27 January 2010
Written by
joe (
)
Published on January 27th, 2010 @ 08:41:31 am, using 643 words, 70 views
I am back from an east coast trade show swing. The show I did was in Somerset New Jersery and is billed as the biggest one in the business. A good portion of the major players in our industry are represented there so its a well attended show. The hotel bar attached to the convention center is where vendors gather to grab a buzz and shake of the sales pitch edge left from the floor work. Guide War stories are told and lies frequently add color to last season’s fishing adventures. If you listen and keep an eye out for the in between the lines subtext you can glean some data on how the industry is doing.
Here’s what I picked up before the cocktails set in -
The economy is turning. – A fair portion of the veteran travelling anglers that either wouldn’t or didn’t book last year are back. Are we flush with new groups, no, but most outfitters were up on existing sales and were optimistic for next year. Ground zero of the affects of the economy on the fishing travel busines has been Alaska. The market for the higher priced weeks up there disappeared last year. A friend of mine operates a nice camp in Alaska that sells its weeks for 4k an angler and has historically stayed sold out. He is a strong operator in a great fishing area. Last year his lack of business motivated him to offer his weeks for 2k. $2000 for a week of fishing in Alaska!! As soon as he dropped his price the camp quickly filled up. He survived not at the margin he wanted, but he made it through and now is busy again. His lodge competitor up the lake didn’t fare so well which was crystal clear when a parade of jet boats motored past his camp pilotted not with guides but repo men seizing assets.
The value based Montana trips benefitted from the downturn – As it turned out the Montana trips that aren’t over the top lodge stays sold very well last season. All the operators I talked to in the American West were stable or up on bookings for guided trips. It looks as if the Alaska/International travel set still went fishing but rather than drop 7k on a week abroad they booked economical long weekend domestic trout trips. Montana doesn’t have the exotic lure of chasing taimen in Mongolia or mouse slurping rainbows in the Russian wilderness of Kamchatka. But we do have a bunch of wild trout in an stunningly beautiful place that you can book at a reasonable price and get to with an easy flight.
I watch what the industry does around me and try to make strategic plans to keep our boats filled with anglers. Hustling, Selling, and seeing trends is crucial to staying afloat as business person. Do I love this side of the business, not really. I like pulling on the oars, setting up shots, and wathing my guys stick fish on dries. I put on the sales hat on to make these shows worth my time and push growth, but none of this stuff helps when a big brownie is up rhythm and I need to exactly pick the right stage of the hatch to match because we are only going to get one shot. I don’t sell widgets where I would never see the customer again, my sales end up 2 feet away from us in our boats looking for what I promised them on the trade show floor.
No problem, put the next cast tight to the seam on the stump and twitch it.
Six more weeks until Skwala time in Missoula and I will trade the booking season’s planning for dry fly chomping trout on the Bitterroot. Cabin fever is starting to lurk in….
www.classicjourneyoutfitters.com
18 January 2010
Written by
joe (
)
Published on January 18th, 2010 @ 09:02:13 am, using 621 words, 86 views
Fishing boat banter is inherently funny. I don’t care if its a two kids in old aluminum row boat on a lake plunking worms, or a couple young fish heads ramming an offshore rocket into salty chop, or my wooden driftboat sneaking up on pod you are going to laugh at some point.
I like to think our humor comes from an enlightened feel for driving wit mixed with a piercing grasp of the inherent conundrums that we as tranisitory and foreign players in the outdoor arena are shackled by.
OR
Fishing breeds bullshit.
Here’s a couple of the better boat lines of the year.
I scatter my flies in my boat along with my tools and I don’t wear a lanyard. So about once a day my tippet spools will fall out of my trays or I will set them someplace odd. Boats aren’t big, but somehow stuff disapears. In the midst of this small set of disorganization I am regularly swapping flies. When I am in a hurry to get a fly on to set up a bank that is coming up fast I will nock my oars under my knees, grab a leader from a the angler, pop the fly, hold the the tag in my mouth, search for the right fly, and re-tie the rig. This is all while we float down the river dodging rocks. Its a bit of bad habit of mine, the right thing to do is to pull over and calmly re-rig. I’m in hurry to whack another trout, so I just multi task. On this particular fly change I could not find the fly I wanted, so while I was digging through my boat like a badger making a new hole I grabbed the wrong loop of the leader which swiftly drove the fly bend deep into my finger. I have been hooked way too many times to count, but it has never been a pleasant part of the day. So I muttered an obscentiy and dropped anchor to work on my finger, which turned the front seat around to see what was going on. When she saw my predicamnet she said -
“Well, At least you know where its at.” She was right.
We had one of those morning on the Missouri where everything works and its in the middle of a recycle bank. Every pass we made for 3 hours we took 1 or 2 fish. It was automatic and they were all 17 inches or better. Did we land 80 that morning, don’t know, but all of 40 touched my net before lunch. It was one of those spree feed windows where my guys start horseing and skating them to boat without regard for tippet tensile - Get this one off so I can have another. After lunch the trout carnage ensued. I pegged the shuttle perfect, so in the middle of the trout mêlée not another boat to be seen.
Its late in the afternoon and I spot another big pod of hatch dumb trout up in a recycle bank and I start the glory lapping. Did we need even 1 more trout, No, but I like to really get them when they are in this kind of mood. So I start rowing my rear off and barking drift orders.
“Little further. Mend it. Here it comes! Get ready backseat! Set! Set! Set!”
After about 5 laps, drift orders, and hookups, my backseat fires back at me -
“You set the hook, I’m tired.” I couldn’t, he didn’t, and we laughed down the river.
Just about the time you think its only about catching fish a deep bellied laugh will remind you its about the people you share the water with.
www.classicjourneyoutfitters.com
06 January 2010
Written by
joe (
)
Published on January 6th, 2010 @ 03:07:56 pm, using 747 words, 212 views
I am lucky. I love my job of guiding anglers. But as with any business some of it isn’t so pleasant. Parts of the winter trade show swing falls into the crappy cattegory.
I do not cherish the sore back, aching feet, hoarse throat, trade show moments when I just realized that the last 30 minutes of my life has been spent hustling to put together a trip with someone who is never going to come to Montana. I know its a numbers game and you have to smile and try to close each opportunity you get, but for a guide that is used to getting his fly eaten its tough to take the human refusals.
I have found that the better internal humor you carry with you to the trade show floor, the better you take the sales grind. Not all of it is tough, I will see all my repeat friend/clients, plus begin the relationship process with new excited groups planning their first Missoula trip.
Sometimes trade show selling is like a spring gopher hunting trip.
No big deal, keep smiling.
I used to keep a really nice map of Montana out on the edge of my display table in my booth space. It had all kinds of notes on it that I would use to show and explain the Missoula area to prospective clients.
It was in the first 5 minutes of the first day and I was ready to go. This isn’t exactly the hot time to sell float trips. Early on Friday is when all the shops have their best bargain inventory, so usually its the discount shoppers looking for for cheap discontinued product.
No big deal, keep smiling.
And then a Gopher comes down the aisle. A Gopher is a show attendee carrying a bag and going to each trade show booth and stuffing anything within reach into his bag as free. If you have a can full of logoed pens you are going to lose all of them if you aren’t watching. Why are they called gophers? Because if the exhibitor makes eye contact or leans in for a sales pitch the bag stuffer asks “How much does one of them there fishin rides go fer?” Your answer will be irrelevant, so I sometimes say “1 billion dollars.” I have never had gopher quiver at that price. They steal 2 more DVD’s, a brochure and say while they are rummaging through new treasure. “Maybe someday I will make to Montana. I’ll take these home and think about it.” And then like a gangly hound dog on day old scent they are gone shuffling head down to next set of freebees.
No big deal, keep smiling.
So, a gopher comes down the aisle and spots my Montana Map. I slam in with eye contact to keep my map. Mr. Gopher assesses the situation and starts on one of my favorite trade show conversatoins. Absolutely true story.
Gopher - “Nice Map.” No eye contact.
Me pushing eye contact - “Thanks, this is the great area that we offer our fishing trips. Are you planning a trip to Montana this summer?” The sales pitch in the eyes is gopher kryponite.
Gopher - “Can I have it?”
Me -"Do you mean my map?
“Yes, its a really nice map and I like maps.”
“I am sorry sir, but this is a display item that I use to show my rivers. It isn’t complimentary. You can see here how large an area of world class dry fly fishing western Montana offer” Another shot of the sales pitch, but this one is proving to be strong with the dark side’s gopher power.
“But I really like the map, and it would fit well in my bag”
When he put his hand on it I knew I had to think quickly.
So I ask - “Do you know how much one of these Montana maps go fer?”
Stunned at his own black magic coming back to haunt him, his hand shakily comes off my map.
“Ah, no. How much do they go f…, ah I mean, cost.”
“1 billion dollars.”
As I said before I have never had a response from a freebee searcher that indicated they ever heard my price quote. This one was no different, but he did shuffle away a little faster, without my map.
I am hoping one day a gopher is going to give me 1 billion dollars.
No big deal, keep smiling.
www.classicjourneyoutfitters.com
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