Scuba Sales Round The Pool

Hi all very big fan of the board and hoping i can pick all the dive masters/instructors brains out there!

I worked a season last year as a DM and as we all know a lot of the diving world is about sales as thats how we make a living.. no sales with the school no work.

My sales skills round the pool are not fantastic and really do want to improve it as this year i am returning as an instructor.

I am not a shy talker but find it hard to break the ice with people and share my passion with people who may have never tried scuba.

I understand the whole diving sells itself but anyone who has wanted to make this a living quickly finds out it can be hard to get a person to at least try it out for the first time and then get them to give the sea a try.

a normal pool day is a welcome meeting then splash dives..

What advice can you give me? the kind of things that you may say .. techniques you have used to get people excited - i don't believe in hard sale as if someone is pushed into trying diving it could be dangerous as don't want people out their comfort zone i just need honest advice from people who have a great time sharing the experience with beginners, and as a new instructor i really want to get some work in and help the school do well!

Please please keep this on topic!!! i understand how the diving world works - don't need basic diving isn't a sales place etc etc etc i am just after friendly advice from instructors and dive masters chasing the dream and getting people excited about diving and in the water!!

Many thanks and really look forward to your advice!

Sam

thatdiver:

Hi all very big fan of the board and hoping i can pick all the dive masters/instructors brains out there!

I worked a season last year as a DM and as we all know a lot of the PADI world is about sales as thats how we make a living.. no sales with the school no work.

My sales skills round the pool are not fantastic and really do want to improve it as this year i am returning as an instructor.

I am not a shy talker but find it hard to break the ice with people and share my passion with people who may have never tried scuba.

I understand the whole diving sells itself but anyone who has wanted to make this a living quickly finds out it can be hard to get a person to at least try it out for the first time and then get them to give the sea a try.

a normal pool day is a welcome meeting then splash dives..

What advice can you give me? the kind of things that you may say .. techniques you have used to get people excited - i don't believe in hard sale as if someone is pushed into trying diving it could be dangerous as don't want people out their comfort zone i just need honest advice from people who have a great time sharing the experience with beginners, and as a new instructor i really want to get some work in and help the school do well!

Please please keep this on topic!!! i understand how the diving world works - don't need basic diving isn't a sales place etc etc etc i am just after friendly advice from instructors and dive masters chasing the dream and getting people excited about diving and in the water!!

Many thanks and really look forward to your advice!

Sam

Click to expand...

Its not "PADI world" that concentrates on sales.
To be successful in retail you need to make sales. Does not matter if you are selling tee shirts or cars. In a dive shop it is gear and education. No difference.

not really helpful - as said not discussing the padi way

Have changed wording - again after friendly advice!

I would like to start with the pool is the place to learn. Pushing sales here only devalues the learning objective. I understand that the dive retailer will benefit if you are involved in a way of marketing the equipment they sell. So the reality is that you are not there to sell but to promote and market the product the store sells.

To market the product, you need to be familiar with the product so that the information you are imparting is accurate. The store should hold sessions for training staff to review the equipment features and benefits. If they do not invest the time in educating you, you will have a tough time to even just promote a product. Good luck trying to sell it.

The relationship is everything. At the pool, your objective is to educate. Whenever you go in to see a student–and especially when you meet someone for the first time–you have to go in wearing your problem-solving hat. Your objective is to help this prospect find solutions; to determine what type of diving they are going to pursue and make recommendations based on your product knowledge to the type of equipment that might benefit them down the road. You must also be able to provide the reason for any recommendation. An example might be a student complains that the regulator is pulling and uncomfortable in their mouth. You mention that if it had a swivel at the second stage it would change the angle of the hose, reducing or eliminating the pull. When the student starts looking at regulators they already want a swivel. Your job is done you promoted a product the store sells.

All candidates are looking at diving for varied and diverse reasons and as such each may need a varied equipment configuration. If you’re going in with the purpose of pushing a product, you’re going to have to work very, very hard to make a sale. On the other hand, a sale becomes a natural progression when you go in with a focus on how you can meet his/her needs and desires and bring value to this individual’s enjoyment and comfort. That may mean using some creative thinking along with your knowledge and experience to come up with ways to help improve the stores bottom line. If the candidate has a goal down the road, spend a little time making recommendations as to the equipment that will work to attain their goal (using the knowledge from the stores product review). They when ready will be looking toward equipment that they know (the equipment you talked about)

Be enthusiastic about the diving world and they will become enthusiastic with you. When they are enthusiastic they will want to participate and participation means they will spend money to participate. If they complete the program and never dive again they will never spend any money on diving.

Do not push sales. Push enjoyment sales will follow.

I'm not an instructor but I've done some sales in the past and saw what seemed to work in my OW class. During the equipment discussions, our instructor walked us through the shop and pointed out various pieces of gear and compared the differences (plusses and minuses as he saw them) and pointed out the "student discount" again. He asked questions about our expected diving goals and answered our questions about gear.

It was clearly a sales push but it was effective with several members of my class who bought full sets of gear and a couple of other folks who bought new fins etc.

Treating the sales as a good information session is one way to really help build a rapport with the students and make some gear sales.

As for selling the classes themselves, talk about scuba on your Facebook page, Twitter, and generally everywhere you can get virtual exposure. Talk about it wherever you go and put shop stickers on all your gear and leave instructor business cards everywhere you go. I also recommend including shop stickers with all the student packs. I had surfing instruction stickers on my car in MD/VA for an instructor in CA. He got at least a half dozen clients who had seen the stickers on my car.

I'm not sure I am allowed to post here, as it's in the "advanced discussions" area, but I'll give it my 2c and ask the mods to delete me if I've overstepped.

I own a small business (not diving related) and just completed OW this year myself. I'm also looking at buying a whole bunch of stuff this year and have "Pepsi-challenged" seven local Oregon shops plus the shop in Florida where I did a warm-water referral.

If you are setting a goal for yourself to sell more in order to support your shop, here is my advice; Plant or "sell" in the initial class what to look for in a dive shop, why to buy from a brick and mortar, and why your dive shop fits the bill. Trying to sell specific items is unlikely to work well, as people really hate that until they have formed a bit of trust with you. You are not likely to know a student well enough to give them good advice yet, anyway. Badmouthing other shops or brands you don't sell is also less effective and actually undermines any trust even more. It betrays a certain defensiveness that the best shops won't have: great salesman like what they sell and are confident enough to give customers objective advice even if it means setting them free to check out other products.

I've read a lot of books on marketing (mostly about marketing services because that's my area of business), and you might like to check out one or two. It's pretty fascinating to read on an "understanding human nature" level, as we are almost always trying to convince others of something. We're "selling" ideas, up to and including the idea that they give us some of their money in exchange for stuff. The theories all boil down to finding a way to show the customer what s/he needs and that your shop is a great choice for purchasing said needed item. In an initial class, it's really time to plant the seed that your particular shop is a good place to buy. People are grateful for the business that gives them an initial connection to a new product or community, so you have a big advantage there if you don't overdo an aggressive sales pitch at the first pool classes.

Are any of the other folks at your shop good at selling what you want to sell? Can you hang out and watch them? Take them to coffee and pick their brains for advice? A good employer will recognize your interest in this and do all they can to encourage it. Actual passion for a small business is like gold to the owner!

Here's what we do at our shop. We never make a hard sell, but make it very easy for them to want to buy. First off, all the staff, instructors and DM's, are using equipment sold in the shop.

1) On Friday night, we hold the classwork portion of open water in the store itself, after hours. At a point, we explain the need for brick and mortar stores for air fills, service, etc. and give them a quick tour, explaining what everything is, and its basic function.

2) We do gear assembly and disassembly in the middle of the store, in front of the displays. We explain how to assemble using the rental gear, and show a few variations on the gear setup using our personal gear, which is sold in the store. (i.e. the difference between a yoke and a DIN, between back inflate and jacket style BCD's, AIR2 and traditional octopus setups). A few will ask questions about what we prefer and why, and I'll explain why I use the gear I do.

3) At the pool on Saturday, I'll let them breathe through my regulator... they generally ask why it breathes so much easier and I can explain the design and why it breathes better.

4) Sunday morning back at the shop is usually a big day for sales... After they've seen our gear, why we use it, and generally do a bit of online research after the pool session, they'll usually start making decisions on gear they want. I typically sell one or two regulator sets on Sunday, and they never get the hard sell.

All of our instructors and DM's can make a sale even without the store manager there... it usually ends up that nobody's making a hard sale, and the shop is still bringing in money.

There is prolly an entire library at the business school dedicated to " making and closeing a deal ". Go check some out and replace the common word " widget " with scuba gear.

Passion based businesses fail at an alarmingly higher rate than those based on a sound model. You as a DM being expected to " sell " with no training or coaching as to what the model should be is a glaring example. Performance expectations that lack education or training are destined to crash and burn.

tip #1.
Never tell a lie to a potential buyer, if you do not know the answer to a perspective clients question, tell them so. Customers can smell bloviation and bull$hit a mile away, even on things that they lack knowledge on.

Eric