managing Director, Business Development. “Not only do these have the ‘street cred’ to speak on what works, they have the profitable and long-standing successful businesses to back them up. Having gone through innumerable ups and downs during their tenure in the firearms business and come out ahead, their insight into what works and what doesn’t should prove invaluable to today’s retailers.”
Doug VanderWoude is a 32-year veteran of the retail firearms industry, having spent 29 of those years behind a gun counter. He started a firearms retail store with an indoor shooting range from scratch and was a charter member of the industry’s first performance group. He is a current and active member of the NSSF Range Committee. Today, VanderWoude is a firearms retail and range consultant who has visited more than 190 firearms retail facilities in the past 38 months. He has worked with multiple firearms companies on proven nationwide promotions that drive consumers into ranges, and he spends many of his days helping other firearms retailers improve traffic flow inside their stores and increase profitability.
Miles Hall is Founder and President of H&H Shooting Sports Complex in Oklahoma City. Started in 1981, H&H is a community educational and retail complex with a focus on developing and promoting shooting sports. The current facility houses 61 shooting lanes for Olympic air rifle and pistol, standard pistol, high-power rifle, and archery. H&H has been ranked as a top 10 dealer by the majority of major manufacturers in the shooting sports. Hall is a founding member and serves as past president of the Association of Shooting Ranges, is a founding member of the Association of Firearm Retailers, and a past board member of the National Shooting Sports Foundation. He was named 2004 Retailer of the Year by Shot Business Magazine. H&H was also selected for that magazine’s Range of the Year honor in 2006 and was the first facility to receive NSSF’s prestigious Five Star Range Rating. Inc. Magazine has selected H&H as one of the fastest growing, privately held business in the United States for the last seven years and is the only gun dealer ever on that list for four of those years.
SHOT Show University is the premier event for firearms retailers. Seats are limited and this event will sell out, so retailers are urged to sign up now. Remember, NSSF Premium Retailers are offered a complimentary ticket to SHOT Show University. Additional tickets for both Premium Retailer members and all other NSSF members who wish to attend is $250; non-members may attend for $500. To learn more about SHOT Show University and its many sessions, click here. To upgrade your membership to the Premium Retailer level or to join at NSSF at the level that best serves your business needs, visit www.nssf.org/join or e-mail membership@nssf.org.