Proline in Brooklyn handles around 40 to 50 cars a day in just one of its locations.
So, it was hard to conceive of doing a major renovation and interrupting all that business.
During the pandemic, Proline began to attract more high ticket sales and it wanted to keep up that momentum. This meant renovating as the shop was selling from behind glass counters and simply showing customers product boxes.
Finally, owner Shef Sadik took the plunge at one of his locations last December. He converted one bay of four (during peak remote start season) to a temporary showroom. The renovation lasted until March and cost well into six figures.
Now several months later, Sadik said the decision has paid off in higher ticket sales. The store is attracting exotic car owners for the first time and getting into custom radar as a result.
“It’s a night and day difference….We’ve taken the approach of top down selling. We simplified the number models and the number of SKUs. In Apple stores you can touch the products and get a feel for how they work. Our showroom does this. For us, the biggest thing was the user experience. It’s a new clean look. Jody [Culbertson at 5 Axis] worked with us for about 8 months.”
In total there are fifteen 5 Axis displays in the shop.
“Before, we were handing a customer a box and saying this is what it does and this is what it costs. Now, they can touch and feel and use the product on the board listen to the speakers from high end Focal and JL Audio to $99 speakers. They can walk over to a backup camera and push a button and see it work.”
In addition to exotic cars, the shop is seeing more new cars come in.
The average ticket has gone from about $700 to $800 on new speakers to $950 to $1,200. The shop is selling sound damping material for the first time.
“It’s changed the morale in the store as far as staff being rejuvinated…. You are not walking into a flea market anymore.”
This has lead to the need for new sales training. “I’m working full time with the staff. All of us went from many years of grabbing a box and standing behind glass counters. Now we show the displays and use Cofield’s race track selling.”
Race track selling was devised by Mike Cofield, CEO of the Custom Sounds chain and President of the Mobile Electronics Specialists of America buying group. It involves using five “pit stops” where salesmen do two or three things at each “pit stop” point in the sale. The first pit stop involves eliminating selling from behind the counter.
Proline now plans to renovate its other stores.
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