# Selling manure in the barnyard (or how to sell loudspeakers) and southern loquacity



## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

The recent discussion about Bose products in another thread raised the ire of some, and it made me think back to the days of when I got started in this business. The dealer that I went to work for in 1979, as a college student and part time toad (they said jump and I would jump) was primarily an audio dealer to start with. We ultimately, like many, moved into home theater, which is really why I ended up there fixing televisions. Those were fun days in hi fi, and I learned a lot about the business. I learned much about the art of sales. There are good things that can be learned and there is the seedier side to the business of selling. Eventually, I would be told that I could sell anything (hence the title of this thread, which was how my skill was described) as long as I believed it was manure that my client needed and was the best that could be found. This was my handicap in the field, as I was not the go to guy for selling something just because it was in the warehouse.

I did learn much, however, about how products are marketed successfully. It became apparent that the products that are the best value, and the products that are the best technically, and even the products that the most people would prefer if they took the time to evaluate them all, are often NOT the products that are successful. Successful marketing is most often about finding the hook that catches the attention of the buyer. This is often precisely the thing that makes a product perform more poorly in a technical sense. The real beauty of the sales field is when you have a great performing product and you have a story to tell about it that provides that hook. It rarely happens that the two coincide.

So what is the point of this post? Well, it is to tell the "secret" that most great salesmen know, if not specifically, by intuition. That secret is that getting someone to buy a product is about creating a need and a desire, not about the product itself. One of the oldest "tricks" or "tools" in the sales toolbox for audio (and video) is that of "prediction-proof." The idea is that you identify some key difference in a product, then tell the client that they are going to hear it. You demonstrate the product, and in the vast majority of cases, even if the difference is very minor or even ficticious, they hear it. Now if you have a product that has an obvious difference, even if it is annoying or technically incorrect, you can easily plant the suggestion that it is desirable and because it is the different product that will stand out in the mind of the consumer. The discussion of Bose in another thread is a great example of how a company has done this many times over.

Once that difference is noted, and the value of it instilled in the mind of the consumer, it takes on a mythical importance if it is repeated enough. Take any consumer product, look for those "stories" and you will likely find them. Place enough commercials and billboards out there with attractive women falling all over their mates when they get diamonds & pearls, and even rocks and the waste products from sea creatures can take on this mythical importance.

So are products that those in the know call snake oil or techologically educated individuals consider a joke really that bad? Perhaps, but the people that sell them have a skill that, while we may despise it, has to be recognized, and that is the skill of making a niche for something that has little or no intrinsic value. Creating desire is, in fact, what entire industries, and much of our economy are based upon.

And that my friends, is how the cow eats the cabbage. So if you don't want to take home a load of manure that you don't really need, and you want to use the fertilizer that your own cow creates, and get to eat the cabbage yourself, you had better take care to keep the gate closed, or in other words, do your homework at the Shack.


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## mdrake (Jan 31, 2008)

:hail::clap: Wow, Great post!! 

Matt


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## bambino (Feb 21, 2010)

Well spoken! Or written. Or said, I don't know but i like it.


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## Guest (May 28, 2010)

Ya, I was only half joking when I said I wish I knew the marketing that Bose has forgotten. They obviously have it down to a science. They are also privately owned or at least not publicly traded, so how much do they sell? They have their hooks in every stereo store, mall, outlet store... I'm surprised wal-mart doesn't sell them yet. Overall, they have got to have some impressive annual figures. Normally, a company like that would actually be my hero. I'm a huge fan of Bill Gates, Howard Schultz, etc... It's just that markup borderlines or passes reasonable ethics. Ya ya, I know that sounds stupid to say when talking about business, but how far is too far? I guess its not too far if people buy them, but if they didn't have such a large price tag on some of the stuff, I wouldn't try and steer people I care about, away from the product, because its not really the product that I have a problem with (lack of frequency range) its the price. I wonder if Internet post like this and others will ever put a dent in Bose sales? In the future, I just wish their prices would drop. I would think they could sell more if they had lower prices, but maybe they need that high price tag so people feel like they are buying something special. I don't know.


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## Matteo (Jul 12, 2006)

Thanks for the post. Made me smile.
Matteo


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## lsiberian (Mar 24, 2009)

Well put.


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## JBL Fan (May 1, 2010)

> getting someone to buy a product is about creating a need and a desire, not about the product itself. One of the oldest "tricks" or "tools" in the sales toolbox for audio (and video)


Truer words were never spoken, I should know - I lived them.

I got my first job by being an audio nut and then applied for a custom installer/retailer. Being new and wet behind the ears I was told to watch and listen to the old hands on the sales floor. I followed this one sales guy around for some time (very good salesman) and watched him work. After being cut loose to work on my own I set about trying to give people quality gear and finding the best solution to what they were asking for. I later found out that this had nothing to do with anything.

The older sales guy that I had been following around kept giving me hints and tips as he listened to my sales pitches. 

One day after watching him finalize a deal and escorting the customers to the door in his gregarious and back slapping way, he walked back to the sales counter and said "shew I needed that money".

Bing! The light went on and I said to myself "this has nothing to do with quality solutions or anything this company professes to be about - it's about the cash and as much as you can get." All the talk about a serving the customer and blah blah blah....Gimme the cash was the name of the game.

This is when a got a closer look at some of the "high end" cable providers. It wasn't clear who you worked for at times, did I work for the company or was it my job to be a cable hustler for ________. 

Create a need if there isn't one.......


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

My problem with selling is that I have a very hard time not focusing on the best value products, even if something else is what the client really wants. There is a discipline involved, and walking that fine line between profitability and taking advangtage of people is very difficult, particularly when not in complete control of buying decisions.

For most salespeople, the lack of knowledge actually makes it easier to sell what the store has to sell. The more you know the more the ethical problems seem to surface. Not asking the tough questions is not in my nature, so I tend to gravitate to the more technical aspects of the business. Salespeople who don't know their product make me crazy, though I know that for most it is unusual to have extensive product knowledge. I am in the process of buying a car and they have been making me nuts with how much of the most basic information about the products that they don't any idea about.

For most people, sales is never something that they get skilled at because they have trouble with the most basic part of the job, which is asking people to give you their money.


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## JBL Fan (May 1, 2010)

> For most salespeople, the lack of knowledge actually makes it easier to sell what the store has to sell.


Also very true. 

The more detailed you explain something the more the customers eyes start to glaze over - they really don't care. It's your job to sell fun. Explaining driver compression and three plane spatial loading may intrest the guys on this forum (and should) - and that's fine - but in the real world it will get you fired - slumping sales.

If wearing a chicken suit will increase your speaker sales, then wear a chicken suit.

I reached a point where I could explain B&W speakers in about 2 sentences - then focus on what colors they come in - much more important than sound.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

Personally, wearing a chicken suit, selling speakers by their color, or simply lying to people never worked for me. I would rather fix things. I can sell if I choose, but the business is better suited for others. If people want to buy from people in chicken suits or because a speaker matches the colors of their favorite sports team, I'll be happy to send them to you.


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## JBL Fan (May 1, 2010)

> Personally, wearing a chicken suit, selling speakers by their color, or simply lying to people never worked for me. I would rather fix things. I can sell if I choose, but the business is better suited for others. If people want to buy from people in chicken suits or because a speaker matches the colors of their favorite sports team, I'll be happy to send them to you.


Of course I was being silly and trying to illustrate a point when I talked about the chickens suit - one must sell to keep the doors open. A Classe' stack for display can cost 35K and a modest Mac stack another 15K. The rent is about 15K and add another 50K in high end speaker displays and just forget about the 500K+ in inventory. We haven't even talked about salaries and installers,installer trucks,insurance...

How many Tivoli radios does it take to cover that kind of overhead?

Some folks may be in a position to sell to who they want to sell to. Some folks may select certain high end customers that would like a first class installation - spare no expense. Others don't have that luxury and selling keeps the doors open and people employed - in short, reality.

And yes, as a very experienced and successful custom installation salesman, colors of speakers are more important than sound.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

To say that color of a speaker is more important than sound is rather odd to me. It really depends on the client. Some may be more concerned with the aethetic some with the sound. The real success in selling, IMO, comes in finding the right product for the client.

Hey, when do we get some pix of that chicken outfit?


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## JBL Fan (May 1, 2010)

Of course the odd client will want good sound and is interested in how company X engineers and manufactures the product - but that's very much the exception. It's depressing and perplexing to fellow audio nuts but John Q Public is a different animal. Sure you can steer the sale to something acceptable and of good quality but unfortunatley the superficial can trump engineering excellence (better find a pair in white or the deal is off).

Strange thing is, that guys that have done custom for a living hate video - to a man. The salesman love the audio end of the things yet the customer base could care less -crazy.Don't know if you've noticed but I never chime in on the video chat although I know a good deal about it. Video, the internet and Sonos killed the customer install business but if they were wieghted - it's video more than anything.


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## lcaillo (May 2, 2006)

I guess I have a different perspective. i don't see video having "killed" the custom install business at all. There was not much of a custom install business until video projectors began to be used in home theaters in the late 1970s and marketed, largely by audio specialists who integrated sound and video to create a theater experience. The custom installation business really got started in a serious way as an outgrowth of that. Certainly there were custom audio installations before that, but they seriously tailed off in favor of manufactured speakers in the late sixties into the seventies.

The custom installation business is thriving, if a little dented by the collapse of the housing market. The best are still doing well at it, just doing more retrofits which are more profitable than new install anyway.


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## DougMac (Jan 24, 2008)

Great post. Some random thoughts.

Some sales people don't know how to shut up long enough to size up their customers. There's not many of us hi-fi nuts out there, but a sales person should learn to get out of their way. I went to the pet store the other day and wandered in to the neighboring HH Gregg. A friendly older salesman greeted me with the standard "can I help you?" as I looked at their AV receivers. I thanked him and told him I was "just looking". He replied "I'm fairly new to this stuff, you probably know more than I do. If you have a question I can't answer, I'll round up one of my more experienced colleagues and we'll do our best." He did a good job of sizing me up. I wasn't there to buy, but now I'll give his store and hopefully him a chance when I'm in the market for what they sell, like a flat screen TV.

I always thought I wasn't good at selling until I stared marketing my wedding photography a quarter of a century ago. We were primarily commercial/industrial photographers, but word of mouth started sending wedding business my way. I soon realized that if I could get the bride to come to the studio and sit down with me, I booked 9 out of 10. My work was better than most in the market (all modesty aside) and fairly priced, but that wasn't what booked them. I got them to tell me about their wedding day. I think all brides have a pretty clear fantasy of their wedding. By using subtle words and phrases, I got them to see me photographing their wedding when they were dreaming of it. That's all it took.


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## tonyvdb (Sep 5, 2007)

Generic said:


> They have their hooks in every stereo store, mall, outlet store... I'm surprised wal-mart doesn't sell them yet. Overall, they have got to have some impressive annual figures.


Bose will not lower there price, it sells for the same price everywhere you go unless its a refurbished unit or discontinued. Walmart wont sell products unless it can have a say in what price they sell it for.


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## Guest (Jun 2, 2010)

tonyvdb said:


> Bose will not lower there price, it sells for the same price everywhere you go unless its a refurbished unit or discontinued. Walmart wont sell products unless it can have a say in what price they sell it for.


Its probably more of an image thing. The price is fixed on game stations, but Wal-Mart sells those. Bose is at Sams Club... So, they work with that company, but if Bose sold at Wal-mart, it would take away from the specialty of the Bose brand.


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