Winter is Coming

WINTER IS COMING

Retailers have remote start season and the holidays in common, but each business has its own unique way of tackling year-end opportunities. Retailers everywhere are gearing up for remote start season and beginning to prepare for the holidays. In Vernon, Conn., ACT Audio and Mill St. Auto presented the Cruise’n on 83 event on the twenty-third of September. The sound-off drew a big crowd, trophies were awarded and ACT Audio raffled off items—including a Viper remote starter. This was the shop’s first time hosting such an event. “One of the reasons we do remote starters in raffles and giveaways is because, in the customers’ eyes, they hold so much value,” said James P. Smith, who manages ACT Audio with business partner Adam Thomas. Smith remarked that while a $200 gift card could be offered instead, the customer tends to feel the remote starter is worth more to them. Customers then pay for the work involved and any add-ons. The shop has no trouble selling remote starters. According to Smith, they sell between 700 and 800 per year, and they don’t need to advertise very much at all. “We’re a very busy remote starter store,” Smith said, adding that the shop gets backed up with work very easily. “The year before last, we were six weeks backed up.” If the shop advertised remote starters, they’d have to start rejecting clients, Smith added.

ACT Audio attributes much of its recent success and improvements to KnowledgeFest. Two years ago, Smith attended for the first time. “I didn’t realize what was out there,” he said. “KnowledgeFest reignited my fire, so I went back and worked really hard to implement what I always wanted and make a grade-A store. We did the expansion and changed the environment.” While the number of tickets went down, the business’s revenue continued to rise. “We’re doing less work, but more high-quality work.”

Special Sale Prices and Holiday Incentives

Offering a special price can also help increase sales, which is exactly what Fenix Audio of White Marsh, Maryland decided to do. Owner John Mease stated that Fenix Audio is looking for two fulltime technicians, but it’s been a difficult search. “We have no real prospects,” he said, “and it’s getting a little late in the season to try to train someone. We needed a remote start technician in the springtime to train.” For this business, retail is secondary, Mease added. Most of their revenue comes from installing GPS tracking in fleet vehicles. “Remote starters are just a bonus,” he said. “There are so many commercial vehicles, and more and more government mandating for safety.”

This kind of work is consistent year round for them. “There’s a huge push for it in November because everyone has their budgets they have to spend,” Mease added. When it comes to special sales at Mobile Toys in College Station, Texas, owner Christerfer Pate said the business takes a good look at what has been popular over the previous year. This year, they’re pushing radar detectors. “Also, our custom sub enclosure business has been really good,” Pate added, “so we will probably push that in our ad campaign and we’ll look at our inventory and see what we have a lot of.” The business then runs a Christmas sale that starts the day after Thanksgiving. “We’ll run that through the day before Christmas, and we’ll launch our end of the year sale after that,” Pate said. Certified Autosound and Security, with several locations in British Columbia, Canada, sells the most

remote starters from October to February. “Being that we are on the west coast, our remote starter market isn’t as big as people think,” said Chris Cope, one of the business’s owners. “We have very mild winters, so remote starters aren’t massive sellers like they are in other provinces.”

Most recently, the store implemented a call-back program on all previous remote starter sales. “Basically, this consists of us doing a Certified tune-up leading up to winter so we can get the customer back in the door and make sure the remote starter is functioning properly,” Cope said. The business’s biggest sellers are remote starter alarms, backup cameras and audio, he added.

ACT Audio chooses not to run sales around the holidays because they’re already too busy, Smith said. “Over the summer, we offer incentives to sell remote starters,” he added. “It’s not just to keep the car warm, but to keep it cool, too.”

Fresh Knowledge and Expertise Helps Revitalize a Business

Shops in other areas, such as Virginia—which is neither too cold nor too hot—might have some difficulty selling remote starters. Ethan Blau of Sound Wave Customs in Virginia Beach, Va. stated that the uncertainty of the weather plays a part in whether or not the shop will sell very many of them.

Sound Wave Customs also advertises remote starters during the summer, pointing out that it’s just as important to get the air conditioning started in 95-degree weather as it is to turn the heat on when it’s freezing outside. “Adjusting to the changes in climate and changes in our demographic, we’re having a stronger and stronger season every winter,” Blau said. “This year, I’m preparing in September, which I’ve never done before. Usually I don’t prepare for that until the end of October.”

With planning in full swing, the business is increasing their advertising budget and focusing on avenues such as Google Adwords and social media. Charity is another avenue that Sound Wave Customs enjoys taking part in each year. “I’m always looking for things that people might forget about, and try to cater to that,” Blau said. The endeavor is always win-win for both parties.

The shop also has two new hires, both of whom came from stores that sold a lot of remote starters. “I have two new transplants here: Stephen Krell, who owned Syracuse Customs, and Bob Mickonis, who came from northern Pennsylvania and Mobile Edge.”

Krell is the manager in the front of the store, and handles a lot of sales. Mickonis is now the operations manager. “With these two talents on my team, we can do a lot better this year and have record setting numbers,” Blau said. Both new additions to the team will be able to offer their knowledge and expertise on selling remote starters. “We’re definitely increasing inventory this season,” he added.

Creative Product Combinations Make for Busy Bays

Blau recalled when Compustar and Drone Mobile first began working with Amazon Alexa. With a careful plan in mind, Blau purchased some Amazon Echo and Echo Dot units. “For a higher-end remote start system—about $1,100 installed—the customer would get the full Alexa that they could either keep or gift,” Blau said. “On a lower-end system, which was around $899 or $799, we gave them the dot.” The solution was a success. The method even impressed Compustar, according to Blau, who added that the company called and said they’d been considering doing the same thing.

December is always a good month for Mobile Toys, according to Pate. “It’s the second or third largest month in the year for us. It hasn’t been the largest in the last two or three years,” he said. “The first month of summer is usually huge and overshadows it. There’s always a bump in December. There’s always an increase over the previous months.” Mobile Toys gets the chance to increase some of their inventory in December. “JL Audio gives us the opportunity to do our buy-in for the next year,” Pate said. “We would rather get it done and over with and sell that inventory. We stock up on our main brands in late November and early December. Radar detectors are the biggest grab and go thing. We sell a ton of radar detectors like ESCORT and K40. That seems to be the number one thing when someone wants to grab something easy.”

While Pate added that they don’t hire additional help during the holidays, they may shift some of their staff to the busier College Station store, depending on how things go. “Any shop that’s busy is probably looking for someone right now,” Pate said. “If I had two more installers, I’d hire them.”

Methods and strategies for increasing sales in any category will vary depending on a business’s demographic. “Once you find something that works, keep

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doing it until it doesn’t work,” said Ata Ehdaivand of Absolute Electronix in Rockville, Md. For Absolute Electronix, remote start season is one of the most important times of the year. “It dictates the next year,” Ehdaivand said. “If we have a good remote start season, we have a good year. Our number one thing is to create awareness of what we do with remote starters and we begin now.”

The business carries out a few strategic sales, Ehdaivand said. This includes an “ultimate sale” around the holidays: “Buy one, get one free remote start. You buy one with an installation, and you get a free remote start by itself.” The individual is then responsible for the cost of labor for installation.

ACT Audio followed a similar path when it raffled off the Viper remote start. Smith said the raffles at the Cruise’n on 83 event went very well. “I think in the beginning people were afraid to come over to us because they were afraid we would try to sell to them,” Smith said. “Once we went to them and said, ‘Hey, we’re raffling off great items,’ people came, and the word spread.” Those who won received the item, but of course would have to pay the labor to install. Recently, the business took part in a raffle at a different local event. “People had to put down their name, email and number,” Smith explained. “Anyone who didn’t win the raffle, we sent them an email and said, ‘Hi, you didn’t win, but if you’re still interested in getting a remote start, you can have $50 off.”

Although this was a good incentive, Smith said not a single person responded to the offer. “We’re going to do it again. Maybe we’ll have different results this time.”

Connecting with the Community Through Charity and Events This year, the TowneBank Norfolk In-Water Boat Show was supposed to happen during September but was rescheduled for November because of Hurricane Florence. As long as everything goes according to plan, Sound Wave Customs will be participating for the first time. The business is also taking part in the Coastal Virginia Auto Show, also held in November.

In early December—this will be their sixth year—Sound Wave Customs will hold a show at their location, with about 60 to 80 cars in attendance, with trophies, food vendors and Santa Claus available to take photos with the children. “All the proceeds go to the Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters here in Virginia,” Blau said. The shop also does a toy drive. “We start advertising probably early November. We have donation boxes and we bring in other businesses. The idea is for people to donate brand new toys, and we take them to the kids. We had whole landscaping trailers full of toys [last time]. There are kids in there who are terminally ill that don’t get to leave the hospital. We try to bring them some joy.”

Mobile Toys also takes part in charities. They begin prepping for the holiday season in October. According to Pate, the business reviews what they did last year to find out what worked best and what didn’t work. “We start thinking about new campaigns. We go through different charities. We do two or three different charities each year,” Pate said. “We either sponsor Toys for Tots, or something else for kids, and we decide which ones.” Pate added that it’s easy to feel inundated during the holiday season because there are so many options when it comes to choosing which charities to contribute to.

Taking Advantage of the Weather

When it comes to remote starters, though, Pate said they don’t sell very many. “We do more during spring and summer than the rest of the year. I always joke that the shops up north probably do more in a week than I do in a quarter,” he added. “We probably do one per week. It’s fairly steady all year long and picks up during the spring. The heat drives people in. They want the automated AC.”

For Fenix Audio, remote start season is an important time of year. “It’s about 80 percent of our revenue in the winter months,” Mease said, adding that the business utilizes mainly Google Adwords, Facebook and Instagram. Fenix Audio stocks up on inventory to prepare, ordering ahead of time during regional trainings. “Most of our remote starters we buy 50 or 60 at a time,” Mease added.

At ACT Audio, between Smith and Thomas, they’re able to complete a lot of remote start installs quickly. “From Thanksgiving to Christmas, and a little beyond, I become a full-time installer and we double up the work,” Smith said, adding that for the rest of the year, he doesn’t do as much installing himself. “This year, we’re definitely putting in a large order so we’ll be fully stocked and ready to go and we won’t have to worry about back-order stuff.” He stated that customers have already begun to inquire about remote starters this season.

When they need extra help, ACT Audio calls on previous employees with whom they have maintained good relationships. “They come in and help out,” Smith said.

Ehdaivand anticipates much higher sales on remote starters this season at Absolute Electronix, where they are expanding into the Omega brand of remote starters. The business also carries Fortin.

Rather than hiring additional workers, he said they simply extend appointment times. “We’ll go three weeks out instead of two weeks out,” he said. “We try to work a little bit more and pay the guys extra instead of bringing someone else in.”

He advised that business owners should be original about their ideas. “Play it until it doesn’t work,” he added. “That’s the key to success for us, for most of what we do.”