KnowledgeFest Dallas 2019: Celebrating 25 Years

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

KnowledgeFest Dallas began with packed classrooms—standing room only—with attendees listening in through open classroom doors. This year marked KnowledgeFest’s 10th anniversary in Dallas, and the 25th anniversary of KnowledgeFest overall. The show floor was sold out with manufacturers on-site to educate, answer questions and show off new products.

At the awards banquet, when Marketing Pros was named Rep Firm of the Year, Pete Daley pointed out that fear of failure “is paralyzing to some of us.” He went on to say, “Looking around the room, [I know] most of us have all had doubt. We’re not immune to it. But what I see [here] is the strength you have to focus on the bullseye of success.” The struggles along the way, and learning from mistakes, he said, are all part of the process. “You must believe in yourself,” he added. With this year’s keynote speaker, the Retail Doctor Bob Phibbs, attendees were also challenged to look differently at their businesses.

The Retail Doctor is in the House

Saturday morning began with the keynote address and included several exercises designed to demonstrate how people interact with one another, and to help them recognize how they manage their businesses and what they could do differently. “Fix the experience before you try to market yourself,” Phibbs advised. In one exercise, everyone in attendance made a paper airplane and wrote a price on the airplane before throwing them toward the stage. Phibbs read off a few of the numbers.

“What’s the difference between these?” he said. “Did the price make a difference? No. Price does not make good value. We are stuck in the world of saying, ‘It’s a discount, it’s on sale,’ and we advertise that, and then we get upset when our customers complain about the price. Price doesn’t make something a good value,” he added. “People do.”

Phibbs challenged the audience to look differently at how they approach customer service. “Products are just souvenirs of a great experience,” he continued. “We get in trouble when we think it’s all about the souvenirs. People buy people first.”

The focus, he explained, is to appeal to a potential customer’s sense of wonder. “That takes skill. The goal is to connect with their heart, not just their head. Sales is something you do with someone, not something you do to someone.”

Putting this into practice, he said, means training people to communicate. “It really comes down to three parts: engage the stranger, discover the shopper and make a customer. You already have the product knowledge. It’s the soft skills you need.”

In the keynote address, Bob Phibbs underscored the importance of selling an experience—not just a product.

Industry Awards Presents a New Year of Talent and Possibilities

This year’s Top Sales Professional, Jayson Cook, advised, “Start at the top and work your way down.” And most importantly, “Never judge a book by its cover. You never know [a person’s] story.”

The awards event on Sunday evening began with introductions by Chris Cook, president of MEA, and Solomon Daniels, editor-in-chief of Mobile Electronics magazine. “Whatever you’ve done in your career, in your personal life, whether it’s good, whether it’s bad, it’s brought you here,” Daniels said. “It’s made you who you are today. So, there should be no regrets. Those things make you who you are and define how people think about you moving forward. Make good decisions.”

Matt Schaeffer, who was named Installer of the Year in 2016, addressed the crowd when Sound FX was called up to accept the award for Retailer of the Year, Single Store: “No matter what, learn a new skillset,” he said. “Go back and learn something new.”

Last year’s Installer of the Year, David Cruz, helped present the award by encouraging attendees to apply themselves and continue to acquire new skills. Cruz echoed Schaeffer’s advice. “I appreciate the industry for everything it’s done for me. I think we can all agree that applying yourself is the most important thing you can do,” he said. “For me, it has been. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t [continue to] apply myself to doing something better and learning something new.”

Although Installer of the Year Tim Baillie wasn’t present to accept his award, he later said, “I thought winning an IASCA World Title was the highlight of my 30-year career, but this is by far the coolest thing ever because I have been chasing is for 30 years.”

Matt Vowell reflected on his being named Installer of the Year Runner-Up, and stated, “I knew that even though the quality of my work was good, there were many ways I could have improved. I started with improving my documentation and organization of all of the work that I did. I also learned a ton of new methods for my fabrication processes which in turn allowed my creativity to grow to a level higher than I ever had before.”

Vowell didn’t expect to make it to the Top 12 at all, he said, adding, “This year I plan on expanding my knowledge base even further, and fine-tuning my installation methods. When the competition rolls around next year, I will be more prepared.” Vowell intends to continue pursuing Installer of the Year. “It’s a huge opportunity to improve yourself and the work you do,” he said. “These awards benefit not only the individual winners or the stores, but the entire industry.”

Self-improvement and the overall growth of the industry remained the continued theme. Nick Frazier said being named this year’s Trusted Tech was the result of a lot of personal growth. “Getting there was done by being unselfish with the knowledge accumulated over the years in an industry that I’ve always loved and have a passion for,” he said. “Years ago [I realized] that sharing and trying to make other technicians better could have a positive impact in a more substantial way than just keeping it to myself. It took a lot of growing up to come to that realization. To be recognized by my peers for doing that is truly humbling and I am greatly appreciative for it.”

In his keynote address, the Retail Doctor challenged everyone to take a look at the way they might greet a friend they’d known for 20 years, versus a customer they’d just met. The common response to greeting a friend was to give them a hug. “Would you agree,” Phibbs said, “there’s a lot better energy when you just open your heart to someone? That’s what we’re talking about. How do we open our hearts to another human being?”

Last year’s Installer of the Year, David Cruz, helped introduce Tim Baillie as this year’s winner.

Despite being unable to attend, Kimon Bellas was presented with the prestigious Career Achievement Award. Friends and colleagues accepted the award on his behalf.

What’s New for KnowledgeFest

Next year, KnowledgeFest will be coming to Orlando, Fla., making it a fully coast-to-coast event. Each event has something unique to offer, such as this

year’s special listening room in the convention center, which presented demonstrations of home theater products. In keeping with extra-special attractions from years past—the most recent being the Atrend jet that took up significant show floor space in 2018—Orca Design and Manufacturing set up an acoustically-treated listening room to showcase Focal’s flagship home audio speakers.

Dubbed the “Million-Dollar” Audio System” listening event, it hosted 20 show attendees at a time in half-hour segments throughout the show’s three days. More than 200 retailers reserved seats to listen to the pair of Focal Grand Utopia speakers and Naim Statement amplifiers, as well as Focal’s 40th anniversary edition Spectral 40s and the company’s full line of high-end headphones.

“We worked with Focal’s home audio reps to bring a special experience to KnowledgeFest,” said Nalaka Adikari, director of sales at Orca, which is the U.S. distributor of Focal’s car audio line. “The great thing is, it wasn’t just for our dealers. Everyone was welcome, and we even set aside special sessions for other vendors.”

Orca Design and Manufacturing hosted a unique “listening event” in which participants could explore products such as Focal’s Grand Utopia speakers.

Also unique to this year’s event was the very first Mobile Electronics Women’s Luncheon, which had about 50 attendees. A panel discussion included Rachel Clark of K40, who underscored self-confidence as an important aspect of working in a male-dominated industry. Panelists agreed gaining knowledge and self-confidence was key. “Without that confidence, I don’t think I would have ever stepped out,” she said.

Unique to this year was the first Mobile Electronics Women’s Luncheon, which had about 50 attendees and a panel discussion.

On Saturday evening, Sony, DOW Electronics and MEA sponsored a 25th anniversary concert, hosted by the House of Blues. More than 250 MEA members attended, and Chris Weaver of the Chris Weaver Band popped a cork on a champagne bottle to celebrate. A relaxing, fun evening was enjoyed by all in attendance.

At the awards banquet, Daniels reminded attendees that reaching for the top awards in the industry need not be about creating a world-class video. “We’re in a creative business, and we just apply it to cars, but we can apply that to anything,” he said. “Get better because you should get better. This is what we do.”