IN CAR EXPERTS news & info
Is Your Store Dodging the Internet Bullet or Taking One For the Team?
D
oes your customer buy because of your profession- alism, expertise and the comfort they take in knowing your store is the best in town, or do they buy because you have
the highest quality brands? We all know what you want to say: “They buy because we are the best.” But are you being honest with yourself? Not long ago I stopped by a 12-volt store I know
very well. They are highly decorated: Top 12 Installer multiple times, Top 100 Retailer many times, Mobile Electronics Magazine Retailer of the Year, Dealer of the Year for multiple vendors, IASCA World Cham- pion, Spring Break Nationals Champion, Board Member of an Industry Group, on the cover or talked about in 30+ industry magazines, MECP cer- tified staff members, authorized to do dealer work for every type of car dealership in the region, and more. The list is almost endless and the varying plaques, framed magazine articles, trophies and other awards consume an entire wall in their showroom. If the customer even glances at this wall, they immediately assume the store is full of highly trained experts and the customer is in the right hands. While I waited in their showroom to talk to my friend at the sales counter, I saw him greet two new customers, and deliver his pitch—without closing either sale. He also failed to show off the impressive wall of awards. I worked at this store in a previous life, and I’m proud to say
JASON DENTON
Once they knew our history, there was zero doubt in their mind we were the experts; by that point, they were hoping they could afford such a world famous shop. (Hey, work with me here, it’s all about sales! We once sold an amp to a guy from Austria, so now we are world famous.) At this point, the brands we sold did not matter, the customer had no room to question our expertise. So we had the ability to dodge the brands that in our area had saturated distribution (Internet brands, for example) which always mean less attainable profit. We would typically run a popular brand for a
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, IN CAR EXPERTS
few years until it started to become less profitable, then we would look for the next growing wave and hop on that. As a bonus it was easy to hit a VIR (Volume Incentive Rebate), because we were always
in brand growth mode. When we switched brands we usually had the new vendor lift the old vendor’s product so we could instantly transform into the new brand without having to set up a clearance table. By the way, clearance table is another way of saying, “We won’t make money on this product.” Sure, it would get a little awkward sometimes, like when we had a customer from three months ago bring his friend in for the same gear, only to discover we no longer sell those brands. “Dude, you just installed my amp and subs a few months ago.
I invested quite a bit of my own time helping earn the awards that are featured on The Wall. As a young salesperson working there, the awards were my lifeblood. They justified anything I was going to say to the customer. For example, I could have said (in an exaggerated way), “Sir, we only install pink, fuzzy tweeters here. If you think we are idiots and you know more than we do, then you should open up a store across the street from us and put us out of business. So if you think you know more than a store that earned the IASCA World Champion, Dealer of the Year, Top 12 Installer multiple times, then good for you, but until you have accomplished more than we have, you might want to take my word for it that pink, fuzzy tweeters are the best.” The Wall was always shown off before I tried to make a sale. I can count on one hand how many customers would not give us the two minutes needed to explain why we were so good at what we did.
56 Mobile Electronics August 2014
What the heck?” It was simple to smooth over. “Yeah, but three months ago this new line of woofers wasn’t out yet, we brought some in, tested them out, and they are the next big thing. Sure, we’d rather not spend all our spare time testing products, but if we want to remain the best in the business we have to always be using the best gear. Do you think Ford has been building the best car for the past 100 years? Remember the Pinto?” By forcing every customer to hear why our store was so great,
we left no doubt that we were experts, we were the best. We were the authority because we told the customer we were. As the Internet takes a larger bite out of your customer base, you must make the most profit you can with the customers you have. The more you can sell your store and not your brands, the more protected you are from the Internet. Build The Wall in your store and bring in a line or two that isn’t sold new on the Internet, and use it to sell those brands. Maybe it is time to tell the customer you are the best, and tell them what brands to buy. After all, you are the expert and they need to listen to you.
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