Shopsmith Forums

Hi Gang;
Shopsmith used to have a program whereby owners agreed to talk to prospective new owners and show their shops off. I think that this was stopped because some mis-information was getting around.
Now I am thinking that an ad in popular woodworking publications showing the various functions of the Shopsmith in a kind of pull out ad that a person can hold on to might work.
How about a woodworking ad showing real Shopsmith owners making real projects on their equipment to demonstrate that nice projects can be turned out on a Shopsmith.
We have a woodworking group here in Florida at my "Active Adult " retirement community but we do not have a central place to meet so the group turns out the Toys for Tots stuff working in their own shops and when a member needs help with some tooling or other help it is available from the members.
We currently have about 35 members and by the most recent count we have at least 7 Shopsmith users.
At one of our first meetings a member said that you can't do small turnings opn a SS so I took several pens and pencils out of my briefcase and he could not believe they were made on a SS.
The proof is in the projects not in seeing a highly skilled and professionally trained demonstrator go through a blurb.
Anyway that's my 2 cents worth.
Bill

Everyone keeps talking about sales and HD and Lowes. I'm blessed to live in an area where we have about 5 of each of HD and Lowes. Three of them are in what is called affluent neighborhoods.

I talked to sales rep in both HD and Lowes and frankly the sale of major wood working gear by them wouldn't keep any company afloat. In Lowes where they sell Delta, Hitachi and Bosch (included because of price) table saw the total number sold for the year was a number you can count on one hand.

In HD I marked a Ridgid 3650 box (which I figured would be the first one taken from stock due to its stocking location) That box sat there almost 6 months. I have no way of knowing if they sold other saws from another location or not but the box on the sales floor ready to go sat untouched for 6 months.

I know there are a lot of HD and Lowes but I got to believe sales in other location are probably equal to or less than here and a hand full of machines a year even when multiplied by the number of stores still probably comes out to low numbers.

I would love to know WoodCraft or Rocklers turn over on tablesaws.

Some one mentioned Laguna, I have no idea of their sales but I belonged to a wood worker club, have visited tons of commercial cabinet shops, visited tons of private hobbiest shops, and I have spent time on many forums. I can honestly say with the exception of the forums I have ran into only one other Laguna tool. However I have seen Shopsmiths in all kinds of places. So I hope SS doesn't pattern their sales after Laguna's example if my observations are any indicator of how well Laguna sales.
Ed

The only woodworking "shows" that I know of in this area are the classes that the local Woodcraft store offers. I know of no other woodworking shows in this area other than what Shopsmith offered back in 2002 when it last had a demo ot the local Home and Garden Show. Other than that time I have not seen Shopsmith, or anyone else for that matter, give a demo other than the one time at a local Lowe's store when Shopsmith was carried for a short, short time. There hasn't been a presence of Shopsmith during local festivals, county fairs, state fairs, etc. for at least six years. I know. I have looked for them at every opportunity. If Shopsmith doesn't show what the true capabilites of their product lines are, then the other woodworking tool manufacturers (Jet, Ridgid, Powermatic, Festool, etc.) that are sold at retailers are going to have a larger, more physical presence. The bottom line is, as I had stated earlier, we SS owners can do only so much. Shopsmith has to pick up the ball and become more aggressive in its advertising in order to generate more sales. They have to do their part, something that I haven't seen for quite some time.

BPR

Actually, Laguna tools does great sales, at least here in CA. I've been to many shops (both professional and home shops) that sport some type of tool from Laguna, from bandsaws to European combination machines.

What I was suggesting earlier is that SS should follow the example of other tool makers and have a booth at one of the two major woodworking shows that travel the country each year. I mentioned Laguna Tools because that is a booth I remember well. I think it is because the company's owner was acutally there to answer my questions about a lathe that they sale. There were several others at the show that were similar.

Have the booth set up to where customers can look over and examine the SS tools and ask questions. No more quick talking demos at these booths. Heck, having someone like Rick Davis on the salesfloor who can answer questions will be a whole lot better than having someone stand in front of a small crowd and put on a show for 15 minutes in hopes someone will plunk down $3,000.

Really, if you think about it. Isn't watching a piece of wood go through a saw blade a bit boring. Isn't watching someone drill a hole or sand the edge of a piece of wood just as boring. If we wanted to watch a piece of wood go through a blade, we can do that in are own shops. We attended the demos because of the fast talking salesman they had working the machine. But, that type of sales pitch no longer works.

Gone are the days of doing a demo at a hardware store, hoping someone who came there to purchase a box of screws or a part for a broken toilet is going to stop and spend $3,000 on some woodworking tools, someone who probably hasn't even thought about becoming a woodworker.

Shopsmith needs to refocus there attention to actual woodworkers, and promote their products in a place where woodworkers get together. They can still promote their tools as a space saving system, and also put there tools up next to other tool makers such as Delta, Powermatic, etc.. This will show that Shopsmith's quality is right up there with the other better made tools being sold. I hear a lot from you guys on this forum about SS quality, so why not show them right next to the other tool companies and really compete with them.

Gone are the days of mall and fair demos, they just don't work anymore, and that is why Shopsmith has put an end to them. I know most of us bought our Shopsmith's at a demo, and that is great. But times are changing, and so is the way tools are sold to woodworkers. I doubt we will ever see a demo at a mall or fair ever again.

And to answer a previous post about Shopsmith asking owners to promote the tools to others at their own shops. There is to much liability involved. If someone was to get hurt while doing this, the lawsuit can be enormous.

Here are the web addresses to the two national woodworking shows that I am talking about in my previous posts. These shows travel across the country once a year to several states and locations. Check out the websites for the schedules.

http://www.thewoodworkingshows.com

http://www.woodworksevents.com

Enjoy.

Woodburner-

Thanks for the information on these two shows. I believe that you and I are of one mind: Shopsmith should establish a presence at shows such as these. It certainly wouldn't hurt for the company to show what the Mark V capabilities are to the general public.

BPR

BPR & Woodburner

I also feel that Shopsmith needs to get exposure somehow and having a display at the woodworking shows you mentioned with someone as knowledgeable and with the teaching skills like either Nick or Rick would be beneficial to the company in my opinion. I can see where the mall, box store and fair displays may not be effective anymore like they were when they convinced me to make my purchase years ago, however I feel that somehow Shopsmith needs to get exposure where wood workers are to show what the Shopsmith is all about. They also need to get back to a continuing education format for new owners to expose them to all the capabilities that Shopsmith has that you can't possibly present in a display. Again, because of the TA's and Sawdust sessions, I made many a purchase after learning more about my machine.

The education programs that Shopsmith offered, and just ended last week, were unique to Shopsmith for several years. I can see how it might be a good selling point to a lot of new woodworkers.

But unfortunately, the cost of these programs became to much compared to how much revenue they actually brought into the company.

For a long time, Shopsmith was the only woodworking tool company that I know of that offered these type of programs. Other woodworking tool companies don't offer these type of classes and training that I know of. But you can now receive training at stores like Woodcraft, etc., that teach woodworking on a lot of different manufacturers machines, and these tool companies now use the programs offered at these stores as a selling point. The uniqueness of the classes that Shopsmith offered is no longer there.

Shopsmith does however need to keep their name out there in the woodworking world, and just depending on the internet to do this is not enough, in my opinion. In fact, ending a big part of their internet presence like they just did is not going to help.

If they will take and use some of the advice like I and others have written in earlier posts I think it will help them overall with keeping the Shopsmith brand out there.

woodburner wrote:...Gone are the days of mall and fair demos, they just don't work anymore, and that is why Shopsmith has put an end to them. I know most of us bought our Shopsmith's at a demo, and that is great. But times are changing, and so is the way tools are sold to woodworkers. I doubt we will ever see a demo at a mall or fair ever again....

Every September, for as long as I can remember, ShopSmith has a demo at the Western Washington Fair (Do the Puyallup), including last month. I talked to the demonstrator and he said that he was having "a good fair". and selling plenty of Mark V's. Maybe he was exaggerating, I do knot know]was[/I] there.

The whole industry is taking a hard hit right now. If you haven't noticed it appears that B&D is modifying the Porter Cable line to become the home owner line. Once people bought Porter Cable on name recognition expecting to get professional tool now they are going to be getting a B&D homeowner grade tool, which I'm told is down quality from hobbiest woodworker type tools much less professional.

Many organizations are using various methods of selling. B&D is still using Norm of the New Yankee Workshop to sell their Delta line, various companies are using Router Workshop to sell their router lines. Festool is popping up in more and more This Old House series. That is TV. I notice Grizzly and Jet have flooded the magazines with their ads. Jet is also using sales incentives to store salesman to push their products.

Woodmagazine is producing how to videos as are others.

Others depend on Woodworking shows, however even they are in trouble. One Woodworking show was just sold, and I know the shows here in Tampa are about 1/4 the size they once were. I'm also told by manufactures sales at shows are bad. Many are finding the cost to sales ratio does not support the show route. I know many local dealers who were very presence in past shows are simply not attending the shows.

The point I'm trying to make is this. Everybody is scrambling for customers. Somebody is trying almost any idea we have come up with and the facts say there is no one best way to increase sales.

The biggest problem is the economy is making discretionary expenses not an option. Right now my purchase justification process just got a lot tighter. I don't know where the economy is going but I do know I can't eat a new miter gauge, so instead of buying the miter guage I'm saving the money. I think a lot of people are doing the same thing. Actually the fact that Shopsmith took the hit as early as they did might mean they are now in the position to weather the storm better than many companies that are doing business as usual.

I think rather than beat a dead horse (Shopsmith has said it can't afford anything other that what they are doing right now) what we need to do is get back to woodworking. If you need something and it's purchase passes you justification process for purchase then make every effort to buy from Shopsmith. The horse is dead why waste energy beating the thing?