A Chat With David Isham, president/CEO, National Roper’s Supply

One of the things we’ve done recently is build a training center. Through our catalog, we market our training center. We have 36 clinics a year. The first few pages of our catalog is all the info in our training center. We hire world champions in various events to run clinics for 12 to 20 people every weekend. People come from all over the country to participate. Half of the clinics are taught by me and my staff; half are taught by these champions. What we’re doing is serving that need, helping people become better horsemen. We show people how to use our products and become better horsemen. We’re trying to create lifetime customers through these clinics. We’ve had 1,200 people come to these clinics in the past two-and-a-half years. If you’re a fly fisherman, you bleed Orvis and want to go to their clinics. If you’re into L.L. Bean, you get involved in their rock climbing or fishing clinics.