Give The People What They Want

Believe it or not, there was a time here in America where karate dojos were few and far between. They weren’t in every other strip mall, they were in the seedier parts of town, where the rents were cheaper.

Then the Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers happened, and suddenly, EVERY kid wanted to learn karate. And so karate moved out of the slums and into the suburbs. Why? Because that’s what the market demanded. Dojos became a place where  you dropped your kids off after school. A generation of kids grew up this way, and teachers who understood what those kids (and their parents) wanted flourished.

Now pick up everything I just wrote, and drop it down on top of firearms training. What do our students want? Do we know? How much is movies and TV influencing what they think they should be learning? I mean, sure, it’s cool when John Wick quad-loads a Benelli, but is that a viable self-defense skill?

Not really.

One thing the customer wants is value. Compare these to classes, my Pistolcraft 101 class and the first Cadre Session. The Pistolcraft 101 is a great class, I put a lot of time and effort into it. What’s not there, however, is what I want the student to learn in-class. I don’t have an ideal state for them in mind, because I’m covering a lot of topics all at once. The Cadre Sessions, however, tell you right up-front what each class is about, and what you’ll expect to learn in them. Plus they’re shorter, cost less and use less ammo, and a smaller expenditure of resources is a big deal plus for most people right now.

So are you creating classes for what you think your students should know, or are you creating classes for what they really want? This doesn’t have to be an either/or situation. You can present the stuff you think they should know in a way that’s compatible with what they want.

It’s called “marketing,” and more firearms trainers need to use it.