feature
to buy booth space at a show, ironically called the International Fly Tackle Dealer Show. I bet if the same amount of money is spent on attracting dealers to the dinner table, the cooks will show up also. I’ve been to the show every year for the past eight years and was an exhibitor for two years. If I were a manufacturer, I would question the ROI of going to the show. Remember, it’s all profit dollars spent to go to trade shows, so if it costs $12,000 to go to a show for 3 days, that means a manufacturer would need to sell an incremental $24,000 (assuming 50 points of margin) in those three days just to break even. That may be doable for the big boys, but honestly, there are plenty of small up-ncomers that just can’t muster those kinds of break-even numbers to justify a booth and staff to sit in it. It’s a costly proposition unless a significant amount of business is inked or new partnerships are formed.
AnglingTrade.com / March 2012
Manufacturers will always question the value of going until dealer attendance is up, putting inked business in their favor. I have high admiration for a few of the retailers who took action at the 2011 trade show. A prominent few retailers brought back the Retailer’s Roundtable, all but forgotten from the show agenda only weeks before the show in New Orleans. I question, however, why it took extraordinary efforts of a few retailers to make it happen, shouldn’t this have been part of AFFTA’s IFTD strategy all along? It certainly drives show value for retailers. 34
Key Theme #2: It’s time to Admit It – Retailers Are the Problem
but I have to ask: Is the sales rep function in the fly biz a ‘dying breed’ or ‘dying need’?
And the awards are in – the Glass Stomach Award goes to the industry retailers. We have our heads so far up our behinds when it comes to retailing in today’s market that we need a glass stomach just to see where we are going.
Regardless how you slice it, the problem is in the mirror. It’s time we saddle up our humble ponies and start getting ‘Business Ready in 2012’. The change has already happened and business has blown by you. Are you ready? Do you have a POS system? Do you know how to calculate ARPU? ROI, ROA? RONA? GMROI? EBITDA? Inventory Turns? Answer this: What’s more important, attracting new customers, selling high-margin inventory or retaining current customers? If you struggle with any of these questions, you are most likely a hobbyist turned fly shop owner, and you run your business like a checkbook. If that’s you, it’s time to learn how to be a savvy retailer, not just a fly shop owner. Manufacturers don’t want hobbyists selling their stuff.
I see a trend – many newcomers to the industry “get it” and our seasoned retailers don’t. “It” is how to connect with and sell to the new style of buying habits customers exhibit today. Remember, it’s harder to change customers; it’s easier to change yourself. But most of us deep down don’t like change. We don’t know how to compete; we think local when global is where it’s at. We blame big boxes, but the product line-ups are barely competitive. And, we secretly want some of the biggest of the Bigs to come play with us at IFTD (courting Cabela’s and Bass Pro Shops come to mind), despite them being the very “Bigs” we are afraid of. We market to the same niche market over and over, and we complain we aren’t getting new customers. We don’t know how to diversify. We don’t know how to differentiate ourselves from the local competition – we often don’t know what our core competencies are. We don’t really know who our customer is. We depend on sales reps to communicate on behalf of the manufacturer. Yet, there are plenty of inexpensive ways to communicate at the speed-of-now so that manufacturers and retailers can connect directly. No offense to the quality sales reps I know,
Key Theme #3: Attracting Newcomers To the Sport Unanimously agreed, attracting newcomers to the sport is of utmost concern by everyone, for everyone’s sustained interest in the fly fishing business. This gargantuan task should be shared by everyone, but ironically, it isn’t. Here’s a short list of what we can do as an industry to invigorate new ways to attract entrants into the sport: 1. Survey what other industries do to attract new entrants Why reinvent the wheel? How does the archery biz do it? How about paddling sports? Or the shooting sports? Seems to me that the general outdoor retailing world has a lot to offer us from a best practices point of view.