P24 PAUL CLAPHAM:SGBGolf_NEW_template 01/06/2009 10:27 Page 25
Retailer Feature
"It is simply good marketing to
understand in advance what is driving
any given purchase and to know the
parameters that your customers are
working with"
SCHOOLS//COLLEGES//UNIVERSITIES//CLUBS//TEAMS
CREATE A WINNING
approaches to other businesses. Finding out when or if people are available
TEAM WITH THE
for contact can be a major barrier and it’s one that often stops people in
ULTIMATE IN TECHNICAL
their tracks when attacking this market. Note, too, PE teachers have
BESPOKE SPORTSWEAR
commitments after school hours.
What’s more, the education world is plain different. For instance one
business which sells into the sector has a sales training manual which
features no less than six pages of acronyms used specifically in education
HIGH QUALITY//CHOICE OF TECHNICAL AND
and you probably don’t know any of them. There is also a level of suspicion:
PERFORMANCE FABRICS//CHOICE OF STYLES//
some teachers still have an automatic distrust of someone selling to them,
CHOICE OF COLOURS//LOW MINIMUM ORDER OF 15//
not least because they are unused to commercial buying. In fairness that
6-8 WEEKS DELIVERY FROM ORDER CONFIRMATION//
“them and us” attitude is disappearing and most are keen to harness
available local expertise.
You won’t just be selling your existing retail stock. Cones, hoops and
quoits are necessaries at the junior level. Goal posts, nets and corner posts
will kick in at senior level. You may not have such items in stock but you can
order them for delivery direct to the school in question.
Within your standard stock, focus could well be onto the products which
schools use fastest. A case in point would be cricket balls. Here is a first
class example of where good sales skills can win the day. If you have
established how many of such items get used and when, you can activate
re-order.
So selling to schools looks like an uphill task if you are new to it. Don’t
see it that way. One senior teacher at a sports specialist school told me that
50 – 60% of heads of departments would give a good quality local retailer
a hearing. You will also need to establish contact with the head of finance
and follow whatever procedures they require.
Retailers who have developed the schools sector have almost always done
it, initially at least, via school uniforms. This is an obvious way to bring
parents and children into the store on a regular basis; kids have a
convenient way of growing out of clothes. Schools are required not to have
a sole supplier, so the door is open subject to local pressure.
‘Uniform’ covers a lot of ground these days. The blazer, tie and football
shirt of old has expanded and a lot of the expansion is in sportswear. Many
schools like their pupils to have embroidered kit for all sporting activity and
sweaters, sweatshirts and polo shirts carry the coat of arms too.
Crossover between uniform and sportswear and equipment isn’t a
gimme. Yes it happens, but you have to work at it. There’s an important
piece of staff training required here. It would be nice to think that the work
put into the schools sector would generate a steady flow of referrals. It
probably does, but retailers and school teachers alike have no idea how
much.
If you’re thinking: ‘I don’t fancy competing with Tesco or Marks and
Spencer on school uniform’, who could blame you? But you won’t be. The
above named monsters and their competitors don’t stock school uniform 12
months of the year. On the contrary, they throw big advertising spend at it
in the school holidays, especially before the start of the new school year and
then it falls off the radar. What’s more, you can come close to price
matching (where quality matching also applies) without robbing yourself.
This brings us to the geography of selling to schools. If you’re looking at
school uniforms, it has to be local customers, hence local schools. How far
will parents travel for a blazer? So a local focus applies here. With
For more information go to
uni279c
gforcesportswear.co.uk
equipment, however, it can be much wider. Certainly a county is a potential
or give the GFORCE sales team a call on 01507 523243
business area. There is no reason to limit yourself geographically if you aim
Gymphlex Ltd, Boston Road, Horncastle, Lincolnshire, LN9 6HU
to develop this business sector. How do you imagine the big boys got big?
Fax: 01507 524421 Email: gforce@gymphlex.co.uk
MAY 2009 SGB SPORT 25
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