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maggs

Decreasing Tandem customers

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Here are two more good ideas that I just read in an article about Tony Robbins:

Find a way to understand more about your ideal clients than they know about themselves.

Do more for these people than any other business is doing. Add this value, and you'll create raving fans.
"Ego is the anesthesia that deadens the pain of stupidity"

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Avoid mentioning maintenance to prospective customers because they know nothing about maintenance.
Why do you think airline mechanics skulk around at night?
Why do bus mechanics skulk around at night?
Why do janitors skulk around at night?

Because the general public do not want to hear about scheduled maintenance or routine maintenance or preventative maintenance.

Yes, transportation professionals bet thier lives on mechanics' quiet work, but the general public does not want to hear about it.

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If you're going to offer a discount or groupon, be sure it's something you can afford. A dz near me offers group discounts (some thing like 5-7% off for groups of 7 or more, more discounts for the bigger groups). The local groupon is $20 off a weekday tandem, guess when there is the most capacity that discounts can help fill... weekdays.

Try to link up with touristy things around town and co-promote their attractions and post each other's brochures. Most tandems only do one, just like most tourists only visit xyz attraction once.

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kaiser

It was cheap...!!! was an answer I got ones from a tdm student when I asked what brought him out to skydive.



And groupon deals capture the impulsive, people will shop for deals, some will organize groups for increased discounts, etc.

This is a road that cuts profits where they matter the most. ANYONE who deals with students or prospective students. Plus the experienced jumpers at the dz have to be trained to sell and promote new students at the dz. This is work. This takes innovative ideas.

Its a competitive world out there.Prospective students think about going skydiving or doing xyz. Brainstorm marketing ideas continuously. Because everybody else is doing it too.

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jrodrod

USPA has DZO meetings right? What are the topics of those meetings?



They are called the DZO Conference and they are held in conjunction with the BOD meeting which for some time now has been held in conjunction with the PIA Symposium.

They have speakers and discuss a wide rang of topics. They have a Q&A "roundtable" too.

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Do they have stats on overall number of tandems? Do they discuss marketing?



I think they have at least some statistics. Hell yes, they discuss marketing! They sometimes have speakers like James La Barrie for goodness sake.

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Guess those meetings must be top secret hush hush.



No, you just have to pay for attendance.

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peek


I think they have at least some statistics. Hell yes, they discuss marketing! They sometimes have speakers like James La Barrie for goodness sake.



Did anyone here attend? Any numbers or tips for our OP?

From his about page:
http://dropzone.marketing/about/staff/james-la-barrie/
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He doesn't believe that great marketing starts with throwing money at an advertising campaign, but rather implements techniques in word of mouth (womm), social media, company culture and world class branding to create a connection with guests that drive the bottom line.



I dunno about shortchanging advertising. World class branding and company culture... not sure if that refers to DZs or USPA. Probably neither in practice.

Plenty of room for improvement, if they want help they'd need to pay me though.

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jrodrod

Did anyone here attend? Any numbers or tips for our OP?



It is always very well attended. I don't know what they make available to members related to the conference.

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I dunno about shortchanging advertising. World class branding and company culture... not sure if that refers to DZs or USPA.



I think James means DZ's but maybe both. His main points are that many DZs are not doing much marketing at all, and some of the things that work well are free except for the time to do them. So he is telling people to do those first before spending a lot of money on advertising.

(These are just my interpretations. Better to ask him of course.)

www.dropzone.marketing

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I have found a potential new stream of customers. Pokemon Go players who want to chase and catch 'em all through the sky where they might be hiding.
Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.

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People really do shop around for price. The successful strategies I have seen so far was to offer a really low priced "intro tandem" then up-sell it right to the ultimate experience that includes "premium jumpsuit", being able to steer the parachute, your own altimeter to wear, video, full altitude etc.

-Michael

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I was at the last DZO conference as a speaker on drop zone emergency planning and management. James LaBarrie was also there to speak on marketing. Tom Noonan spoke about tandem issues and Bryan Burke spoke about trending skydiving issues. After our presentations there was a long open forum on all sorts of topics from DZ issues, marketing strategy, FAA issues, etc.

It seemed that most DZs were up in their tandem sales.

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DJL, makes some very good points.

Additionally I would add....

Marketing and advertising dont have to cost you dollars out of your actual budget. Personal recommendations are one of the strongest and most reliable means of selling a product. I know. I formerly owned the largest canoe and kayak retail and whitewater training center in the state Kentucky. 50-60% of my customers walked in my door because they had friends who paddled and wanted to join them. Of those 75% of their friends were former customers of mine who recommended our store and trainers.
How do you use this for tandems? PARTNER WITH YOUR FUN JUMPERS.
Tell your fun jumpers who are going to tell their friends about their sport and where it is they jump, that for every 5 tandems they send through the door they get a free lift ticket to full altitude. Or 5 free pack jobs. Reward them for sending customers your way!
On safety day at your DZ do a special reward for the local fun jumper who sent the most throughout the year. New helmet or reserve pack or something extra special.

Use the tandem customers themselves....
When someone calls to arrange a jump, tell them if they bring a friend who also jumps they both get 10% off or a free DZ t-shirt (they wear the free t-shirt and advertise for you).

Use donations to local non-profits. Every community has local nonprofits from environmental groups to community theaters to city's orchestra...and they are always holding silent auctions or trying to fundraise. Donate a tandem jump or a ground school course and first static/aff jump to their auction/fundraiser. It gets you seen and noticed by new people.

Use social media. Try and post a picture on your facebook page for as many of your tandem customers as you have every weekend and make sure to tag their names in it so all their friends and followers see the picture as well.

Christmas time...make sure people are thinking of your business when they start thinking of Christmas presents. Either rent a booth in the local mall to sell gift certificates for tandem jumps (make sure you have a flat screen in the booth playing video from jumps) or pay to set up a static display (old square main and mannequin hanging from the inside ceiling of the mall) with information on your website and phone number and that you are offering a Christmas promotion.
Like this:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/da/00/77/da007776d7232ae2e526cc86b0c9369c.jpg

If you ARE going to use Groupon be smart. You can negotiate a better than 50/50 cut. I always got 60/40 and after I made them some money I negotiated to 70/30.
Also you can "adjust" the base price before they slap on the 50% discount the customer gets to make it a more profitable deal for you.

For example our normal beginner 4 hr kayak course was $60. But for Groupon we used $75 as the base price and gave them 50% off that.

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