For the past several years, a growing portion of 12 volt retail specialists’ business has been in higher ticket jobs, say $3 to $5K installs and above. That trend seems to be increasing or at least continuing.
There are many possible reasons for the move to upscale builds. Many consumers who were looking to buy smaller upgrades did so during the pandemic (thanks to stimulus money). So that segment of the market became oversaturated, said Mark Miller of Westminster Speed & Sound, MD and a contributing editor to CEoutlook. He believes that dynamic will continue for a while.
“If we go back to 2019, I was selling 3 or 4 CarPlay radios a week. The pandemic hit and for a year I was selling 5 or 6 a day. Car sales dropped by 5 million and all those used cars were getting CarPlay.”
Another possible reason for the shift to higher end systems is that consumers at the low end of the income spectrum are finding it harder to make ends meet with current inflation, higher grocery bills, higher car insurance, etc. So, they have less discretionary income.
Average ticket sales at the Performance Auto Sound chain in Washington have increased 35 to 40 percent over the past four years, while the door count is down. Like other dealers, the trend is to maximize every sale. President Kelley Kirschner believes the trend is intensifying and he expects this to continue for the foreseeable future.
Sound of TriState, DE is selling more $3K and above installs. Part of the reason, said President Mehdi Narimanian, is the high cost of labor drives people to higher end speakers and amplifiers.
“They are looking at what the labor is. So the difference between $500 and $900 radios may seem like a lot but when you look at the whole package, when you include labor and smaller parts, it’s now $2600 versus $3,000 for a system, so people go for the $3,000.”
Autosound, Inc., IN confirms the bigger system sales but says the trend is leveling out. But Columbus Car Audio, OH said the trend is growing more pronounced. Owner Todd Hays said average ticket sales have gone up over the last five years. “Every year it tends to go up, even if business is soft.”
Miller believes there is a growing number of specialists that can perform a $7,500 to $25,000 12 volt upgrade in three days to two weeks and make money on a system that “really does sound like a million bucks.” This is starting to create a following of people on social media and word of mouth. These customers “are never home and love their cars and will put a nice audio system in it.”
SoundsGood Auto Services, with 3 stores in Canada, decided during the pandemic to deliberately court jobs $5K and above. It educated its sales people via the sales trainings from Del Ellis, Jason Kranitz of Major League Fab: Tools and Training, and Andy Wehmeyer of Audiofrog, who gave a sales presentation at the recent CMA show in Canada.
Sales are up by double digits over 2019 at the chain. “We just did two jobs at the Barnaby location for $20K each,” said Owner Keith McCumber.
SoundsGood salesmen use Del Ellis’ system of asking questions. “‘Do you want this feature or this?’ ‘Would you prefer this or this?’ We get a lot of yeses from the customer. Sometimes, [at the end] they have sticker shock, and then we go back. ‘Remember when you said you want this, do you want to take some of the quality out?’ and typically they say no.”
He added, “Del changed my whole world.”
McCumber refined the ability to accurately quote a large job through training with Jason Kranitz. “We go through every aspect of the build. Kranitz told me how to quote properly. You have to visualize how much time it will take. Are you taking a seat out or going into the engine bay or running something to the trunk. We’ll go through the whole thing with the customer. The team and I will take some time and break it down and then quote on that.”
How does he attract the higher end jobs? Word of mouth and Facebook, McCumber said. Also, “There are community forums. Every community has one. We go and showcase what’s possible and we ask what dreams you have for your car.”
