Since 2002 the bestselling certified single-engine airplane in the world has been the Cirrus SR22. More than 700 new Cirruses have been sold per year for the past two years, and the company hopes to sell 800 in 2008. The question is, how do they do that?
How do you take on Cessna and Columbia and prevail in this market? To find out, I spent a few days with Bill Settle, a Cirrus Regional Training Manager. From him I learned about the selling and marketing philosophy at Cirrus and I heard a little about the structure of these initiatives. These airplanes, it turns out, don't just fly off the shelves by themselves.
Bill is a trim, handsome, outgoing 55-year-old man who got to aviation after the kids were grown. A Cincinnati native, he started hanging around Lunken Field and rocketed through his private, instrument and instructor ratings. He was hooked. Bill had spent 30-plus years in the family business, but as he did more and more instructing he correctly self-diagnosed a severe airplane problem: He couldn't get enough time in the air. When one of his students bought a Cirrus, Bill went with him to the company's Duluth headquarters. There he was swept away by the overwhelming niceness of the people of the upper Midwest, the quality of customer service and commitment to good products and good support. He came home, consulted with his wife of 32 years and his brothers, who were also in the family business, and filled out an application for a job with Cirrus. Don't you wish you had such an accomplishment on your resume?
In fact, Bill's employment with Cirrus is exactly in concert with the company's philosophy. Cirrus has long felt that they build and sell airplanes to nonpilots; that is, people who might want to fly or enjoy the usefulness of a private airplane but for one reason or another have never gotten in the game. They believe that the way to get people into their airplanes is to have a grassroots movement, propelled by flight schools and their instructors. As Bill said, "When you are learning to fly, your instructor is God."
Thus, Bill's first exposure to Cirrus was just as they had planned. He was an instructor whom they won over. Cirrus is now looking to build relationships with flight schools and create a network of some 150 "certified training centers." That's why Bill is called a training manager. He spends 75 percent of his time working with flight schools, evaluating their way of doing business and, if he likes what he sees, bringing them into the fold. The rest of the time he works with instructors, teaching them the Cirrus systems in what approximates a line-oriented flight training (LOFT) enterprise. He smiles easily and often.
There are 24 sales representatives, three training managers like Bill, and various others out there, 36 in all, carrying the Cirrus philosophy to all corners of the country and now the world. Each flies a Cirrus to work. They keep an airplane for an average of three to six months. Bill calculates that he has had about 20 personal Cirruses in his three years with the company.
Settle is responsible for 20 states and a bit of Canada, from Nova Scotia to Key West. Last year he flew 900 hours (down from 1,100 his first year!). He admits to a huge presence in Florida and keeps a base in Venice. "There are more private pilot certificates issued in Florida each year than any other state," he says. This is prime hunting ground for Cirrus.
When sales people find a good flight school, Bill visits and starts the relationship-building process. Flight schools get various incentives to join up and qualify as certified training centers, and some become service centers and certified sales centers for pre-owned (used) Cirruses, too. There is a referral program rewarding those who send a buyer to the factory direct sales program. There is also the "10-hour test drive" program, where for $3,500 a prospective buyer can get 10 hours of flight time that includes a long cross-country trip, a short cross-country and a "mechanics of flight" demonstration. If you buy within 90 days, you get the $3,500 knocked off the purchase price. The flight school keeps the $3,500.
In accordance with the "new to aviation" concept at Cirrus, there are "Access" programs for individuals who can't fly but buy an airplane anyway. For $69,950 you can hire your own pilot, instructor and airplane manager for a year. These pilot instructors move to town and are available six days a week and 14 hours a day. It is like having your own corporate flight department and instructor rolled into one. The pilots come from the University of North Dakota aviation program, with which Cirrus has a very close relationship. The pilots are making more than many entry-level jobs in aviation these days.
Seventy grand too much? There's the Access Silver program offered by certified training centers near you. For $30,000 you get about the same service with two or three different instructors. This is another potential benefit to flight schools that become Cirrus certified.
