What’s Happening: Sony Bootcamp

WORDS BY SOLOMON DANIELS

My View: Leave the Bosses at Home

Sony Car Audio brings its distributor sales professionals together for the fourth annual Sales Boot Camp, with a little MECP on the side.

It wasn’t the sales meeting I was expecting. There were no suits, no polite conversations, no corporate feel. Then again, maybe I should not have anticipated a snooty affair. We’re talking about Sony Car Audio after all.

It was this kind of banter that set the tone for an informative, educational and occasionally raucous fourth annual Sony Boot Camp. Held at the Chicago Marriott Suites O’Hare, the event welcomed 52 attendees from the brand’s specialty distribution partners. (If you didn’t know, Sony uses distribution for 100 percent of its specialty sales.) Distribution sales manager Anthony Tozzi and head of sales Rick Kojan hosted for the event, backed by six members of the Sony car audio team.

The two-day meeting opened like old friends getting together. Though many were competitors, in this room they were all colleagues. Kojan counted 11 first-year attendees, who were welcomed by 17 two year, 14 three-year and eight four-year veterans. The emphasis of the event was on learning while having fun, he said. And that’s what happened. Jokes and laughter often interrupted speakers, with playful insults flying back and forth. Then Tozzi got up and attendees “bet” on how long he would go over the two-day event before saying a certain four-letter word during his presentations. (Was there money involved? I don’t recall.)

Boots on the Ground

There were two aspects of this event that caught my attention. First was the audience. It wasn’t a gathering of distributor presidents, general managers and owners. This wasn’t meant to be a schmooze-fest. These were people on the front lines—the sales staff who work the phones and beat the street to interface directly with retailers on behalf of the Sony brand.

While that is unique, it’s also a good thing whenever distributors are involved. They are often the forgotten entity of our industry, much less their sales professionals. God Bless Mike Van Horn for being one of the few to tell their stories, even posting an annual distributor show calendar that has become a staple in our small industry. But the blame for this can be evenly dispersed, as most distributors prefer to quietly rep their brands, sell their products and service their local dealers.

It’s been only in the past few years that distributors have begun to join the herd. Davis Distribution made the first official appearance for a distributor at a KnowledgeFest event at the Indianapolis KnowledgeFest in 2016, and did so in a big way, inviting clients and show attendees alike to its after-hours event. That trend is continuing with two distributors attending this year’s Dallas show. (A point of order: distributors don’t actually show product at KnowledgeFest events per the rules, but instead act as concierges for their dealers, taking them around the show floor to visit their client vendors.) And the Mobile Electronics Association (MEA), which owns KnowledgeFest, is working to make it easier for distributors to become a significant part of the show series.

The second thing that caught my attention was the announcement that, for the first time, attendees would be taking the Mobile Product Specialist Certification test from MECP. And throughout the sometimes-spontaneous hilarity of the first day, there was an undercurrent of worry: The group would receive only a cursory crash course training session from Kris Bulla, national trainer for Sony.

Bulla, like a few other multi-talented professionals in our industry, chooses to spread his value beyond his employer— with his employer’s blessings, of course. He currently heads the Mobile Electronics Certified Professional program. He and Tozzi concocted the idea to provide attendees with exposure to the test, with those who passed receiving real-life certification.

MECP is at a crossroads, in my opinion. Though it’s been around for more than 25 years and, for most of that time, has been the industry’s only certification body, it has struggled to gain acceptance among specialty retailers and technicians, which means there is even less brand awareness among consumers. What’s worse, since it has been adopted by big-box stores like Best Buy—which are not known for doing anything complicated beyond the typical radio or alarm install—it’s received an unfair reputation of being worthless for representing true talent and expertise.

Of course, that was never its intent.

Bulla, who has held MECP Master-level certification for 15 years and took over in 2018, hopes to change the perception. And as a magazine, we support the effort. The May 2019 issue of Mobile Electronics saw the re-emergence of the MECP page, which lists newly-certified professionals and provides information on the value of certification. But for consumer awareness, there is no pot o’ gold that will pay for nationwide, targeted campaigns. We all know the means of creating awareness and value for MECP lies with the people with whom consumers interface: the dealers.

Which is why it was pretty cool to have distributor salespeople take the test. Even as a recipient of this non-technical certification, they could use their dealer relationships to relay the value of the program.

No Runners From the Real Deal

Prior to the review and test, Tozzi and Kojan presented a frank sales outlook for 2019. No rosy pictures were painted as the duo outlined the fallout from shortage of high-quality seven-inch screens, as well as other circumstances that could make for a challenging year.

And this is when you could see the fruits of the team’s labor. I’ve only been at one other event—the M.E.S.A. (Mobile Electronics Specialists of America) Summit in Denver—where the camaraderie among all participants was this strong. M.E.S.A. has a unique structure in which all participants must do well for any of them to do well. In contrast, this boot camp had a vendor talking to a bunch of salespeople who could choose to offer anything on their warehouse shelves, including competitive products. Yet, the nodding heads showed they were all in. Conversations didn’t dwell on what other brands they would sell more easily, but how they would put forth the effort to defy expectations with THIS brand. It was a sign of the strong rapport built between the Sony Car Audio team and their dealer representatives.

Bowling, Building, Try Not to Bomb

Outside the meeting room, attendees got to experience Sony’s upcoming XAV-AX7000 radio—which is known for its impressive internal amplification—in a 2018 Subaru Impreza built by team member and accomplished fabricator Jared Bahley. In addition to front components and rear coaxials, a pair of 10-inch subwoofers were run off the radio’s internal power, and to my ears, it was an impressive step up from factory. Beer and bowling were part of the evening agenda, and while I was getting schooled on arcade hoops, I managed to meet a lot of cool, passionate industry professionals.

On day two, attendees were treated to other presenters from the Sony Car Audio team, and I was honored to be included in the roster as guest speaker. Prior to the event, I sent a survey out to all attendees asking about their jobs, traits of best and worst customers, and where they felt their rapport levels were with each customer. My presentation comprised evaluating survey results and keying in on strategies to build retailer rapport by taking an active part in the problem-solving process.

And then there was the MECP test, for which three hours were allotted. Sony footed the bill for the exam fees, which run $85 per person for the Product Specialist test. Bulla wouldn’t share the results with me—or anybody, for that matter—no matter what promises I made or how well I spoke of the Tennessee Titans. But he did say that 54 percent of test-takers passed with only the short review. Each was immediately informed of their pass / fail status upon completion, and those who did not pass can take the test again…though on their own dime.

The Niche Works

It turns out Tozzi lasted only six hours and 50 minutes before dropping the F-bomb, to the delight of all those who wagered. From what I’ve been told, he’s failed every year, which means free money for those who bet—allegedly, of course. If I’m invited back next year, I may add some alleged thickness to my wallet in anticipation.

I’m always highly supportive when anyone in our industry reaches out to help another. Most of us started as hobbyists and learned the business side from people who were willing to put our industry ahead of personal concerns. Sony didn’t have to do this. They could have just hounded or incentivized distributor principals to perform and let them deal with their own staff performance. The team’s often brash, no-punches-pulled, non-PC approach raises the eyebrows of outsiders, but seems to bring brings those in the fold even closer. It doesn’t work for every brand, but with the right combination of insight and personality, it does with this team.