It seems yet another “conservative” company has hacked off a large portion of its customer base. Not sure why this event keeps repeating itself, but there’s definitely a pattern. I’ve seen it with both left and right leaning companies, both intentional and accidental. So, I thought I’d take the opportunity to position SharpShooters in a similar realm, meaning “here’s who our customers are.” But, we’ll do it without a New York Times interview. Because, you know, they’d never give me the time of day, because of who their customers are.
The Pattern
Recently, Black Rifle Coffee Company, once a darling of all the folks who love actual black rifles (or any other color rifle), gave a wide ranging interview with the NYT. In doing so, they appear to have alienated a large portion of their once loyal audience. I don’t subscribe to the NYT, so I didn’t read the article. I’m basing my statements off of the pandemonium on social media that BRCC “just killed their conservative branding.” Companies like Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream have never been shy to flout their left leaning political stance. Stripe, Shopify, and other ecommerce companies have come right out and said, “If you sell guns & ammo, you cannot use our software.”
Note: it may be that BRCC did this interview as a PR stunt, because their name is definitely in the headlines.
Those are just a few examples, but regardless of your politics, you probably have in mind a company (or three) that you used to support with your wallet who then said or did some stuff that made you take your dollars elsewhere. I don’t understand why any for-profit company would come out and say “we don’t want you as a customer.” That just seems illogical to me. I’ve always believed that you try to win every customer’s loyalty, and you win some, you lose some. But you’d never come out and remove half of your potential audience on purpose. Makes no sense.
These types of moves feel a lot like a more blatant, in your face Simon Sinek’s “Start With Why” movement, which encourages these types of branding moves. Sinek, in his first TED Talk, said,
"The goal is not to do business with everyone. The goal is to do business with those who believe what you believe."
And so, you constantly state exactly what you believe, knowing that saying what you believe may, by itself, alienate some people and attract others. And that’s a good thing in a branding sense.
Who are our customers?
Since I joined SharpShooters in early January, I’ve had numerous customers, visitors, and members take the time out of their day to tell me what they think of our organization. I’ve heard everything from how they love the diversity of our employees to how they hate the paper towel dispenser in the bathroom, and everything in between. We hire employees who fit with our values of Clean, Family Friendly, and Knowledgeable. But we choose paper towels by price and volume.
We listen to our customers, visitors, and members when they offer us input on our organization, because – and this is really the crux of the matter – without them, we have no business and we all have to go get real jobs. I say that a bit in jest because, while we work hard here, I can’t call this a “real job.” It’s too much fun to call “work.” Where else can you talk about guns all day and then take a break and go shoot a few guns just because you want to?
Sorry, I digress there a bit. Who are our customers? It’s a broad spectrum, but it boils down to this. Our customers are people who want to shoot, get better at shooting, learn to protect themselves, or be able to protect others. Their reasons for any of these goals are all over the board. “Want to shoot”, for example, can be for sport, for defense, for hunting, for protection, for their job, for stress relief, for a hobby, or any one of a hundred reasons I haven’t yet heard.
Do you fit into any of those categories? Then you’re our customer. Notice I didn’t say anything about your political leanings or personality or anything else. Here’s why.
The 2nd Amendment Applies to All Americans
The right to keep and bear arms is codified in and protected by the US Constitution as a fundamental ability to defend ourselves, our property, and our families. Now, here’s where there is something of a split, as exemplified by one of our employees’ story (keep reading). I see three groups of people.
- Some people, who may or may not agree with the 2nd Amendment, choose not to own or use guns.
- Other people are adamantly opposed to a civilian’s right to own and use guns.
- Some people love guns, shooting, the 2nd Amendment, and everything that comes with gun ownership, operation, safety, protection, etc.
I am firmly in the 3rd group, but you probably already kind of knew that, since I own a shooting range & gun store.
Where do you land? You know what? It doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to us. You’re still our customer. We look forward to engaging anyone and everyone who enters our doors in a great conversation, again, even if you don’t believe anyone should ever own a gun for any reason, because life happens and things can change. There are at least a couple of reasons why we take this perspective.
A Conversion Example
Just this morning, I had a conversation with one of our employees that actually inspired me to write this article. I had pointed out the “Tiffany Blue” AR-15 receiver in his office. He said his wife used to be “100% anti-gun.” Shocked, I asked a couple of questions. First, “was that before or after y’all dated and got married?” He went on to give the timeline or her anti-gun leanings, which changed abruptly when their home got broken into. She still wasn’t all happy about it, but she realized she needed to protect herself.
I asked, “What changed her mind?” His reply was just awesome: “She found a pretty blue gun that she loved, and now she has more expensive guns than I do.” So there’s your anecdotal example of someone who leaned hard against guns to someone who’s now an avid shooter and married to a gun range employee. LIfe happened, and her beliefs changed. She wasn’t our customer, but now she is.
Criminals Gonna Criminal
No matter where you sit on the 2A support spectrum, we can agree that crime happens, and criminals commit those crimes. Bad people do bad things. Agree? Now, that might be the full extent of our agreement, because some of the next questions are why bad people do bad stuff, how do we prevent the bad stuff, how do we punish the bad people, can we ever trust the bad people again, etc., etc.
But let’s focus on just that point there: criminals gonna criminal.
What Happens Next?
If you reside in any of the three groups I noted above, we can probably agree on that. Where we might not agree is how we prepare for criminals to criminal on me or you. Here’s where we fall into several other groups when bad guy does bad thing to you or me or our loved ones:
- “I’ll call 911“
- “that’ll never happen to me“
- “I fight back“
As our employee’s wife demonstrated, it is possible and acceptable to change groups. That said, it’s ok that we have these three groups. Also, there may be more groups than I’ve listed here, but I’m a simple minded individual, so that’s what I see. Anyway, it’s ok that people self-select into these groups. Here’s why, and it’s a very similar reason that some people lead, some people follow, and some people get out of the way so they can see what’s gonna happen.
We’re all wired differently. It really is that simple.
Every Choice Comes With Consequences
If you choose to call the police, they will respond when they are able. You are free to make that choice. The national average response time is around 4-6 minutes. I hope that is soon enough. If you choose to believe that no crime will ever be committed against you, you are free to make that choice. Only time will tell if you’re right. I hope you are right. Finally, if you choose to belong to the “fight back” group, then you must prepare and train. I hope you never have to act.
SharpShooters welcomes our customers in all of these groups. Five local police departments and numerous law enforcement agencies train here on our 180° Tactical Bay. They train to respond to the 911 call. We constantly train people who are preparing to be defenders and protectors of their homes and families. If you own one or more guns, it is your responsibility, your obligation to your family and neighbors to train and prepare to act responsibly if or when the need ever arises. I hope that never happens to you.
What Are The Chances?
Unfortunately, the odds are generally increasing that some crime will happen to you or your family. It’s the law of averages, really. We have 330 million people in this country. Some small percentage of them are bad, but even a small percentage of 330 million is a lot of bad people. What are the chances that someone bad is going to do something bad to you? I don’t know. If something bad does happen, regardless of the group above that you self-identify into, what are you prepared to do?
Jack Wilson was prepared. At 71 years of age, Jack had prepared for a very long time with no incident. Until there was an incident. He was prepared, and he acted decisively to save lives. Decades of training and preparation for 4 seconds of action.
Are you prepared? No matter what group you are in, or if I didn’t name a group that you feel like you belong to, you’re welcome here as our customer to prepare. I hope that at the end of your life, you can say with a smile that nothing ever happened, but you were prepared if it did.
Are You Our Customer?
Unless you are hell-bent on repealing the 2nd Amendment and literally want the government to physically confiscate private citizens’ firearms, you’re welcome at SharpShooters. And even if you are so hell-bent, we’d enjoy a conversation about that, so come on in.
