Difference Makers
WORDS BY JAMIE SORCHER
From Fan to Founder Scott Baughman took a lifelong love of car stereo and put down roots with his firm, Reliable Product Marketing. It’s not an unfamiliar tale in the car stereo world. A hobbyist who loves car audio ends up working in his dream retail store. And so the story goes for Scott Baughman, founder and owner of Stockton, Calif.-based Reliable Product Marketing (RPM). “I was the ultimate fan boy of the industry,” Baughman said. “I was the kid who would drive around to different car stereo stores to see what other shops were doing. I was the kid who went to every car stereo contest and every car show. I was just living the lifestyle. I eventually went to work for the shop that I bought all my stuff from.” When he was working at Sears, the owner of the car audio shop in which he spent a lot of time came in and asked him if he wanted a job. “Two weeks later, I was working for the shop,” he said. “I was hired originally as a gopher. I had rudimentary installation skills, but a strong woodworking background, so I could fabricate and do things like that. I also had some sales skills from my days at Sears
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because they put me through some intensive sales and customer service training. “ While Baughman started in retail in the early ‘90s and worked his way up to managing the store, he ultimately ran his course at retail. “It’s a pretty typical story—and then you can either buy a store, open a store or become a rep. And I chose to become a rep,” he added. “I went to work for a rep company and then there was the big crash of 2007. I had an opportunity to open my own company, and now I am 10 years into it.”
Not just the “A” game Reliable Product Marketing (norcalrpm.com) covers northern California (north of what is known as the Grapevine) up to the Oregon border. The southernmost city in the company’s territory is Porterville. What Baughman finds both challenging and interesting is the unique mix of retailers. “The dealer base available to me is vast—probably one of the most diverse in the country,” he said. “We’ve
got ‘stack ’em high, let ’em fly’ shops, flea market-style shops, guys who are selling at the actual flea market, mom-and-pops, multi-store chains and regional chains.” Along with these different types of stores are varying levels of ability which Baughman classifies as A, B, C and D dealers. “An A dealer is competent at selling product and offers a great customer experience. Or maybe that A dealer is a shop with a super cool fabricator who pumps out great work that ends up in the magazines all the time,” he said. “Then you go down the line. Maybe that D dealer is the kind of shop that tends to rip people off and has zero yelp reviews. The way my lines come together, I tend to deal with the A and B dealers. I currently don’t have a product mix that fits the C and D stores.”
Helping Retailers Move Beyond Comfort Zones The qualities that Baughman looks for in retailers doesn’t follow a steadfast rule, he said. “I’m looking for an opportunity
