Sales Practices

There are many skills and things a good gunsmith knows. This also includes non-gunsmith tasks and knowledge that can help your overall business. Parts Sales Gunsmiths are often a forgiving lot. We’re prone to forgive silly mistakes that people make when they take their guns apart and then, because the gun fell apart easily, think they can get it back together again just as easy. It’s easy to forgive when the mistake winds up earning us our reasonable shop fee.

Inevitably, the gun comes in and the owner is as much a basket case as the basket of loose parts that used to be their functioning firearm. It’s likely either missing a small part, spring, or screw, or one of those were buggered up when our would-be gunsmith used the "any old screwdriver will work fine" that he grabbed from the junk drawer in the kitchen. Your now new customer asks you to put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

In doing so, you identify the missing part(s) that you were previously reassured were "definitely all there." You contact the King’s Men about this and tell him so. No problem, he tells you he has a parts book and he will order in what’s missing. What can you say? Say nothing but stop and think.

With a seemingly unlimited number of "how to" sources along with Internet access to parts supply, thousands of gun owners have been exposed to the availability of parts, instructions, and wholesale/dealer prices on everything from guns to accessories. The great majority of parts houses are in the book business. That may be fine for them but it doesn’t help the gunsmith or gun dealer. Your customer can find the wholesale cost that you pay for everything and doesn’t need an FFL or sales tax certificate to find out.

I’m an unabashed capitalist and have no problem with any person or company engaging in legal trade. A free market is the best way to drive a robust economy and provide the best opportunity for businesses and individuals. However, reasonable profits from the sale of parts should be part of our business. It is true in the automotive field that parts houses will sell to anyone who wants to buy components and fix their own car. The difference seems to be size.

Even something as simple as an oil and filter change is a bit of a hassle for the new would-be mechanic to crawl under their car without a mechanic’s creeper, never mind a car lift or oil change pit that an auto repair or lube shop has. However, anyone with a kitchen table and a few random tools handy in the junk drawer can take a stab at firearm disassembly and attempt "gunsmithing." On one hand, this sort of thing ensures a supply of new customers.

I have no interest in profiting off of someone else’s misery, but gun owners that realize they got themselves in over their head and bring in a bag full of parts that used to be a cherished firearm make good customers. I find the biggest issue with losing out on parts sales is the tendency to equate part wholesale cost to job cost. I’ve had more than one potential customer act as if I was a rip-off artist by suggesting that the job to install their wholesale-priced $49.95 part should cost more than $50.

Early on I stopped selling parts as retail items. When I order parts in for a job, I mark them up double if under $10 and 40% on anything over. I also add in my actual shipping charge. Ordering parts takes as much effort as ordering any other inventory and you’d expect to make a profit selling that. If I can’t make a profit on parts I don’t order them. If you have a lathe, mill, or other machinery and the skills to use it, you can use it to good advantage by making parts.

This likely makes sense for repairs requiring unavailable parts. You’re essentially performing bespoke work and your customer either can’t order in apart (wholesale cost or otherwise) or it’s so ridiculously expensive on the used market that the repair justifies your hourly rate to make it. Discounts, Dealers, and Trivia Do not hesitate to give a discount to anyone who thinks he is entitled to one. You will soon learn who has the brass to ask for one.

Usually there is little justification for this request and usually it comes from someone who thinks that because he spent a couple of hundred with you or the guy who is buying and selling guns without an FFL (and there are thousands of them) and has given you three or four jobs they’re automatically entitled. You should give genuinely good customers a discount. Why not? I consider discounts as public relations.

If one of your customers asks for more of your business cards because he gave away all that he previously had, he is really out working for you. You’d expect to pay something to run an ad. Offering a customer doing a good job in talking up your business is advertising. I consider a reasonable discount for such a customer the same as an ad fee. Plus, the good will is likely to incentivize him to think even better of your shop. Inflation is a monster but it does help justify small price increases at your business.

If you add a modest

price increase over time, offering your previous price to a great customer that sings your praises and brings in more jobs will be seen as your offering a discount. Consider work for something like a bluing job. You can keep your costs low due to using already paid for tanks. A small up charge more than covers any inevitable increases in salts, shop insurance, and the like. This is also an ideal type of job to offer volume discounts, such as on a single job involving multiple guns.

It’s especially great for your devoted customer that convinces some of his friends to do a batch job. Police and military always seem to think they should qualify for a discount. Having an emergency responder discount is a good idea, especially for law enforcement as the department just may contract work out to you on the regular. Quote the "special police price" and let them know you have other discounts for volume work as well. Good will just might be useful in your getting a discount on a speeding ticket.

What about dealer discounts? Generally, I don’t bother with a dealer discount and this includes bona fide gun retailers or any FFL holder. If a retail store does not have their own gunsmith it usually indicates that they do not have enough gunsmith work to pay the cost of one. These same retail stores will continue to advertise "complete gun repair" and then when a job comes in look for someone to do it on the cheap. I look upon these people just as favorably as I do any other customer.

They are going to get the best job I can do at the same price as anyone else and I do not put their work ahead of anyone else. To really convince you to cut a discount price to a dealer should require certain criteria to be met. A nice, well-placed sign in their store stating something like, "Authorized Agents for [Your Shop] Gunsmithing" with all of their repairs carrying tags stating your shop did the work would be the first criterion.

A written agreement that I was to take on all of their gunsmith work would be another. That ensures having full quality control, rather that having one botched job in one of their customer’s hands done elsewhere which will get blamed on you as it’s your gunsmith shop on the sign out front. If such a written agreement was arranged, I’d offer around a 10% discount to the shop, depending on job volume. If that doesn’t seem like a big discount, consider that 10% is the average rate of return of the U.

S. stock market and about how much you’d expect a typical index or mutual fund to produce. That’s good enough to allow any typical working person to retire a millionaire within a normal lifetime. If the taking in of a repair, writing up the tag, and calling the gunsmith isn’t worth 10% of a job they didn’t do, then don’t do it for them. The 10% discount is almost a gift to them as it’s essentially free money and you can rest assured the store will mark your charges up beyond that 10%.

I consider that as a discount advertising fee and insurance for steady work. Used Guns A customer comes into the shop and asks, "What have you got in a good 12 gauge?" I reply, "Nothing. They are all unloaded and empty." Ha, ha. Being more serious, I’ve found that gun people like to buy guns from a gunsmith.

The gunsmith can have a better selection, or at least a more interesting one, than the local big dealer because the gunsmith will buy and deal where the other guy is a little hard headed and has more costs involved in operating his store. Used gun sales are ideal for a gunsmith shop, much better than new gun sales. For starters, new guns area commodity item straight from the factory.

A brand new Glockinchester 56 in your shop is no better than the exact same model in a big chain store so the only thing you can compete on is price. And because they have much better buying power and inventory than you, you’ll never beat them on price without taking a loss. For your customers wanting new guns, encourage them to ship them in to you from an online discount store or similar using your FFL.

They buy the gun with their money, pay for any shipping and taxes, and pay your reasonable FFL fee based on your normal hourly shop rate. Easy work for you and likely a good deal for them. Any inventoried guns in your shop should be used. Used guns are an imperfect market, and imperfect markets benefit the buyer or seller with the most information. As a gunsmith, that is (or should be!) you.

Unlike buying an inventory from a jobber, you can command the price (and your subsequent profit margin) upfront before laying out any cash. A gun owner looking to dispense with a used gun is likely doing so to make some quick cash and their only likely alternative to your shop is to pawn it. This also does your customer a service as they’re at least getting a better price than they would otherwise. Any gunsmith shop retail sales are best served dealing, buying, and selling used guns.

It’s also likely a used gun has some wear and tear and possibly needs repairs. Given gunsmithing work is done at a profit to the shop, you can repair and service a used firearm for much less than a potential seller can pay to have the job done. This adds in to your profit margin when you turn that gun around for sale.

Doing such work also benefits your future buyer as they know any used gun coming out of your shop is one that you’ve gone through, possibly refinished, and is a better buy because of your attention to what you sell. If there should be trouble with it they know you stand behind it and are able to correct any problem right away. The sign in your shop says, "Quality Used Guns For Sale", doesn’t it?

A gunsmith serving as a gun dealer exudes confidence because he is the knowledgeable one to properly value the used gun. Here again, the credibility you have earned will stand you in good stead and help sell a used gun. The intimacy that goes between you and your customer is something a discount store or online store can’t match. Take advantage of it. Use the confidence and rapport between you and the customer that you have established.

Often times you can, through your knowledge of guns and experience with your customers, trade the sale up by showing something he will like even better. You also have to be able to do a mental biopsy of his wallet at the same time so that you don’t make him feel like a fool for looking at a cheaper gun. You want the sale of one or the other so learn your customers quickly.

Above all, he has to feel comfortable with you and when he looks at a discontinued gun and makes the remark, "Boy, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore" don’t answer him by telling him, "Nope, they realized the error of their ways and built a better one." Along with used gun sales, consider consignments. Rather like letting your customers use your FFL to ship in guns they pay for, consignments are another way to offer an inventory of items without investing your own money.

Customers that aren’t keen on selling at a price that meets my desired mark up and aren’t desperate for cash will often consider sale by consignment. One down side is you have to secure consignment items in your shop but I don’t consider this excessive risk. You have much more invested in your shop given the tools and everything else so you need to carry insurance against loss due to fire, theft, and the like. Adding some consignment guns to your existing inventory is hardly any real added risk.

Consignments also require carrying an inventory. The customer using your FFL for a fee is ordering in exactly what they want before you have to handle it so you’re reassured (usually) someone will pick up shortly after it arrives. With a consignment, you have no way of knowing for sure when or if it will ever sell. If you’re smart and know your local market, you should have a good idea if it will, but that is never a guarantee. I still consider this reasonable.

With an inventory of new guns, I’m putting up my own money for items I have to insure and secure while hoping someone buys. With consignment, at least the inventory costs my shop nothing up front. Around 20% or so for a consignment on a fairly marked item is reasonable. You’ll never make as much on consignment as you can on used guns but they add to your overall inventory. In addition to the greatly improved profit margin with much less invested up front, used guns offer a buying experience unique to your store.

Selling new guns is like stocking boxes of widgets with identical commodity items. A given new gun in your store is no different than that same model in everybody else’s store so competition is limited to a race to the bottom of pricing and anyone with a smart phone can immediately find out how prices compare. Your inventory of used guns is unique to your shop. This is especially true of customized firearms and older guns no longer in production.

Unlike a shelf full of toasters, that one gun a customer in your shop is now keen on might not be readily available just anywhere. And, with a rotating inventory of used and consignment guns, the only way your customers will know what you currently have is to check in regularly. Your good customers will also let you know about any particular firearms they’re interested in, which can allow you to make quicker turn around on sales when the right gun crosses your shop.

One of the great dangers in buying used guns is buying something you like but the sales are slow. You need to understand your local market as well as your personal interests. If you want to buy something for yourself, by all means do it, but don’t build an inventory based on guns you like—deal in guns that you know sell well locally. I know this all too well. I once bought a 11.2 x 72 Schuler Mauser one time.

I never took it to Africa but I shot hell out of a moose with it and then realized that what I had was largely a conversation piece, ammo was hard to find, it kicked like hell, and I just wasn’t going to use it much. I sold it with no regrets and bought a M70-375 which makes more sense and have since shot everything from antelopes (African) to buffalo (American and African) with it. I got my kicks buying the Schuler and got my kicks selling it.

While I am on this subject, let me say it is great to own and shoot a great many different rifles, shotguns, and handguns. Our love of guns is why we became gunsmiths so it only makes sense to want to shoot and own as many as we can. It’s part of the learning and development process. However, as I’ve grown older (and hopefully wiser) I found most of my gun accumulation (it would be overly generous to call it a "collection") sat in the safe while almost all of my shooting is done with a small number of guns.

You can only shoot one gun at a time and rarely take more than one on a hunt. I’ve found my shooting and hunting is more enjoyable by trying to get better with a few guns. One or two suitable rifles to hunt with, which double as match rifles at the occasional local Sporting Rifle or Hunter Shooter event. Add in a shotgun for birds and maybe Trap along with a handgun and that occupies well over 90% of my shooting.

You pick what you actually use regularly for the type of shooting and hunting you do and you will be just as happy with far less hassle and cost. AG