He remembers starting down this path around 2005, when
he spoke extensively with Marcel Newell at Avidworx before KnowledgeFest. Their conversations proved to be “eye-opening,” he said, as he drank in advice about modernizing his showroom. “We ended up redoing our entire showroom and have redone it again since then. It really took us from being the traditional car stereo retailer that has stacks of product all over the floor—kind of what we used for our displays—to a much more clean, organized and higher-end look with more focused displays,” he continued. When they overhauled the showroom a second time in 2012,
Bartells once again saw definite results in both customer feed- back and a measurable increase in sales. “After we did the initial revamp, we had a spike in our sales numbers. Nothing else had changed, only the overall look of the store. In this last round, we changed the paint and lighting and got a new slew of displays to create a higher-end look,” he said. “I learned I’m not an expert at lighting and showrooms so I have to turn to others. … This realization pointed us in a new direction, between that and KnowledgeFest.” Bartells is a proud member of MERA and enjoys attending
KnowledgeFest each year because of the exchange of ideas and camaraderie among industry insiders. The positive energy and sharing that takes place only motivates him to try harder. “Everybody’s got something that makes you go, ‘Oh, I like
that. I want to do that.’ When you associate with people like this, it brings out the best in you because we’re all a little competi- tive. So someone like John Schwartz, for instance, is knocking
it out of the park doing this or that, then I want to do the same thing—and even go a step farther,” he said. Bartells clarified that the mobile electronics retailers share a friendly competitiveness. The best part is they don’t hold anything back from each other when talking shop, whether it’s at the show or in an online forum afterward. The retailers aren’t competing with each other, he explained, because one may be in Alaska, one in Virginia, and another in New York. So, sharing what works and what doesn’t helps them individually as well as collectively. “If we can better everyone in the industry, then the entire
industry is going to be healthier and be seen in a better light,” Bartells added. “If people assume we’re a bunch of kids running around with our pants sagging down and wifebeater T-shirts on and things like that, then we’ve got a problem. Sadly, that is the image that’s been put out there in a lot of places for many years, and in some places, it still is.” Fortunately, that’s not the image of Extreme Audio. Bartells said they don’t need to run a lot of promotions because they are so well established, but they do one promotion that’s a hit every year. It brings in new customers while also showing a commit- ment to their local community. “We do a promotion for Coats for Kids, where you can get credit off a remote car starter if you bring in a coat to donate. So that usually does help on the remote starter end of things. Or if people are calling around and comparing prices, we let them know they can get a discount added to it. Of course, something like that hopefully adds goodwill,” he remarked.
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