Building Bridges
Gold Coast Mac, a 200-member user group in Miami, FL, had tried for years to establish relationships with local retailers, but few seemed interested. Except one.

“We’ve always had a relationship with Computer Village,” says Lynn. “He gave us an incredible deal on our computer. He supports our seminars and sends our mailings to his customers. He’s been super.”

“Then I got a call from Kelly Kinsey, the retail manager at CompUSA,” says Lynn. “She wanted to be the best Apple retailer in the South, and she thought Gold Coast Mac could help.”

So five CompUSA store employees and six Gold Coast Mac members gathered for a meeting. “We weren’t there to trash CompUSA,” says Lynn. “We went there with our hearts open and talked about how things could be better.”

The meeting went well, so Kinsey invited the group to participate in the store’s upcoming 25th anniversary sale.

“A lot of our success has to do with Kelly’s personality and her willingness to let go. I don’t know that this is going to happen everywhere. But it certainly has worked at this store.”
—Rose Lynn

The Anniversary Experiment
There’s nothing a user group likes more than showing off its favorite technology. So Gold Coast Mac volunteers created the Mac Challenge and ran it throughout the sale. They set up a 350 MHz Power Macintosh G3 next to a 400MHz Sony Pentium and challenged PC users to find any word they wanted.

“We would go into Sherlock, and they would go into the find function on the Pentium,” says Lynn. “We’d push the button at the same time, and the Mac would come up with 64 instances, categorized, of course, and the Pentium magnifying glass would still be going around in circles, looking for the word.”

The group decided to show off Macintosh graphics capabilities by running a cross-platform game. Surprised at how long the game took to install on the Pentium, they expanded their demo. Macintosh was soon ready to play, the Pentium lagging far behind.

“We smoked ‘em, every time,” declares Lynn. “We even have a picture of just the CompUSA people watching us do the demo. They were shocked.”

“My best advice for other user groups would be to approach the manager of the retailer they want to develop a relationship with. Go in with an open mind, lower the defenses and try to explain how a good relationship can benefit both parties.”
—Kelly Kinsey

Retail Partnerships 101

Be friendly. Don't go in slinging arrows. Ask, what can I do to help you work with the Mac Community? Start a dialog. Understand their issues. Retailers run businesses.They need to make money. Understand their limitations and offer ways to help. Bring a value proposition. Retailers are busy, so do the work for them. Offer a plan of action that clearly benefits their business. Be a good guest. Abide by their rules. Don't badmouth anything they do or put the retailer on the defensive. Be patient. Relationships take time. If you're not getting much response, thank them for their consideration and try again another day.

A Community Store
Kinsey appreciates suggestions from the user group about how to improve her Apple Store-in-a-store. Says Lynn, “Customers would come in and say, ‘why would I want an Apple? There’s no software.’ Meanwhile they’re looking around and see only 20 titles. But there are thousands of software titles for Macintosh. So when I explained this to Kelly, she went out and found several hundred titles and displayed them on an entire wall in the Apple store. It was very impressive.”

CompUSA sales staffers also welcome Gold Coast Mac volunteers. “We noticed that the weekend we were there for the anniversary sale,” says Lynn, “staff members would bring somebody to the department and introduce us. But they didn’t just dump them. They hung around and watched.”

Kinsey asked Lynn to run seminars for her staff. Lynn, who loves sharing her Macintosh knowledge, is happy to oblige. She expects to have 30 CompUSA employees attending upcoming seminars, learning Macintosh.

“Response to the user group has been very positive,” Kinsey says. “Gold Coast Mac members frequently pop in and help out in the Apple Store answering questions for customers as well as employees. I am definitely seeing an increase in Apple sales. We welcome their presence.”

People Helping People
A young man walks over to Lynn and asks for help. A Macintosh user, he has a difficult question that no one in the store can answer. Lynn grabs a copy of the user group newsletter and calls one of several Gold Coast Mac hardware gurus. She puts the young man on the phone with the guru, who tells him how to do the job and provides several alternative methods. The man walks out with what he needs, a happy customer.

Kinsey offers Lynn a timecard, but Lynn declines with a smile. “I’m not here for that. I’m here because it’s such a joy to help somebody.”

“One of our board members, an airline captain, hung out at Kelly’s store last weekend for 16 hours, Saturday and Sunday,” says Lynn. “He just put on his Mac Gold Coast shirt and went out and helped the people.”

Get involved. Find a user group near you.