Being in the deer blind business we talk to a lot of outdoorsman and women and we travel all over the country delivering and setting up our blinds. We often get asked what makes your products better than our competitors or better than homemade blinds. There are many factors to consider when answering this question, but I must say that first we don’t just sell products. We design, fabricate, manufacture, customize and provide additional services to our customers such as the delivery and setup service. This really makes us as much a service company as a manufacturing company. We also are very intentional about the design and construction of our products, average quality won’t cut it at Southern Deer Stands as we take a great deal of pride in our work, products and services. So, now that we have defined who we are and why we do what we do, lets talk about the value proposition. Customers who make the decision to buy our products understand that we are building a high quality product that they cannot build themselves or may not want to build themselves.
I am often amazed at the complaints I hear about deer blinds and I think that the priorities are sometimes mixed up on what is most important and of high value. For example, a new four wheeler or side by side can range between $8,000 to $15,000 and most people will ride these to their deer stands each way for 10 minutes or less. While a brand new ATV is usually a must have what about the fact that the highest value is being in the deer stand at the right time, the right time could mean all day. For me, my day in the field begins at 5:00 AM and it ends just before dark, that’s right all day. I have tried to do this in climbing stands, tripods, and other types of deer stands and it is not comfortable or functional for all day duration. The more uncomfortable or un-functional the deer stand the less likely I am to stick it out all day, add kids or foul weather in the mix and the time in the field become even less.
Every day I talk to potential customers about our products and it really come down to what is most important to that customer, what is the high value for them. Is a quality product that will provide years of service the ticket or is it the ability to customize the blind to their specific needs or other considerations. We all know hunting is expensive but most of us do not have to go buy new guns every year because the one we hunted with last year wore out, that would be crazy and no one would stand for that, same for ATV’s. So how are deer blinds any different? In my book they are not, the value for me is the time I get to spend focused looking out the windows in my comfortable, no maintenance deer blind. I even spend the night in my blind on occasion and I don’t want to spend it with spiders, wasps or owls either.
I did not even cover the safety aspects of some of the “contraptions” I have seen. Stairs with no handrails, rotting floors, wobblely towers. These are all areas I find unacceptable and accidents waiting to happen. I am not a safety freak but I don’t want to end up in the hospital or even worse because of some pieced together deer stand.
Value is gained by understanding what you really want and how the product addresses those desires. At Southern Deer Stands our focus is on delivering those needs to our customers in a way that provides maximum value by the intentional design of our products. We build all our products right here in Texas by American hunters who care and understand what our customers want. If you would like to discuss our products and value proposition we welcome the converstation and look forward to speaking with you.
