U P D AT E
BY ED SANTOS, NSSF RANGE ACTION SPECIALIST TEAM MEMBER
FROM THE NSSF
The Best Choice Hiring firearms range instructors: In-house or contract?
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our entire team of instructors and retail staff are responsible for the success of your training program, but the instructors, of course, are crucial. They must be more than good teachers. They are there not just to impart knowledge, but to support your store. A good firearms training instructor will also be skilled in selling without sounding like a used-car salesman. It is very important to empower your instructors with the knowledge and training to answer questions about gear and accessories while also having the ability to direct students to specific products and to retail associates who have the best expertise in a particular category. That being said, when it comes to hiring a firearms training instructor, the question I’m most often asked is, Should the instructor be an in-house staff hire or an individual hired as an independent contractor? My preference is in-house, whenever possible. There are a number of reasons for this. CONTRACT INSTRUCTOR VS. GUEST INSTRUCTOR ➤ Allow me to clarify the “contract instructor” term as it is discussed in this article. A contract instructor is someone who provides instruction on a regularly scheduled basis to clients of your facility. Do not confuse the term with that of a “guest instructor.” The guest instructor is typically a wellknown, nationally or internationally recognized instructor that you bring in from time to time to teach a specific program. There are some unique ways and specific times during the yearly retail cycle to bring in a guest instructor. We will discuss that in detail in future articles.
EXCITEMENT = SUCCESS ➤ The key factor in the success or failure— and, ultimately, the speed at which a training program grows—is through creating a program in which every class provides an unexpected level of excitement for the student. If a student takes a class from you and you provide a good training experience, at the end of the day, you will have a satisfied customer. But that isn’t good enough. You can’t stop there, because students can get that same experience with most of your competitors. So establishing a satisfied student should never be your
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priority goal. In fact, that satisfied student will never grow your program at the rate or depth I would suggest you need to create a profitable program. What we are working toward is a student who isn’t merely satisfied, but is excited at the end of class, a student who accomplished much more than he anticipated. That excited student will leave the class and want to share his excitement with anyone who will listen. The result of such a class of 20 students on a Sunday is 20 people singing your praises on Monday morning, and even throughout the next week. This is something the satisfied student will not be doing on Monday. How do you create the excitement? Take this example from the owner of a very successful range and training operations: “We create the excitement here at Center Target Sports as follows: In our basic pistol class, we guarantee that every student will leave the class having shot a 5-shot group at
18 feet that can be covered with a quarter. No, the student may not be able to repeat this level of accuracy the next day without our instructor’s guidance. But they are all able to accomplish this in class. That is where the excitement factor comes in. They expected to learn about all the typical things taught in a basic pistol class, the topics covered by all our competitors. But they never thought they would shoot to the onehole group covered by a quarter. It is amazing to see their faces and experience their excitement when they exit the range.” YOU’RE IN CONTROL ➤ So, you must create the excitement, and to create the excitement, you must have total control of the presentation and curriculum. How does this affect your hiring choice in instructors? Whether the instructor is in-house or contract, in the mind of the student, you, as the range owner/operator, own the experience and, therefore, the reputation of your training program—good or bad. As I’ve said, my preference is for a staffhired instructor. One reasons for this is that if you intend to create a level of excitement in your training classes that keeps your students coming back for more and spreading the word, then you can’t afford to have a contract instructor teach an independent class at your facility that isn’t up to par with the desired level of your training. You and your facility will always be associated with what is taught at your location, regardless of who owns the curriculum.
THE PROFIT MARGIN CONSIDERATION ➤ This is the main reason we have never allowed local instructors to teach independent classes at our facility. Consider that a quality contract instructor will not work for less than 40 percent of the gross revenue they generate. That doesn’t sound bad, but in reality that arrangement will not result in you realizing 60 percent, as your administration of the training program alone will quickly reduce your share to about 50 percent. And why settle for a training margin of around 50 percent when you could realize a margin in excess of 90 percent?
Ed Santos NSSF Range Action Specialist Team Member