Turn Key Gun Stores

Now what just took you the better part of an hour to read over in the first 3 parts will actually take you a couple weeks to a month to accomplish.  Really put in the time its worth it.  First off While DNS(Domain Name Servers) are supposed to update every 3-5 days there are some out there that don't update but once every 3 months.  This is why its important to get on a good quality fast host from the start.  Its another reason we own our own DNS servers.  Ours update instantly.  80% of the rest of the web will catch your new site name within about 12-24 hours and local isps up to 3 months like we said.  So what does this Tech talk mean.  It means that if someone types in http://www.yourgunstore.com  they get a blank page or a redirect to Google/MSN search engine.  The point to what I am telling is simple its really going to take a couple months to First get your ads built up and second ensure all visitors can see your site.  Have patients, I say that now but I was all to happy to see my counter first start rolling.  I had no patients and I wish I had done somethings different. 

Now its time to start talking about selling because that is really what this is all about.  First let me say don't fall for the instant store 40,000 products turn key shopping carts.  Yes the carts function but they don't work.  By that I mean how they are built is with a distrubtors inventory control in mind and not how consumers flow through your website.  Consumers do Flow through if you set up your site properly.  You don't need a cart what you need is a proper page builder and good attitude toward customers online.  First you should know some sales facts. 

  • The average consumer buys in 7 minutes or less(usually 2 in the afternoon while goofing off at work or 5:30 right before he sits down at dinner)  Quick response is key.
  • The average consumer knew what he wanted before he got to you.  DON'T get between the consumer and the product with your wanting them to view your other stuff. We will not allow it when you submit to our search engine.  Your links must be direct and on topic.  This is for your benefit.
  • 2 clicks and the back button.  That's the rule on a website if they didn't find what they were looking for in two clicks they hit the back button and go to a different site.  That is why its important to stay out of their way.
  • Place a phone number, and email next to each product.  I will guarantee you that 100% of every customer who ever called me about a gun bought that firearm.  By the time they pick up the phone they are sold already.
  • Customers HATE sites that don't list their selling price.  If you can't tell someone your prices on Browning because they are Below MAP(minimum advertised price) your screwing yourself anyway.
  • Uncle Sam offers a 8% discount on every purchase. Hey guess why the guy called you about the $3500 Beretta over and under.  Because he will save $280 in sales tax.  So why LOW BALL your price on a gun that is hard to find.  Remember your saving them money Hundreds of dollars. Don't bury yourself alive just to prove you can handle the shovel.
  • Email leads are hot leads- When a customer emails you DON'T setup an autoresponder "don't you hate those".  I left my computer connected and had a special chime when I received emails.  I answer emails like most people answer a phone.  Still answer them quickly today even though I get more than 5000 a day.(Learn to use your rules wizard)Customers love it when a human responds quickly while they are at work.  Besides they are in the gun buying mood NOW not tomorrow at 10 am.
  • PayPal will cost you customers.  Paypal gets in the way of doing business because if a customer has never used it before there is a HUGE process to getting their account started. PayPal takes care of itself before it takes care of you.  We use it in our system because we have to accept and send money to other countries and its very easy to convert.  We are helping to develop the GunMoney.com system but its like someone set out some lawyer bait around that mess.  Catch my limit every day it seems.  So get a real merchant account. http://www.Authorize.net is great for dealing with online and off and that company is doing their best to wade through GunMoney on our behalf. Most software carts on the market are setup to use it as a straight plug-in.
  • Confusion leads to no decision.  Don't put up too many options if someone is truly interested in that hard to find 34 inch goose barrel over/under they will call you.  You want to get the customers from point A to Point B without interupting them by making another decision.

So you need to think like your customer not like a person who knows where to you built the page.  I catch myself doing it all the time.  I build something that is so simple for me but then I built it. Of course I know where everything is.  You would be amazed at the number of Distributor carts that a dealer has had for a year and never actually searched for items in it themselves.  Your cart should be tool for you when your talking to your customers on the phone.  When they pick up the phone they will have that page up or have a print out of it making sure you don't switch up the price on them.  So to get them to that point they are the phone yelling gimmee gimmee.  We have to KISS. (keep it simple stupid).  Your cart is your first and sometimes your only impression. If its difficult, your difficult.  Take every complaint seriously, very seriously, you are never going to please everyone but 1000's will see a problem and move on and 1 guy takes the time to complain, you should investigate. A good example.  I was selling Gun cases and put the decimal point in the wrong place when I set up the pages.  So a $28.00 case was $2800.00  6 months and 54,000 people later 1 person emailed me calling me a idiot for trying to get those prices for those cases.  Now who was the real dummy the person who believed I was trying to get $2800 for gun case or me for pushing the wrong buttons.  The point is the email was hostile it wasn't completely clear but I did take it seriously and found I had a major problem.  How often did I surf my consumer site looking for products. Never before then after that I visited everypage.

So lets walk through one sale from start to finish.

  1. I have just finished reading about how great those new Ruger Over/unders are.
  2. I sit down at my computer and do what?  Hit the search button(Damn)
  3. I say (Damn) because that button has Anti-gunners behind it but I may use some other searchengine and I do what do I search for?
  4. I am searching for a Ruger Over/under right?  Or is it Ruger Shotgun? But I did not search for "Gun" Remember the guy that does this didn't know what he wanted you will take these guys for free but never spend money to get them unless you can get them cheap.
  5. So I found my search under Ruger Over-under Clicked on your site(we will show you how to do that)
  6. What page opens up? Hopefully not your home page  You knew what I was looking for a Ruger Over-under why am I looking at your scope sale?  Where's the firearm link. Damn theres' 4000 guns in here I am not looking for 4000 guns I wanted Ruger Over/under  [Times ticking only have 7 minutes remember]
  7. I clicked around a couple times not really looking because I didn't see what I set out for so I hit the back button.
  8. I click on Donny's site  what page opens up  hey there's the Ruger over/under I was looking for.  In stock and phone number right in front of my face.  The price is listed too so I know what he's asking if I don't agree then I just won't call.

The way most sites are doing it is really making the customer SEARCH TWICE. Folks if you haven't figured out that Americans want it quick, now and easy.  You shouldn't be a business owner.  Here's the funny thing you can guarantee that my method will convert 1% of the click throughs.  So for every 100 people who searched for and clicked on that Ruger link I know 1 will buy.  That 1 will buy at 10% over cost but a different guy would think the price is too cheap must be a scam and he would have bought it at $1250 versus $900.  We say always use the 1% rule but my method really returns 5% purchase rate.  The average cost for getting 5 customers to buy a Ruger over/under $4  . $4 to make a $300 profit are you interested in learning how yet.

Author:   GunMuse       Date:   Thursday Sep 23 2004 09:53:07 am