Difference Makers: N&S Marketing and Sales

Before car audio was a thing, Dale Naeseth started N&S Marketing and Sales, which has flourished more than 40 years.

There is a maxim that goes like this: It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. For Dale Naeseth, though, he couldn’t have asked for a stronger start to his long and successful career in consumer electronics that continues today.

Right out of the Navy, he landed at Magnolia HiFi. “It is probably the most iconic retailer in the Pacific-Northwest,” Naeseth said. “And I was working for Mr. Len Tweten. I learned a lot from Magnolia and from Mr. Tweten—how to take care of customers and how to interact with salesmen and store managers and things like that. Magnolia was a wonderful employer and I have often said Mr. Tweten was the best boss I ever had. But I eventually left there to form this company. The point was that in order to grow—grow personally—I needed to establish my own entity. So that is how I decided to get into the rep business in 1978.”

Back then, car audio was kind of like the Wild West—just a big, wide open space. “In the case of mobile electronics, there really wasn’t any,” Naeseth said.

Founder and Principal of N&S Marketing, Dale Naeseth, started the company in 1978 after learning the ropes from consumer electronics legend Len Tweten at Magnolia HiFi. As a rep-distributor, the firm is dedicated to providing its custom-ers—residential A/V retailers, custom installers and mobile A/V specialists—with a wide variety of outstanding product. In his downtime, Naeseth loves to travel and watch movies.

“There was a little bit of Sony, a little bit of Jensen, Craig Electronics, and Lear Jet—you know, 8-tracks—and the latest technology were the amplifiers and boosters.”

There really weren’t any car audio stores, either. “There were stores like Magnolia and others like them that had some car product under glass and later on, of course, there were demo rooms,” Naeseth said. “But car audio didn’t really start to kick in until around 1980. Things were starting to change and we were there at the forefront of it.”

Respecting the Car Audio Culture

Applying a key principle that was highly valued at Magnolia, Naeseth made it one of his company’s core values as well. “Mr. Tweten taught me that integrity is your most important asset,” Naeseth said. “We not only represent our manufacturers as any rep company does, but we also represent our retailers, our dealers, as well. We always do our very best to look out for the interests of both our dealers and our manufacturers. It is in the spirit of a win-win.”

Having integrity builds on another pillar of N&S Marketing. “The representative business is a relationship-based business,” Naeseth said. “I have worked hard and I am blessed to be surrounded by a sales team that has absolutely superb relationships with our dealers. I’ve got Ryan Christie and Barry Lightfoot, both of whom have great relationships in the industry. They are trusted and always ready to do the right thing. It doesn’t mean that other rep companies don’t do that, but we have been doing it for such a long, long time, so that has helped us. Our longevity in the marketplace distinguishes us.”

What Naeseth figured out many years ago, which has remained the status quo, was the need for two distinct teams. “We have a thriving A/V business with Denon, Marantz, Kef—all the ‘A’ brands—and then we have our 12-volt group which represents brands like Kenwood, Kicker, Harman, Directed Electronics, Dynamat and so on,” Naeseth said. “Some companies, which is fine for them, have guys out in the field wearing both hats. But the cultures of mobile electronics and AV are so different that I established a separate sales group for each category and it’s worked out well. There are a lot of commonalities for car and home like installation, for example, which is important on both sides. The cultures, though, are so different and it takes an incredible amount of manpower to represent all of those lines properly. Our team just wouldn’t have any bandwidth. Each has a different customer base.”

Zero Tolerance for Double-Speak

Naeseth continued that in the case of 12-volt, he is incredibly grateful for the dealers who are keeping the industry alive. “We’re blessed that we still have brick-and-mortar retailers out there who are driving the business.”

There are even some retailers that are still successfully doing both home and car—even marine. “Mostly that’s the case in tertiary, secondary markets,” Naeseth said. “In the metro markets, we are blessed to have Car Toys here in Portland, Seattle and Spokane. In Portland, we have Stereo King and Outrageous Audio. We have a plethora of ‘A’ dealers like that. But if you go somewhere like Lewiston, Idaho—a nice marketplace— you’ve got Steiner Electronics and they do both home and car. We have another dealer like that, Good Vibrations, in Roseburg, Oregon. Predominantly, nowadays, the A/V business is done through custom installers who don’t have storefronts.”

In order for N&S Marketing to work with a retailer, there are certain things Naeseth considers. As a stocking rep, the firm maintains inventory of Kenwood, Kicker, Harman (JBL/Infinity), Directed and Maestro.

“We are a rep and a distributor, but we’re a rep-distributor and that means there is an important distinction between us and a 12-volt distributor,” Naeseth said. “We represent the lines that we have distributed, so we control carefully where we put stuff. An independent distributor that is not associated with a rep company will pretty much sell wherever they can, and that is what distributors do.”

However, he added, the firm has to remain mindful of their direct dealers.

From left to right: Ryan Christie, with N&S since 2008, and Barry Lightfoot, on board since 2005.

“We’re not going to open up a guy across the street that creates a conflict. We have taken dealers that are smaller—playing rookie league ‘A’ baseball—and as they get bigger and when it is in the best interests of the manufacturer and the dealer, we have no problem to take them direct. Again, when it is in their best interest.”

As for taking on manufacturers, Naesmith said he’s always sought out the “A” vendors in every marketplace. “And we’re pretty much blessed to have them,” he said. “We need to make sure these manufacturers—and we’re fortunate all of ours feel this way—say what they mean and mean what they say. Our retailers are counting on them. Double-speak will always catch up with you in a hurry. Again, we’re blessed. If you look at Kenwood, we have been representing them now for 34 years! We have been with Kicker since 1994. We’re blessed to be with Harman.”

Having been in business for as long as he has, Naesmith is proud to have cultivated a culture in his company that breeds success and rewards integrity. “N&S Marketing is not me,” he said. “I’m here, but I’m surrounded by a fantastic team including my inside staff led by Stephanie Baijot, who has been recognized as Office Manager of the Year by a number of our companies, and Cindy Wooden who helps to take care of our customers. It is a team from top to bottom.”

While N&S Marketing uses all means of communications—including e-mail, phone and in-person visits—Naesmith is clear about his preference. “Face-to-face contact is the very best way to interact with the customer,” he said. “I always tell my guys that if you don’t get in front of your customers, someone else will. Email is great. Online is great. Phone is great. There is nothing, though, that beats getting our salesperson in front of a customer. That is a great way to maintain relationships. You can’t see body language when you’re on the phone. There are a whole lot of things in communication—not just speech. Above all, there is nothing better than a customer talking to the salesperson.”