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Dealer Focus Abilene Aero, Inc. (ABI) Operating a full service FBO that includes an avionics shop requires hard work and constant attention. Finding time to work in the community in addition to those responsibilities can make Herculean demands on a person.
Abilene Aero has even landed a customer or two from their involvement in local activities. "We now have a customer who at one time shopped for the lowest price for everything he needed for his airplane. He only had loyalty to a low price," said Crawford. That changed when he got to know Joe Crawford after they both attended the same charity fund-raiser. Over the years, he has gotten to know Abilene Aero and become a very loyal customer. Before getting into the FBO business Joe Crawford had extensive retail experience owning a chain of Firestone Tire stores. His father was one of several stockholders of Abilene Aero, and after leaving the tire business, Joe invested and became President. That took place ten years ago, and since then he has used his retail experience to aggressively market the company. They use direct mail to aircraft owners within a 200-mile area of Abilene to bring in business. They also successfully landed a maintenance contract with the regional Federal Express contractor for several Cessna Caravans.
In his experience with selling S-TEC autopilots, Douglas has found that the S-TEC Autopilot Selection Guide helps his prospective customers decide which S-TEC autopilot is right for them. "The guide allows them to see every autopilot and compare the different functions all in one handy guide," said Douglas. His biggest challenge in selling autopilots, which should be recognized by anyone who has ever tried to sell one, is that an autopilot can be the most expensive avionics option the aircraft owner can consider. Sometimes the challenge is increased when the price of the autopilot represents a significant portion of the total value of the airplane. Douglas admits that the maintenance department of Abilene Aero helps him sell avionics. When customers bring their aircraft in for an annual, he often has the opportunity to discuss replacing a component that is beginning to deteriorate, before it fails. When asked where he finds good people, Douglas stated that while Abilene is a fairly large city, they have trouble drawing people from the larger metropolitan areas of Texas, like Dallas and Fort Worth. Like Mayday Avionics (the subject of Dealer Focus in the January 1998 Issue of The S-TEC Approach) he stated that they sometimes find new employees in other electronics industries. Douglas himself had been in the mobile electronics field before he came to Abilene Aero. With Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, he has some luck getting new employees who retire from the military and want to stay in the Abilene area. However, many of these new employees have never worked in the aviation electronics industry, so training can be a big issue. How do they keep their good employees? According to both Joe Crawford and Stuart Douglas, once they get settled in Abilene they seldom leave. |
But Joe Crawford, President of Abilene Aero, Inc. of Abilene, Texas is up to the challenge. He takes an active role in the Abilene Chamber of Commerce and in the many charities around Abilene. "I'm a firm believer in giving back to the community that we are a part of," said Crawford.
Stuart Douglas, Abilene Aero's Avionics Manager, handles the avionics shop and is responsible for the sale and installation of S-TEC products. He started with Abilene Aero six years ago when the shop was a one-man operation; today, that number has increased to four.