Welcome to the top seven mistakes that I see all firearm instructors make that keep their gun classes from filling. In this training, I’m going to show you how your business can train and make possibly over six figures in revenue.
I’ve trained over 30,000 students. I’ve certified over 3,000 new firearm instructors. My goal here is to reveal the secrets, the problems, and the mistakes that I see firearm instructors make left and right.
I’m also going to show you my pathway—how I had 95 students sign up and 80 people show up for a single class. At the end of that class, I gave a $1,000 offer and had 10 people accept. That was a $14,000 day in training.
Mistake #1: Using the Wrong Funnel
The number one most important mistake people are making is using the wrong funnel. When you think about a marketing funnel, our job is to get people aware of our business, then interested, then desiring our business, and then to take action (attend our class).
In order for your business to grow, you must spend 99% of your time, effort, and investment on marketing your business to people who don’t know you exist. If you don’t have a system to repeatedly send your advertisements to new people, you cannot grow your business.
Mistake #2: Not Using Facebook Ads
You are not using the most powerful marketing tool on the planet: Facebook ads. Facebook has the smartest AI system on the planet. It knows everything about you and your potential customers.
Facebook is the best chance for you to get your ads in front of the right people at the right time. But if you just turn on your very first ad, you’re going to run into a problem.
Mistake #3: Not Understanding Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
Almost all firearm instructors do not understand cost per acquisition. CPA is how much money you have to spend to get somebody to register for a class.
If you run ads for a $75 class, you are likely going to spend more than $75 getting somebody to sign up. For the first two years of my career, I struggled because my CPA was too high.
Mistake #4: Not Having an Irresistible Offer
An irresistible offer answers the question: “Why would somebody sign up and pay for our class today when they could pay next week or next month?”
If you don’t have a reason for students to sign up today, they won’t. I created an offer that was so good it got people to take action immediately.
The Money Model Solution
Out of desperation, I created what I now call a “money model.” I added a step where people buy something small upfront (like an order bump or an upsell). I took that money and paid my Facebook ads for that day.
Your goal with your Facebook ad should be to break even. You want to insert a dollar, get a dollar back, and get the student to register. This unlocks growth because you are using other people’s money to run your ads.
Mistake #5: Sending People to a Website Instead of a Funnel
When you spend ad money sending people to your website, you’re getting people to spill out of your funnel. They can click Home, About, Contact, Courses, etc.
A funnel has no other options except the one action you want them to take (e.g., “Sign up for $37”). This eliminates wasted ad spend and gets everyone to the same place faster.
Mistake #6: Not Allowing the System to Do the Work
Stop sending manual emails, printing paper liability waivers, and doing all the busy work yourself. Make the system do the work.
When people registered for my class, my system automatically sent them a text message asking them to invite a friend. This doubled my registrations for free. The system also handles electronic waivers, automatically requests 5-star reviews, and even uses AI to respond to those reviews.
Mistake #7: Selling the Class Instead of the Journey
This is the biggest objection I hear. You’re selling the airplane ride to the vacation and ignoring the vacation completely. You need to stop selling $75 classes and start selling the whole journey.
In the martial arts industry, they have a clear path from white belt to black belt. We need that in the gun world. I created a program where people pay $997 for the whole journey. My path to half a million dollars went from needing 6,666 students to just 500 students a year.
At the end of my 80-person class, I pitched this $1,000 program, and 10 people stood up and bought it on the spot. That’s a $14,415 class.
Stop Trying to Figure It Out on Your Own
The final mistake is trying to figure it all out on your own. This has been done for you. Marketing is not guesswork; it’s science.
If you want to fill your classes and have the freedom to live the life you deserve, you need to master these marketing skills. The missing link is not the economy or your area—it’s your marketing.
Leave a Reply