Sprinklers, hot tubs and an oil boom are helping Dave Fisketjohn and his business partner Harlan Fixen have an incredible year. In a small town, customer service is key, which Fisketjohn knows far too well as he battles the mosquitoes while installing and servicing much of the products himself.
Why do you think your sales are up? // We’ve been continuing with the same philosophy that we started with: We’re going to give the best service and service everything that we sell. That has helped. We do a lot of promotions, and we’re experiencing an oil boom [in the area].
Have you done any successful promotions? // We do a lot of TV now. We have our name out there in spots three times a week, two days another week and it alternates. You always need people coming through the door, and when you don’t have traffic coming through the door, it’s tough. We’ve been there. In my situation, I think that a lot of people say that you can’t afford to advertise on TV. My thought on that is you can’t afford not to advertise on TV. Sometimes you need to spend money to make money; you still have to get your name out there. You can’t start hiding back when times get tough.
Are you offsetting your hot tub sales with other products? // We’ve always got something to fall back on. If we were just in the hot tub business, that’s all you have. We do have other lines that help us along when one is slow or the other is slow. That is one advantage that we do have. We do service on pools and we build in-ground pools. I think a lot of dealers can branch out and get into other things. It’s an outdoor living thing now. We do some big built-in barbecue systems, and it all kind of ties in with your yard and people staying home. It doesn’t have to be sprinklers, it doesn’t have to be pools, there are a lot of other things that go with it.