RWR real world retail
Welcome Support Te brands Audio Innovations carry
reflect their customers, since cus- tomers decide which products sound the best, which in turn makes them happy. Tese smile-making brands include: Compustar, Pioneer, JVC, Alpine, Audiocontrol, Digital Designs, Kenwood, Sony, Stinger, AAMP of America, Arc Audio, and the shop’s top selling brand Hertz/Audison. “Tey supported us by giving us
displays back when we first opened in 2007. Te biggest support is the trainings, which are ongoing for their dealers,” Autry said. “Tey want to make sure their dealers are advancing with their products and advancing the industry. Tey’re great; the best in the industry.” Autry doesn’t rely on sales reps with most of the vendors due to personal relationships he’s culti- vated over the years directly with the company. However, he still has strong relationships with most of the reps and sees them at industry events like KnowledgeFest. Te top-selling line in the store are the Hertz/Audison speakers, which are chosen by the customer 95 per- cent of the time compared with other brands on display. “Tey sell themselves because
they sound better and are at a lower or equal cost to others most of the time,” he said. Audison’s Prima line is the next
product in Autry’s sights to join their distinguished lineup. “It’s going to be an exciting category this year. It will change the way we integrate into an OEM sound system on any vehicle.”
parking lot (formerly a gas station) and over to a separate building that houses the install bay to view the stalls, fabrica- tion, and storage areas. Seeing all of this and hearing of the accolades the store has achieved improves sales. “All of our installers are MECP cer-
tified. It’s kind of a standard. We see it as only a sales tool. Does it change the install bay? I can’t 100 percent say that our installers are better after the test than before, but it definitely helps our credibility,” Autry said. “We’re trying to build trust in our clients before they even think about doing any integration with us. The MECP certifications and Top 12 awards are tools we use to set ourselves apart from everybody.” After the tour, as they lead the client back to the showroom, the salesman looks at the client’s car, asks what they do and don’t like, then shows them some product options that include the “good, better, best” approach from a pricing standpoint. To leave enough time for the tour and
store history lesson, AI sets consulta- tion appointments with clients. When a client sets an installation appointment they are required to put 20 percent down. “We never make an appointment without money down,” Autry added.
Customer-Preferred With the intent of aligning expec-
tations with final product, AI is very particular about the products they carry in-store. Vendor partnerships are limited due to customer preferences.
48 Mobile Electronics June 2014
“We’ve been a Masters dealer with
Elettromedia USA since January of 2007. I partnered with them because of the sup- port they give us. It’s support I remember dealers getting when I was a kid in 1994,” Autry reflected. “The vendors used to be huge supporters in stores by providing displays or free demo products, which they don’t do much of anymore.” To learn what products his clients
prefer, Autry lets each prospective client listen to five different speakers without mentioning brand. He then lets cli- ents pick which one they like best. This method has proven to work, according to Autry, and has undoubtedly steered the shop toward specific product lines, regardless of the profit margins. “I ask if they ever heard of the product
they chose and they usually say no. I then ask them if they owned the store would they rather sell a great product that sells decently with a great profit margin and average sound, or a product that has a better warranty, is a little cheaper but is also the best sounding. The client chooses the better sounding product,” he said. Since the product selection changes the amount of revenue the retailer makes in its profit margins, the numbers show up differently today than they have in previ- ous years. “I can’t say that we are going down in profits since our first year, but gross sales have been declining. Since our first year, it has been a steady climb until last year, which was our lowest gross year since 1999,” Autry said. “But we also made more money because we can demand
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