AUDIENCE Marketing
pictures taken, and put together all of the information (the horse’s pedigree, show record, etc.), and have it all ready in a folder if somebody asks about the horse.
At a horse show, I have a sales book (and it says right on it, “Sales Book”) that we put out so that people who walk by can thumb through it without feeling intimidated. There is also a picture frame that continually changes pictures of all the sales horses. People can see if there is anything there they’re interested in, and if there is, then they’ll stop and talk to me. What I’ve observed is that a lot of new people are intimidated by the bigger barns and trainers and breeders. They may be interested in something, but to a point, they want to figure it out themselves. What I’ve seen happen numerous times is that one person won’t buy, but they’ll tell a friend and the friend does. I’ve had lots of calls, especially for the kids’ and equitation horses. It’s amazing—the kids that are interested know the horses inside and out, and they’ll ask if a particular horse is for sale or if I have something that fits in their wish book. I give them a little information and then ask them to have their parents call me. People know the horses that I have in the ring; they’re always trained, and the riders are schooled so that when they go in the ring they are always very competitive. That’s where word-of-mouth comes in. Just make people aware of what’s out there. You can’t sell something if no one knows it is for sale. You must advertise.
Rob bick and caRalyn SchRoteR Rbc Show horses Smithfield, n.c. Rob Bick. We’ve found that people don’t want to buy a horse unless it is in the show ring or looks like it is ready to
go in the ring right now, so we get the horses to the show ring. We sold two at Scottsdale this year and six more right when we got home to contacts that I made at the show. They were horses that were far enough along that there was no guesswork left; that’s where the best prices stack up. It also helps to take sale horses to a show a distance away so that they are new thing to the people in that area. That way, it’s not like, “Oh, we see him every weekend, we know who he is, we don’t want him.” Also, if people saw a horse have one bad class somewhere at a local show, they have it stamped in their head that that horse does that in every class, when that’s not the case. For example, if we have a kid’s horse who’s been doing okay, and the kid ages out and needs to sell the horse, we probably aren’t going to sell that horse in the same region that the kid showed it in every year. Everyone has seen it; it’s old to them and not exciting. For the high dollar ones, winning a good show is the best way to get a good price. I took DA Valentino to a show, he was a big hit, he won a regional, and then we got 20 phone calls. You sell a horse like that for a lot of money, but until he goes to a show these days, you can have a hard time selling him.
david boggS Midwest • Rogers, Minn. The first task you do to begin marketing your Arabian is to get an accurate and fair assessment of the value of the horse. When we market horses for our clients at Midwest, we discuss not only their goals, but what the fair market value is before we begin the sales process. This protocol is because getting the best sale is not about getting the highest price. Breeders and owners/sellers have to be reasonable when Volume 42, No. 11 | 103