Connecting with 12-volt training can put a charge into aftermarket sales

If you’re a Deadhead truckin’ down the road you want your vehicle’s sound system to make you feel like you’re sitting front-row-center to catch the Grateful Dead’s intricate licks. If electronica is your music of choice, the melodic bloops and pings are best heard when they seem to be bouncing around the cabin. And if hip-hop is the way you ride, you want your beats to have enough thumping bass to rattle windows throughout the neighborhood.

It takes a high level of passion, desire and knowledge for warehouse distributors, retail managers, sales personnel and installers of aftermarket audio and infotainment equipment to adequately ensure that you and your often-sound-savvy customers are on the same frequency when making product selections. Thorough training is a must for hitting all the right notes within the increasingly complex and sophisticated $2-billion mobile electronics segment.

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“It’s a different world that you’re in; with ‘red wire/black wire’ you can cause a fire if you do it backwards,” reports industry consultant Ray Windsor, executive director of the Elite Distributor Alliance (EDA), a program group consisting of 12-volt product purveyors.

“You need to be able to speak intelligently to your retailer, installer and consumer customers,” he points out. “The companies that the WD is selling to will call them up and ask, ‘How do I do this?’ If you can answer those questions you’ll be more successful in that category as a source of that product and the source of correct information.”

A sonic convergence of sorts is currently happening at a rapid clip as the 12-volt, red wire/black wire market that had previously been more of an add-on mobile electronics specialty segment – such as stand-alone Stereo Hut- and Audio House-type businesses – is combining more closely than in the past with traditional “bolt-on” auto component suppliers and installers of harder engine and other vehicle functionality parts. This emerging trend is being driven by vehicle owners seeking one-stop service for all their upfitting needs. The vehicle owners already have gone online to research their add-on desires – both audio and non-audio – and now they want to confirm the suitability of their choices in-person at a brick and mortar business and have their selections competently installed at a single location with a minimum of running around.

“The consumer says, ‘Why do I have to go to two places to buy it, and why do I have to go to two places to have it installed?’” An example cited by Windsor is a customer who has purchased a new pickup truck and now wants it accessorized with a satellite radio, high-end speakers, a navigation unit, extra lighting, chrome steps, a bedliner, floor mats, custom bumpers, window tinting, remote-start capability and a security system.

“If you are going to offer the traditional stuff to your pickup truck customers, why not the other low-hanging fruit? The business is almost exclusively two-step, done through distributors, requiring very little if any inventory risk. The inventory is never more than two days away, more often one day, and in many cases it can be delivered today,” he says.

“By and large the product application guides on the distributor and brand websites are quite complete. So think about your selling process; take a few extra minutes to ask the consumer about his plans for the other accessories,” Windsor advises.

“Pull up the websites. Show the customer the pictures, being careful not to dwell on the ‘buy now’ button. Close the deal in your store. Most often the installation is scheduled a few days out. In the interim you look for the ‘best value-add’ distributor who has the stuff in stock and order it to arrive in time for the installation appointment.

“The only hard part here is making the decision to educate yourself. Then you have to share that knowledge with your pickup truck consumers (and other interested vehicle owners). It just doesn’t get a lot easier than this to add new business to your sales floor, install bays and cash register,” he says.

Distributors can bring in additional business by asking similar ticket-boosting questions when discussing an incoming order. Have you considered…? What else do you think the end-user would want?

“The retailer will buy the product your sales person is asking him to consider and then confidently sell that product to his consumer, creating a siphon effect. When the consumer comes in for the install and the retailer mentions that related product and the consumer says ‘yes,’ the retailer may call back and order two, one for the present consumer and one for the next – siphon effect.”

Improved business relations

“It’s the beginning of the blending of these two sides,” Windsor continues. “For the past two or three years the red wire/black wire guy has crossed over to the bolt-on or performance guy, and the bolt-on suppliers are beginning to get more exposed to the red wire/black wire category.”

First discussed in 2014 and officially established in August of last year, the EDA’s 10-member roster of mobile electronics distributors are intent on uniting a previously fragmented 12-volt segment and delivering mutual efficiencies through newsletters, videos and meetings featuring product knowledge advice, purchasing expertise, business planning tips and other training programs.

“The goal is to improve business relations and trust between the distributors and vendors, and we are actively seeking to engage with qualified regional distributors.

“Typically in the past it wasn’t a national effort, it was a regional effort,” Windsor recounts. “If a distributor was based in Texas he’d have a hard time going to Seattle unless he moved there – now that’s changing” as an increasing cooperative sales environment takes hold and bolt-on WDs are brought into the supply chain’s marketing mix as they are all ultimately selling to the same end-user customer who has a variety of wants.

For a bolt-on WD/jobber interested in plugging in to heightened 12-volt knowledge, in addition to contacting product manufacturers for their in-house educational programs Windsor suggests looking into five recommended training providers:

• Mobile Solutions; Tempe, Ariz.
• The Installer Institute; Daytona, Fla.
• Kingpin Car Audio; Wilsonville, Ore.
• The Acoustic Edge Institute; Houston
• Sonus Car Audio; Clarksville, Tenn.

Another WD educational avenue for obtaining real-time red wire/black wire expertise involves recruiting existing 12-volt professionals from the diminishing ranks of independent manufacturer’s sales representatives.

“The WDs will hire some independent reps and make them mobile electronics sales managers. They can drop someone in overnight who already knows how to speak intelligently about the category,” says Windsor.

It seems these people are becoming available because many reps are facing reduced commissions from manufacturers. Shops and specialty sales outlets “are not as dependent on them to sell us stuff because we’re exchanging information and emails every 10 minutes and we’re not waiting for the rep” to arrive at a future date to answer questions and explain installation details.

Yet throughout the category, however, it is all the more imperative that your staff members have the necessary red wire/black wire training, according to Windsor, especially if your business has direct contact with the end-user.

“You must be prepared for a consumer to expect a very knowledgeable sales person who is capable of responding to specific and detailed inquiry about use and application. This same sales expert must be capable of making ‘the close’ in order to inspire confidence in the consumer. People who are just highly capable ‘label readers’ are not likely to make the cut in this consumer’s view,” he cautions.

“Owners and managers must be hiring and training to this standard,” advises Windsor. “Just putting someone on the floor who is not capable of meeting this well-informed consumer’s expectations is more likely to drive the consumer to another brick and mortar store, or worse, back to the Internet to execute his purchase decision.”

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