The Salesperson Problem

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The 12 Volt Salesperson Problem

Over the past ten years, the nature of the car audio salesperson has changed, said industry members.

In the past, salespeople were mainly enthusiasts who saw the profession as a career. Nowadays, many salespeople see it a temporary job.  Many are not car audio devotees, and are less likely to grasp all the aspects of salesmanship, said industry members.

Columbus Car Audio, with ten salespeople in its two stores in Ohio, said about half are non-enthusiasts.  Mike Cofield , CEO of Custom Sounds, TX with 21 stores said the salesmanship problem is so significant that the chain has developed a digital merchandising system to help floor salesmen.

48-store Car Toys, WA,  recently announced that it let go of its junior salesmen, in favor of its installers and store managers handling sales.

Jody Culbertson of 5 Axis, which makes demo displays for 12 volt companies, said, “Back in the day, you had a sales guy and this was his [career] job. He learned the stuff inside and out. As time progressed, consumers began coming in more educated.  Ultimately, our sales staff were not as educated [in 12 volt] as we had hoped.  Maybe it’s due to turnover or this isn’t a career for them. It’s just a job.”

Cofield and Custom Sounds President Fadi Issa presented their digital sales assist system at the recent Mobile Electronics Specialists of America (MESA) Summit last month.  Their system, called ATLAS, is expected to be available to MESA members in the second quarter next year, pending MESA board approval.

5 Axis is also working on a digital sales assist system to be available to all dealers that we will write about in a separate post in the coming days.

Cofield told members of MESA at the Summit, “We know we have $6 or $7 million a year walking out the door that we could have sold if we had gotten [during the sale] to the right price.”  He said some salesmen are unable to follow the price guidelines the store offers.

Custom Sounds previously had 12 different goals for selling accessories that salesmen were incentivized to achieve during a sale. This included adding a backup camera or power cells or sound damping or a service plan.  The shop also had scripts written for answers to common questions asked on the phone. The chain found this had become too difficult for an unmotivated salesperson to follow, even with cash incentives.

“ATLAS is our solution to a lot of these problems. It’s a kind of demo program for each category running on a TV screen.  An employee and customer walks up to the screen and touches it and it presents icons for different categories.  Under that are different brands.  It can show systems and then shows the price including labor.  The employee can work with the customer on building a quote.  The system plays ads when idle,” said Issa.

For window tint, the TV will show BTU ratings for each type of film and heat rejection, UV and glare reduction and show the legal limits for that region.  It shows Ceramic film (good), Nano Ceramic (better) and Super Nano Ceramic (best).

The system gives near instant quotes, including labor.  Cofield said writing up a typical quote on a deck, amplifiers, separates and rear coaxials takes 12 to 20 minutes on average. “What is the customer doing during that time…..reconsidering.”

For remote start and security ATLAS shows videos with bullet point features for each system and explains the differences in features.

For subwoofer enclosures, ATLAS shows what each would look like, so the salesperson doesn’t have to go back in the storeroom and search for it.  “I’ve had folks tell a customer, we don’t have that box, when they didn’t want to go back and find the model,” said Cofield.  On ATLAS, the truck box section shows the size of the subwoofers, mounting depth, whether it’s sealed or ported, volume, firing, and shows the quantity in stock.

The system can also be approached as a fit guide. It will have limited ability, initially, to interface with point of sale systems, but it can print out work orders.

The estimated cost for ATLAS to a MESA dealer is $300 to $500 monthly per location.

Photo: (left to right) Ryan Gunter of MESA, Fadi Issa and Mike Cofield of Custom Sounds.

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6 Comments

  1. Seems like some good opportunities for someone with actual sales skills, so long as it’s a job that pays commission. People who make you money don’t cost you money.

  2. I know I’m not the norm. At this point a Career Car Audio Sales person. So who is this sort of crap aimed at?
    “Custom Sounds previously had 12 different goals for selling accessories that salesmen were incentivized to achieve during a sale. This included adding a backup camera or power cells or sound damping or a service plan. The shop also had scripts written for answers to common questions asked on the phone. The chain found this had become too difficult for an unmotivated salesperson to follow, even with cash incentives.”

    I freak despise this. Like this is the kind wolf of wall street grease ball sales tactics and ideas that drove consumers online for years now. Informed consumers are on the facebook groups asking questions. They want to helped, not sold. And it’s easy enough to make money with the attitude of helping the customer 1st and not tacking on a bunch of accessories that aren’t appropriate. I rarely show customers more than 2 products. I chat with them, understand expectations and needs and suggest the right product.
    Leave the interactive displays to best buy.

    I don’t know how to fix the problem of finding good people. Maybe is more money, job satisfactions or becoming the cool place to work again, IDK, I just don’t see touch screens replacing solid human advice.

  3. I think that alot has to do with owners mindsets. I have worked quite a few shops and unfortunately have first hand seen the transformation from person to monster the minute the economy has a down turn. Good salepeople are just not appreciated in the long run. Its unfortunate. Especially when you have someone who does love the industry but keeps getting backed into a corner if you would. Good luck to all the sales people out there taking the abuse to better the car audio world.

  4. I think at the end of the day we all need to realize that good sales people probably are not working in car audio shops anymore. If they’re good in sales, they’ve probably graduated up the food chain to bigger and better things. Really I think the best you can hope for is someone that’s passionate about the business and that translates into enthusiasm to sell the product.

  5. This issue goes back at the least to the year 2000 if not longer and it plagues many more businesses other than car audio.

  6. This is so true, I go into a lot of stores and the “sales” people have an order taker mind set. Very few try to “Sell” products. Very few ask questions about the end users expectations and see if there isn’t a better fit for their wants.

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