Continuing this special series on how the firearms industry works—what I call “Gun Business 101”—the next step is to examine how guns are sold.

We already looked at the first component of a sales program, which is the method or channel of distribution, but regardless of whether a gun company chooses a dealer-direct or a two-step channel, sales still have to be made. Selling is the job of salesman, and in the firearms industry anyway, salesman are staggeringly important.

In other industries, salesman may be just order-takers but in the gun business, personal relationships are far more important than the product, the price or the program. A good gun salesman is not just a delivery boy, he’s someone all his customers, who are store managers or shop owners, love to see coming. They’re coffee companions, huntin’ buddies, story swappers and above all, trusted advisors.

There are two types of salesmen in the gun business, employees and independent reps. An employee is a salesman who works for a manufacturer and sells only that company’s wares. He may be paid a base salary plus commission or a straight salary. A sales rep (an abbreviation for a “manufacturer’s sales representative”) is an independent salesman working strictly on commission on behalf of a manufacturer. A sales rep typically represents anywhere from a half dozen to two dozen different manufacturers' product lines.

There are pros and cons to each. An in-house salesman focuses strictly on the company's products. There is never a “line conflict” between his products. On the downside, he is a one-trick pony so when he goes to visit a retail customer, he is not able to offer a quick overview of a number of different lines like a sales rep can. Now the harried store manager has to see five from five manufacturers instead of one rep.

Companies in the firearms industry tend to be polarized on their views of sales reps versus in-house salesmen. Some companies swear by reps, some swear at them—for a variety of reasons both valid and exaggerated.

Having worked with both, I think they’re both good tools for a sales manager to utilize, however, my experience has been that good sales reps are worth their weight in gold.

Regardless, a gun salesman is a people person, someone with a picture of the whitetail his shot last season on his iPhone. And he knows his dealers as friends first, customer second.

“A good salesman writes his own orders,” says Mike Evans of The Evans Group, the top sales rep organization in the gun business. “A good salesman knows every one of his customers and what sells for them. The store managers just trust him to tell them what they need to re-order. A good salesman will check their inventory for them, write them a re-order and the manager just signs it.”

The reason why relationships are so important in the gun business is because the foundation of the industry is the small retailer. Often called a “mom n’ pop” industry, the gun business justifiably prides itself on its traditional, Main Street type of retailing—the home-grown gun shop.

From this folksy environment springs the trust and camaraderie and intimacy and bonding that good gun salesmen exude like deer scent.

The gun business is a hobby industry, but hunting and shooting are much more encompassing than golf or tennis. The people in the gun business share a life-style, a common ideology, a shared world-view.

We walk the walk and talk the talk and when one chats to another, we’re on the same wavelength. This is why gun salesmen are so important to the industry. They know the industry because they are the industry. They’re consumers as well as sellers.

A good gun salesman knows each of his customers on more than a first-name basis. He knows what will sell at a given dealer before he even walks in the door.

“One of my accounts, a small gun shop in rural Missouri, has cultivated a clientele for high-grade collectible guns: Colts, Winchesters, Parkers, English doubles. When we picked up the Leica line, I knew this customer would do well with the line. You wouldn’t think a small-town shop would sell very many $2,000 high-end German optics, but this dealer has the right clientele. He’s one of my best Leica dealers,” said Greg Rader, one of the top salesmen in The Evans Group.

“If you know your customers,” confirmed his boss, Mike Evans, “You can help them to sell more because you know what will sell in their store. And that's what it's all about—writing orders.”

Industry Insider