Team Insight

includes our new backyard line of Practice Partner items. What is some advice to dealers on how they can sell and deliver more? St. George: I was recently speaking with a buyer for a municipality in the south. He talked in great detail on when he chooses a local team dealer versus using a national distributor of sports products. Specically, the district would use his local team dealer when needing cloth products due to the detailed aspects of the order such as decoration and attentive to his needs. However, for goal equipment needs he chose the national distributor because he felt the local dealer wasn't comfortable with taking the order. It was easier to place the order online. Meller: Dealers need to sell their customers on stock and service. ere's an appetite for both organized and leisure sports consumption; however, there's a limited or backlog of prod- uct availability. Although we will continue to adapt their ordering to accommodate, it's best to secure stock for when customers inevitably need at the speed of now. One's best asset in this environment is product availability. Bawcum: I encourage any salesperson to give one of our sales team a call if they have any questions on a product. Pay attention to the competition — nine times out of 10 the products are not always the same. Be sure your customer is aware of the dierences in quality rst, then focus on the price. Ebersole: For us it all starts with service. Our dealer network does a fantastic job iden- tifying the needs of schools and programs upfront to make the purchase as seamless as possible. We oer a variety of tools to help any customer identify the best items to reach their goals. Schirmer: Dealers should be talking to the customers about their sports schedules well in advance to make sure netting orders are placed immediately to avoid delays getting product. Also, since more spectators will be coming back, dealers should also be asking about their protection, including extending foul ball netting and overhead mesh for common concession/seating areas and mezzanines. Livingston: I believe most of the country has lied mask mandates and are allowing for in-person meetings, so now is a good time to get back out to the schools, churches and rec facilities to see the state of their equipment and gure out their needs. Nothing beats meeting them in person when it's allowed. Finally, what is your outlook for Fall? Meller: As we transition into the next buying season we're anticipating increased demand for organized, interscholastic and leisure consumption of football, soccer and lacrosse gear, equipment and training aids. We will continue to structure our overall strategy around allocating signicant resources to having our full line of products available to all of our valued dealers year round. Livingston: We're cautiously optimistic right now. Our sales have stayed very strong through our typical slower season, so we're hoping that's a good sign as we get into spring and summer. We're still seeing labor shortage issues, but the supply chain problems seem to be improving. We'd like to see the material costs go down as quickly as they went up, but that remains to be seen. Ebersole: We believe the team sports category will stay in growth mode through the Fall 2022 season and are excited in looking forward to a full year of sports activities in 2023. Bawcum: Our outlook for the year is looking great. We expect a busy fall as usual, especially now that we are seeing all sports back on the playing eld. We are very excited, to say the least, to work with our dealers to tackle new projects they are working on this fall and have the inventory to support them. Schirmer: Fall of 2022 is going to be a banner season if we all prepare for it properly. St. George: 2022 has been a celebration of Gared's 100 years of Activating play spaces, Elevating game play and Celebrating commu- nities. We are excited to focus on the game of basketball this fall and planning for another record-breaking 2023 following exceptional sales growth over the past 18 months. It has been a special year for us with being named to the inaugural NRPA business council, championing ASBA sessions on building structures and my election to the SFIA board of directors. We hope that our involvement will create more championship moments in communities. EQUIPMENT: GOALS/NETS 24 • Team Insight ~ May/June 2022 teaminsightmag.com Trigon's football passing net (left) with swivel top features all- terrain swivel wheels. The Pro adjustable 9-hole target adjusts to three height settings.

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