Skiing Business

Amanda Markert
2012-02-14 12:08:29 | 1580 views SHARE

Focused on a rich tradition of expert bootfitting, Start Haus ski shop of Truckee, Calif. boasts a reputation of excellent service and product knowledge. The ski shop received industry awards for Most Knowledgeable Staff and Best Backshop: Bootfitting.

Skiing Business caught up with the shop’s Tyler Mearce who shared its strategies to reach niche markets with sales practices.

Most Knowledgeable Staff

As your retail space, employees, and business expand, what major adjustments have you made to keep pace with your growth?
We are fortunate that our current business model has served us well through our expansion. We stick to basic service business principles. We focus on hiring individuals that have passion for skiing and the ski business. We train our staff diligently to provide each enthusiastic hire with a base level of knowledge to work from.

As you’ve expanded, have you found it more difficult to attract highly knowledgeable staff?
Finding highly knowledgeable staff members that are cohesive can be a challenge. For us however, it’s about finding individuals that have a great base of knowledge and then expanding upon that with solid training.

What requirements must your staff meet in order to work at Start Haus?
Open to coaching is essential.  You can have years of experience but if you have not learned it correctly, it does us no good. We pride ourselves on being a very welcoming, knowledgeable staff. We take whatever core knowledge and skills that a prospective employee comes with and enhance that with mentoring and hands on training. Key criteria for Start Haus are a positive attitude and a strong desire to serve our customers.

What aspects of selling do you push your employees to focus on most?
Start Haus is a service-based business, we always have been. No matter if you are getting your boots fit, buying a new pair of skis or jacket; we always strive to understand the customers’ ability level, terrain, conditions and skiing goals in order to recommend the correct equipment. It’s our philosophy that we only sell equipment that we would personally use. If your staff believes in the equipment that they sell and they have firsthand knowledge using it, their enthusiasm will speak for itself.

What kind of training do your employees go through, and how often?
Training occurs on a day-to-day basis. We spend a lot of time talking about our experiences with equipment, which we augment with regimented training sessions. We find the staff learns more in an informal, hands-on environment. It’s critical that everyone on staff is telling the customer the same thing about the equipment. It’s this consistency that separates Start Haus from our competition.

How do you retain employees?
We retain employees by empowering them to be independent thinkers within a solid structure of training and support. We also offer incentives like skiing privileges at Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows.

You put a lot of emphasis on services, how does this compare to the attention you place on retail sales?
Without our emphasis on service we would lack the attention to detail needed to successfully close retail sales. Our staff is trained such that although they are selling a product, they are servicing the customer by selling them the absolute best product for the conditions and performance necessary. Our commitment to exceptional customer service creates unsurpassed customer loyalty.

Best Backshop: Bootfitting

What type of training does your staff go through on the bootfitting side of things?
All Start Haus Bootfitters go through extensive in-house training as well as Masterfit University. This allows our fitters the ability to see a well-rounded perspective of fitting.

What’s your biggest piece of advice for other shops trying to increase their bootfitting business?
Keep it simple. If you try to sell your customer on technology or smoke and mirrors you will never be successful. The Start Haus has been extremely successful at eliminating the traditional boot display. Instead we focus on assessing each customers individual needs and making our boot recommendations accordingly.

How much of your sales are made from bootfitting?
A very high percentage. Most of our customers at one time or another have either had their boots worked on or have purchased boots from Start Haus. Our bootfitters establish a high level of trust with our customers, allowing for a greater opportunity for sales.

How did you originally justify the investment made to become a good bootfitting shop? How long did it take to get the return needed?
Jim Schaffner, the owner of Start Haus, began his investment in bootfitting when he discovered that a very niche market of Tahoe skiing was being missed, the ski racer, and thus began the start of a business in his garage. Since that day 8 years ago, Jim has expanded his business to sell nearly 2,000 boots per season. His crew of fitters at the Start Haus strives to produce that same high quality product and satisfaction that Jim has provided for every year since the shops inception.