SCHOOL - Music Inc. Magazine

Tim Barrett
Ray’s Midbell Music
Sioux City, Iowa
We have held clinics in the
past, but we hope this year
will be different because we are
going to attempt to make it more
sales-oriented. We are bringing in
Brad Davis through Takamine guitars.
We have been told that he is
a good salesperson for the company.
The clinics that we’ve held
in the past have generated a lot of
interest and had great attendance,
but sales have been mediocre at
best. On the other hand, we had a
sales event where attendance was
poor, but it generated a high sales
volume. I guess we are trying to
combine the two and get a reasonable
attendance with a good
sales volume.
We also prepare our social
networking sites. This year, we
are working heavily on our
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
promotions.
>>>
Clint Strait
Strait Music
Austin, Texas
During the holiday
season,
we are very
aggressive with
our radio presence.
We have a
great relationship
with one of the
stations here in
Austin. Also, once we get into the
December months, we run advertisements
on TV.
>>>
John Grabowski
Sweetwater
Fort Wayne, Ind.
The diligent, nurturing relationships
we have with our customers
is the single best thing we
do to prepare for success yearround,
and it applies equally to
the holiday season. Having the
right items in stock, being knowledgeable
about them and bringing
the proper amount of attention to
them are all things that need to be
in place so that we can properly
serve those customers at this
busy and important time.
82 I MUSIC INC. I OCTOBER 2010
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>>>
Paul (left)
and Ken Tobias
Tobias Music
Downers Grove, Ill.
What have you
done to prepare
for a strong
holiday season?
There are a few things
we like to have in
order before the chaos
hits. The first thing we
do is stock up on our
entry-level guitar products.
One of the entrylevel
lines that always
does well is the Jay
Turser line of electrics.
Then, we put together
a package for the customers.
We like to include
a gig bag, extra strings,
polish, picks, a clip-on
tuner and an entry-level
beginner lesson book. We
can include a small prac-
tice amp, too, if needed.
We know that there are
plenty of pre-packaged
guitar packs available,
but being a small, cozy
store, we’d rather not sell
guitars out of a box.
We try to be different,
more personal, than the
big stores, and making up
a holiday package in a
gift bag just looks a little
better.
One last thing that we
pay close attention to is
the Taylor Guitars Fall
Limited Edition series.
We are more of a high-
end acoustic shop here.
The Taylor Fall Limiteds
come out just before the
holiday season. We make
sure we have as many of
these as possible because
Taylor fans are always
looking for these around
the holiday season. So,
we try and make sure
that we have plenty for
the holiday shoppers.
Other than that, we
gather all of our holiday
CDs, fill our candy dish
with some holiday treats
and wait for the customers
to come in.