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