SMKChef
Contributor
The value of a trade association is to give the little guy a fighting chance. Working together to make each business stronger.
And another sale gone, another one down... another one bites the dust!
- Thread starter Genesis
- Start date
Please register or login
Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
- Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
- A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
- You can make this box go away
The value of a trade association is to give the little guy a fighting chance. Working together to make each business stronger.
SMKChef
Contributor
Mike,
What kinds of things do you talk divers out of buying? More expensive gear than they need? Such as why get the top of the line when you are going diving one week a year? I much prefer that sort of salesman than the one who is only pushing the top end to make his money. But I also want hard facts about why I don't really want that top end stuff.
SMKChef
Contributor
I don't think it will take ten years. This will occur in less than 5 years. Internet sales are growing at astronomical rates. The corner LDS needs to be looking at the future today, not wait till he has been exterminated.
yknot
Guest
Sounds good-but one problem with this thinking. LP had those 30 suits in stock (that's part of why I shop there in the first place). LP makes a $3000 profit on a $15,000 investment (30 suits at original $500 cost). Sounds like a 20% gross. LDS makes the $300 a suit on an investment of nothing. I've ordered big ticket stuff from an LDS and paid upfront for items they had to order.
If you think your time is too valuable for "free" advice, try this: hang all of your merchandise on racks with a bottom line, no haggle price sticker. Set up a checkout lane in front and just sell stuff- no advice, nothing. Just like most discounters.
MikeFerrara- you keep mentioning your refusal to take the cheap training route. That is precisely what the successful higher volume LDS's do in my area. Do you find that the average once a year divers are the ones who buy online? I feel the opposite is true. Most once a year divers I have talked to lack the interest or confidence to buy on line and instead will pay substantially more at a LDS. In your area, lacking something like an ocean, the only way for you to increase your traffic is to increase the number of divers. While you may feel like a sellout doing so the LP's of the world aren't going away. In your experience, if you chose 100 people interested in scuba, how many would continue to dive after training? Of that amount, what kind of breakdown would you expect to see diving once a month or once a year?
SMKChef
Contributor
No kidding, that's why they haven't really gone to battle with any of these backdoor retailers. Camera manufacturers didn't sue, did they? Look at all the grey market cameras that were sold in big NY warehouses. The manufacturer made out, end of story.
the trade association that got sued and put out of business for anti-competitive practices tried to prevent a SNORKEL MAKER from selling direct, by collusively threatening that manufacturer with boycotts of their products by both manufacturers and magazine publishers.
The final judgement was by default - they were literally driven under the dirt by the suit from the FTC.
It was the collusion and "lock step" actions that got them in trouble.
The judgement is available on the web, along with the complaint. It makes for entertaining reading, and would be most interesting to see repeated today.....
The final judgement was by default - they were literally driven under the dirt by the suit from the FTC.
It was the collusion and "lock step" actions that got them in trouble.
The judgement is available on the web, along with the complaint. It makes for entertaining reading, and would be most interesting to see repeated today.....
SMKChef
Contributor
In this case, wouldn't it be easiest for you to come out and tell them flat out you have given your best to them but that's the end of it?
That's true they have the items in stock. With the amount of volume they do they can afford to carry the inventory. I can't even imagine the amount of inventory turns those guys have a year. A LDS cannot afford to tie up that amount of cash carrying one of each size, each color, for each product line. They would have a pile of out of date gear laying around at the end of the year when the manufacturers expect you to start booking next years gear. That would be suicide.
SMKChef
Contributor
That's a no brainer, isn't it? Instead of working with the manufacturer and trying to get a better deal from them--talking to their sales rep. and trying to work out a deal that made both happy--they bit the hand that fed them.
Scuba
Contributor
MikeFerrara,
Knowing how you feel about training from your many posts on this subject in this board, and given the fact that you recently mentioned the demand for instruction in your area is mostly for vacation diver training, along with the fact you have chosen to go into business in this area, have you considered every possible angle within your reach to help you find a compromise between your values and your business demands?
What do you think of this:
You have by choice entered into business. This business requires that certain demands be met in order to succeed. You may not have been aware of all these demands when you started but now you know them. At the same times you have your personal ways and values to uphold, and some of these may put you in conflict with the demands of your business. Is there some room for compromise?
If you firmly believe in providing the best training possible for the benefit of the students and the pride you rightfully feel when you compare your students to others. If in fact helping and training a new diver as best you can for their own safety is of primary importance, and realizing that you can only do this to the extent they permit you to do so, would it not be better to offer the lower quality vacation classes knowing that you will at least be able to possibly impart better training within these limits than the competition. Perhaps more importantly you will definitely have the opportunity to accentuate the importance of further training and emphasize the seriousness of the perils confronted by a diver with only basic minimum rudimentary skills and knowledge.
In doing this you have the opportunity to help someone as much as they allow you to. Contrast it to instead choosing to send a new student to the competition where you know he will receive inferior training and maybe even possibly a false sense of security that may place them at greater risk than necessary - the best choice may be to do what you can within the limits you have to work with. In turn you will have the chance to persuade more students to pursue further training in order to reach an adequate level of competency, and you will be meeting some of the demands necessary for your business to increase product sales and prosper,
I realize this requires what can be considered a lowering the bar. But there are always things beyond our control and limits we must work within. All we can do is choose to do whatever we can or not within our values and beliefs.
Hope you don't think I'm imposing here, just trying to offer suggestions that may be helpful.
Knowing how you feel about training from your many posts on this subject in this board, and given the fact that you recently mentioned the demand for instruction in your area is mostly for vacation diver training, along with the fact you have chosen to go into business in this area, have you considered every possible angle within your reach to help you find a compromise between your values and your business demands?
What do you think of this:
You have by choice entered into business. This business requires that certain demands be met in order to succeed. You may not have been aware of all these demands when you started but now you know them. At the same times you have your personal ways and values to uphold, and some of these may put you in conflict with the demands of your business. Is there some room for compromise?
If you firmly believe in providing the best training possible for the benefit of the students and the pride you rightfully feel when you compare your students to others. If in fact helping and training a new diver as best you can for their own safety is of primary importance, and realizing that you can only do this to the extent they permit you to do so, would it not be better to offer the lower quality vacation classes knowing that you will at least be able to possibly impart better training within these limits than the competition. Perhaps more importantly you will definitely have the opportunity to accentuate the importance of further training and emphasize the seriousness of the perils confronted by a diver with only basic minimum rudimentary skills and knowledge.
In doing this you have the opportunity to help someone as much as they allow you to. Contrast it to instead choosing to send a new student to the competition where you know he will receive inferior training and maybe even possibly a false sense of security that may place them at greater risk than necessary - the best choice may be to do what you can within the limits you have to work with. In turn you will have the chance to persuade more students to pursue further training in order to reach an adequate level of competency, and you will be meeting some of the demands necessary for your business to increase product sales and prosper,
I realize this requires what can be considered a lowering the bar. But there are always things beyond our control and limits we must work within. All we can do is choose to do whatever we can or not within our values and beliefs.
Hope you don't think I'm imposing here, just trying to offer suggestions that may be helpful.
Similar threads
