At the Town Hall Meeting at Spring KnowledgeFest this week, Alpine’s Mike Anderson bravely asked the 5 retailers on stage, what’s the one thing suppliers should change or do better.
One retailer asked suppliers to stop changing products every year that don’t need to be changed. “Leave the head unit alone for a couple of years if it works. Stop making us change inventory. If you leave the quality stuff alone and stop changing so often, maybe it will help quality control,” said Mike Bartells of Extreme Audio, Mechanicsville, VA.
Another problem noted was the pricing structure in the industry between radios and accessories. John Schwartz of Perfectionist Auto Sound Anchorage, AK, said “They tell me there’s an $89 deck that I can sell for $100. And then I need $500 in interfaces to fit it in the car. What’s that? We have to flip this.”
He also bristles at the lack of brochures and point of purchase materials. He told suppliers, “I know it’s expensive. Then someone’s got to get a pay cut. It’s like I’m in the war but I’ve got no bullets.” He explained, “I like Gucci…I get a Gucci catalog every month so I want to buy Gucci every month.”
Schwartz added, “I think the future is brighter than ever (for specialists). The talent pool at big box stores is horrible. They can’t do any integration.”
Then there are the two foremost retailer gripes that have been expressed in the past but remain key sore points.
The first is that suppliers don’t reimburse for shipping when a product is defective. “It stinks to send back a product you just bought. That shipping rate is so high. We don’t buy in volume. It can cost $28…” said Jason Kranitz of Kingpin Car & Marine Audio, Wilsonville, OR.
He has a stack full of defective accessories in the back that he won’t return because by the time he pays for shipping it’s not worth the reimbursement.
And retailers are tired of being treated as guinea pigs to test product that should be quality tested before it reaches the market, especially on high end gear, said Josh Landau of JML Audio, St.
Also at the Town Hall during KnowledgeFest, Chris Cook of the Mobile Electronics Group asked what retailers see as the number one industry challenge.
Eric Carter of Cartronix, Valparaiso, IN said the industry needs to educate installers as they did in the past. “Installers are a dying breed. I’ve been looking for a window tinter for a year. They don’t exist. Same thing with car (audio) guys.”
Expanding on that, Kranitz said attracting new talent to the industry is a key issue. “If we don’t do something fast we are going to be in big trouble,” he said.
Landau cited the need for more consumer awareness and “making this industry cool again. It should be about cutting edge technology.”
As for supplier gripes, Ken Wiseman of Phoenix Gold asked why retailers don’t invest in demo cars.
Retailers talked about the expense of maintaining a car that just sits in the showroom. But Landau agreed, “In my personal experience, a demo car works better than a sound room ever does. It shows a real time example of how speakers and amps sound in the car and our fabrication and labor. For years we didn’t have a sound room, we had a demo car or two or three.”
Kranitz said his shop has a Porsche Cayenne and BMWs as demo cars that are loaded with security, backup cameras and a little custom fabrication. They are used cars to keep down the expense and each install took two days. He uses them as the loaner cars for the customers while their cars are in the shop. Then he has a rat rod on the show floor.
Top photo: From left: Chris Cook, Mike Bartells, John Schwartz, Eric Carter, Josh Landau and Jason Kranitz.
Check out eshipper dot com – they are a shipping broker – it’s an easy system and has saved us a lot of money – no fees, no hassles etc.
i like too know why shop owners over charger for products the way they do i do alot of research on the things i want too get and i find that you can get better prices from online dealers than your local one and getting sub boxes made are outrages to get made thats why i see so many getting prefab boxes and now mdf is bad for you after 30 years or more in the business and too get burch wood is costly what is the consumer to do but go the cheaper way for audio.also changing amps too make them better like you do head units if its not broke why change it the industry is about itself than the consumer and thats not how it use to be but i understand change and times are a part of that but when are we going too get it all the under ground products do better than the main stream companys like soundqubed psi fi just to name a few companys want the name to speak more than the product jl being one too me 900.00 for a sub that can only handle 1000 watts max and gets out preformed by a lesser product come on people nothing wrong with jl but it cost too much i think
The problem I see today is that when you have a question it takes tech supports hours if not days to get back to you.i also agree that the shipping cost is really cutting into our profit. Then the cost of product, and the retail price posted on the web is anywhere from 25 to 35% profit. When you take the shipping cost and the price of the product our profit is even slimmer then the year before.
Installers are harder to find, then you hire one and spend months training them. They expect top pay for minimal experience. Product seams to get more complicated because everything his to be updated or program.
” Schwartz added, “I think the future is brighter than ever (for specialists). The talent pool at big box stores is horrible. They can’t do any integration.” ”
Dont be mad that Best Buy right across from you carries Compustar. They do integration all the time. Custom work no. But hey at least they dont claim custom work then bring someone up from the lower 48 to do their “Demo Car”
a lot of good Ideas but car audio too the young generation is not cool. Because we made it uncool and let it slip away.
You look around the world the distributors or manufacturers are supporting heavy shows around countries and advertising making it cool. There is no quick answer too this problem but we need one. We need the manufacturers and big chain stores throw more shows and offer cash prizes. Maybe finals offer a $100.000
purse and divide against all divisions. At RE Audio for demo cars they offer up to 50% of dealer cost. Some manufactures want big buy ins like $6k or $7k. As Manufacture I can see them not likening stores not heavy in inventory but this is the problem since internet has really killed the dealer. everyday I have too match someone’s price or come close to it off the internet. Today’s kid will wait for the item too be shipped too them instead of paying a couple extra of dollars more too have it today.
So if sonic has amp for $285 and free shipping no tax I need to be at $285 with tax or the customer will wait if I come in at $286 or more.
so I match there and make money on install but install is too high in there mind they still walk or they buy equipment and no install. I will stop this has turned into a rant it shows how hard this is to answer this question with so many problems underlying the industry as a whole
You know Ben, we used to have that issue in my store too. Then we hired a sales trainer to help us overcome those objections.
We learned that in the consumers eye, it all looks the same, so why wouldn’t they get it at the same price as what they saw on the internet? The no overhead internet makes you look like your ripping people off. They are just responding accordingly to that thought.
What we learned is that as trained professionals, we need to take their mind and re-mould it to our way of thinking. After going through all of the steps that we were taught, most consumers will purchase from the B & M store over the internet to get what we have to offer, service, personal interaction, helpful tips and most importantly, installation options.
Sales is a profession, just like being a hooker…you get paid for completing the deal.
Interesting ideas. The solution that has worked for us is to continue to look at new people to train into sales & installation positions. If they have an interest in car audio, can articulate thoughts coherently and spin a ratchet, they get a chance.
As for returns, I would agree with all of the valuable points of view; we as independent retailers need help with shipping. I would gladly allow a return shipment on my monthly invoice if I could get my vendors logistics rate. I just paid $26 for a $19 part the size of a pack of cigarettes from 2500 miles away. To expect my customer to pay $80 for a $40 part is reaching.
I`ll see ya`ll in Dallas with my opinions & questions.
I’m sure manufacturers have on staff or access to grapfic design people. How about some ready made files we could have printed on foam board or the like for some professional lookng signage/sale tags. I’ve done some things like that myself but noe being a graphics guy it takes me forever.
Oh yeah and why is MAP the new MSRP as shown on manufacturer websites?
As a supplier I would be happy to reimburse return shipping costs for defective product “if” the retailer would at least call us for assistance while the product is in the vehicle. By far most returns are not defective, but rather installation issues and or a lack of understanding regarding the operation of the product.
In the rare event of a failure we bench test the item before return. We haven’t been notified of a return item working since the mid nineties. I would have guessed that any responsible business owner would make such testing protocol to insure all installs were done in a manner consistent with the product’s requirements. Return shipping is high for specialists because most don’t ship other than returns. Returning on a vendor’s shipping number would be nice even if the cost was added to the balance of our accounts.
I agree with Bill. Lit was nice back in the day – but when you have Real Closers on your floor you wont need lit.
Vendors should have found “Other” helpful means to use these budget dollars wisely to help their specialists.
Advertising / Co-Op dollars – or maybe pre-paid UPS labels for defects 🙂
There used to be preferential treatment for shops that had nice demo cars and won trophies competing. That was a driving force behind those cars. We put certain products on pedestals because it paid to. It isn’t the investment in demo cars and support for custom shops alone though that the manufacturers shy away from, it’s the combined cost if both supporting shops AND keeping the product off the internet that combines to make supporting us unprofitable. At one time, us having a large paint booth, DuPont certification, metalworking capabilities ect. made for great demo rigs and sizable discounts for us. Now it makes sense that we should downsize and follow the new market.
The shipping of the product isn’t as big of a problem with us as we don’t see a large amount of defective electronics. Most of my speaker manufactures now offer field destroy which is really nice. My big gripe is not getting compensated for warranty work and software updates. The average software update takes one of my employees anywhere from 30-60 minutes. I wished we could be reimbursed for this time.
It’s possible that the staff shortage is because the shop owner can’t pay them what they’re worth because of the lower profit margins after competing with Walmart and the internet sellers.
One of my customers had to tell his customer to go buy the product elsewhere and than pay him to install it. That really sucks for me (I lost a sale) and he did also.
Agreed with everything other than brochures/catalogs. I don’t need/want them. They end up as litter. My sales guys are trained on their product inside and out. Every button. Every feature. Every benefit. THEY sell the product. If a customer has a question, the sales staff will answer it in plain English in a face to face conversation, and then close the sale.
I found the top 5 list of what the manufacturers can do better from the retailers most interesting. I was even more interested in what was not voiced among that top 5 list.
Do readers agree with this top 5 list?
The short supply of staff has been an issue for more than two decades BUT it seems more acute of late. I heard from a retailer last month his solution for this problem. That is the subject of the next Signal Path news letter.