Difference Makers: Dynamic Sales and Marketing

WORDS BY JAMIE SORCHER

Known for its diverse wildlife, retirees, and citrus, Florida is also home to Dynamic Sales & Marketing in Port Richey.

Covering Florida and Puerto Rico, Dynamic also does some business in the Caribbean. The predominance of the action is in Florida which Schneid said can sometimes feel like more than one state.

“I always tell people that Florida is like three states within itself,” he said. “You have Dade and Broward County which has a very different culture than the Panhandle and Jacksonville region, and that is completely different than the whole I-4 [Orlando] corridor. From the rep’s point of view, it is three different cultures in this territory at a minimum.”

Sales Consultants Manage a Vast Region

Territories are managed by sales reps, but Schneid uses a different term. “I call them sales consultants,” he said. “That’s a big part of it—the consulting—as well as the sales. Half my time, I work for the vendor and half my time I work for the dealer. Some people might tell you that the vendors are more important because they’re the ones who send you the check, but in this business everyone is equal in the relationship. One is not more important than the other. I may represent the best product, but if I don’t have any customers to buy it, than I’m not going to make them any money.”

JC Iglesias has handled the Miami territory for nine years. He is bilingual and has experience that runs deep in both the retail and distribution channels.

In Orlando, sales consultant Bruno Maffucci oversees the region. “I worked with Bruno prior to starting my company,” Schneid said. “A long time ago, Bruno had a retail store and an expediting business in Miami. He ended up back in the Orlando area and has worked with me for over 17 years in that marketplace.”

What Schneid said he strives for with vendors and dealers is to be a good partner. “I want to be in business for the long term,” he said. “It’s not about hitting a quota this month or a quota this quarter—it’s about long-term business.”

The Next Generation of a Family Company

Formed in 2002, Dynamic Sales and Marketing evolved from Ron Schneid & Associates, a sales rep firm founded in 1975 by John’s father, Ron.

“He started in the mid-70s and then evolved into the mobile electronics business,” Schneid said. “He was selling Citizen Band (CB) radios and when that was transitioning out, he started getting into mobile audio.”

At 16 years of age, “I was the young guy who was passionate about car audio,” Schneid added. “I was around my dad’s business, so met all of these people when they came in. I would go on the road with my dad for trainings and I would even do installations. Yeah, I was installing car stereos when I was in high school.”

Schneid graduated high school, went to college for a few years and then the inevitable happened. “My dad asked me if I wanted to start traveling—and I said yes—so I was on the road. I attended my first CES in Las Vegas when I was 20. Eventually, my father started to take a more reduced role in being on the road, hired another guy and essentially made me the sales manager.”

Schneid’s father passed away in 2002, he said. “The business was run as a sole proprietorship. When the sole proprietor dies, so does the business. So almost 17 years ago, I went to the vendors we represented and said, ‘Here’s your opportunity: I’m going to start a new company.’ Well, all the vendors stayed with me, I hired more people, and I moved the office from where my dad lived to where I lived.”

Connecting In-Person to Build Relationships

Some things come naturally to Schneid and traveling is one of them. “I have always done it,” he said. “I like to do four days on the road and three in the office. That can vary a bit, but you’ve really got to have the face time. That’s what the vendors want us to do, otherwise they could just hire people to telemarket. We need to go out, get into the stores, give advice and make recommendations—along with show the gear and talk about it.”

Schneid said things are more complex because they’re presenting the product on a weekly basis rather than installing it. “Today it’s becoming more of a responsibility to completely understand the technology and the application.”

To take it a step further, Schneid said, vendors must step up with things like tech support. “If a guy is putting in a car alarm or a remote start for the first time in a 2019 vehicle and he asks me to help him, the reality is that I can’t because I haven’t been in that situation myself,”

Schneid explained. “I have to rely on the manufacturer who has an incredible tech staff to support me with that. This is a big part of where the business is with brands you represent. I have to rely on my manufacturer to be able to provide that extra advice and guidance to cover where we have our limitations.”

Above all, Schneid said, honesty is what rules with vendor relationships. “When I am contacted by a vendor who wants to develop a relationship, I first look at how viable a product is, and how much business there is in the category.” Then he has to be sure the vendor leaves enough profit for the dealers he’s calling on, he added. “I don’t have an Internet monster. Amazon doesn’t buy in my territory. Crutchfield doesn’t buy in my territory. I don’t want to take anything away from them. They are very good at what they do. But the problem is that you must have a vendor who looks out for the specialty dealer or expediter— and who is knowledgeable.”

According to Schneid, dealers are wary of products that can be shopped aggressively online. “When you sit down with a dealer to present product to him, the first thing he will do is go to Amazon, which is what the consumer does, to find out how much he would be paying for that widget, Schneid said.

Once they establish whether the line is profitable, he added, they address what’s important to the buyer at the time.

“We start with profit, then we might talk about what the programs are—how much do they have to do to buy in—how much the freight program is, how warranties are handled and tech support. With any unique product that might be more difficult to install, there is the question of how we address those challenges. Once all of that is worked out, we partner with the dealer on how to merchandise the product. How do they present it to the consumer? How do we help them market it not only in the store, but on social media?”

Dynamic has a long-standing 30-year relationship with Kicker. Here, the manufacturer displays its marine tower speakers.

Combining Top-Tier Product with Solid Partnerships

Dynamic represents 10 brands: Alpine, Arc Audio, AudioControl, Directed, Dynamat, Redenso Radar, Kicker, Orca (Focal, Mosconi, Gladen, Illusion and Blackhole), Wet Sounds and XS Power Batteries.

“If you look at my portfolio of brands, I have an A-tier, Japanese source unit, amplifier and speaker company in Alpine, and that is a pretty big anchor right there,” Schneid said. “We put a lot of energy into that relationship to get it in the right direction. I represent one of the premier security companies in Directed who I have had for nine years. I have the brand that is synonymous with sound-dampening—Dynamat.”

Redenso Radar is a recent addition. “I’ve personally worked with Kicker for over 30 years, a long-standing relationship with A-tier speakers and amplifiers.

We are new to Orca—within a year—but I have always had a specialty type brand in my mix. We have worked with Wet Sounds for almost eight years.”

In Florida, he added, the marine category is mandatory. “XS Power Batteries is an accessory company. It’s a smaller category, but one that you have to offer.”

At the end of the day, Schneid said, product is product. “When you make a cake, all the ingredients make it taste great,” he said. “It’s the same thing with my relationships with my dealer base. I represent 10 brands and I have to look at the positives these brands bring. We have resigned multiple lines or parted ways with certain vendors in the last year, but if the fit isn’t right, you don’t force it.”

Offering Solid Support to Retailers

For retailers who want to work with Dynamic, it’s pretty straightforward. “Here’s what I ask them: Are you ready to buy directly from a manufacturer?” Schneid said. “I’m not a stocking rep. In my territory, you are either a good rep or a good distributor. Very few guys have perfected it to where they can do both well simultaneously. In Florida, I just don’t think there is a successful mobile electronics stocking rep firm. It has been done successfully in a number of territories, but not in the state of Florida.”

Trainings are a big part of what Dynamic offers its dealers. “We constantly invite our manufacturers to come down because they have the resources,” Schneid said. “We also have a brand specialist that lives in my territory. We can give a lot of fine-tuned training with Alpine just based on having a brand specialist based in Florida. It’s a major resource. We did a grand opening with a retailer and had Directed here for three days of training.”

More than the trainings or tech support, though, it’s about building relationships and nurturing connections by stopping in to see dealers as much as possible. “We could just post pictures on social media or send out emails, or text everyone—and all of that works, but you still have to visit the dealer,” he added. “You can’t sit in an office and do everything remotely. You have to be able to do all of the above.”