Selling Vehicle Safety Systems

Vision Zero is dedicated to raising awareness about the importance of safety equipment in vehicles. Join us as we highlight these technologies and discuss sales strategies retailers can implement today.

WORDS BY DAVE MACKINNON

Successful mobile electronics retailers need to be a jack-of-all-trades—and yes, dare I say it, masters. While many of us love creating bespoke audio systems that combine creativity and unique fabrication techniques, just as many retailers excel at remote starter installations or lighting upgrades. One category which deserves more exposure and emphasis is vehicle safety. While these aren’t glamorous, bragged-about upgrades, they serve a higher purpose. They prevent accidents and injuries. Additionally, they also help when it comes to ringing the register.

The Vision Zero Automotive Network is a registered non-profit organization—501(c)3—and it’s dedicated to eliminating injuries and deaths caused by motor vehicle accidents. Vision Zero works with safety-system manufacturers, retailers and the press to get Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) into consumer vehicles. Vision Zero has partnered with Mobile Electronics magazine and MEA to publish a series of articles that highlight the technologies available to retailers to help achieve the goal of eliminating up to 10,000 of the 40,000 deaths that occur on our roads and highways.

What is Vehicle Safety Technology?

Any feature or technology that can prevent an accident is a vehicle safety solution. By extension, any device which can record or document an event is also quite helpful. Our job of providing our clients with safe vehicles can be as simple as checking a vehicle’s turn signals, headlights and brake lights when the car or truck is checked in and out of the bay. At the other end of the spectrum, retailers can offer backup cameras, parking sensors, blind spot monitoring systems or forward collision warning system solutions as discrete sales opportunities. Even upgrading a vehicle’s headlights to provide more light on the sides of the road can help drivers see pedestrians and cyclists more easily. From a retailer’s perspective, the best part is that many of these projects are labor-intensive, making them profitable. Quite simply, you are less likely to have someone haggle over the price of a parking sensor system

installation than a pair of replacement door speakers or a CD player they can buy online.

Providing Backup Camera Solutions

Every one of us has installed an aftermarket backup camera with a new multimedia receiver. They are an intuitive add-on sale to a new radio and one of the most widely recognized safety systems in the automotive industry. Whether it’s a low-slung sports car, a delivery van or an SUV, being able to see objects behind the vehicle is paramount when backing into a parking space or maneuvering. We know that a child standing behind a pickup truck or an SUV isn’t visible in the rearview mirror. A backup camera is a simple and effective safety solution that can prevent a serious accident. Let’s discuss some easy strategies your store can implement today to increase sales of these products.

Quick Tip #1: Demonstrate Your Confidence in Backup Camera Brands

For retailers, there are a few things you’ll want to keep in mind when choosing camera solutions for your clients. First and foremost, are the systems reliable? There are dozens of cheap cameras on the market that claim to be water-resistant. If the camera is rated IP-68, then it should be dust-tight and it should be able to withstand prolonged immersion in water. Why not drop a camera into a glass of water or mount one in a fish tank in your showroom as a demonstration of your confidence in their reliability?

Selling Parking Sensor Systems

Whether you call them parking sensors or backup sensors, these bumpermounted ultrasonic transceivers and their control modules are some of the least expensive fully active warning solutions

available. The term ‘active’ refers to the fact that users don’t need to remember to look at a screen for the system to work. When an object is behind the vehicle, the system will provide an audible warning to let them know there’s something in the way. The driver will react, whether or not they were paying attention in the first place.

Quick Tip #2: Presenting Parking Sensors in Varying Colors

Offering parking sensors in a variety of colors can help differentiate your solutions from a shop that just sells what they have on the shelf. Depending on the supplier you are dealing with, sensors may be available in several color options. You can certainly customize the installation and dramatically increase your profitability on the project by offering to paint, or have the sensors painted to match the vehicle. Many autobody supply shops will

mix a spray-can of color matched paint so you can paint the sensors yourself.

Educating Your Clients on BlindSpot Monitoring Systems

Blind-Spot monitoring systems are available in two styles—sensor-based solutions and camera systems. These technologies let the driver know when someone is driving beside them in a position not visible to their peripheral vision or side-view mirrors. The solution you offer to your client will depend on the vehicle, its existing technology, and often what’s available from the aftermarket.

In terms of radar-based systems, there are two options. The standard systems use body-mounted transceivers located in the rear corners of the vehicle. These applications require that the car or SUV has plastic bumper covers to let the high-frequency microwave signals pass through unhindered. The second solution is in the form of a license-plate mounted transceiver, which is a good solution for pickup trucks and vans.

For camera-based systems, there needs to be a display available to show the images. These systems use compact cameras which are integrated into the side-view mirror assembly. When the driver activates the turn signal, the camera image appears on the screen. Unlike an active radar-based system, the driver needs to remember to look at the camera image.

Quick Tip #3: Test Blind Spot Elimination Systems Before Installing

If your client has experience driving a vehicle with a blind spot sensor system installed from the factory, they will have some expectations in terms of when warnings will be provided. Before you sell a solution, make sure you know it can handle objects which are in a relatively stationary position beside the vehicle, or objects which move into or out of the blind spot. These products aren’t all created equally, and it’s worth investing some time in testing the systems you plan to offer before you do the first installation.

Forward Collision Avoidance Solutions

Technologies that can predict an accident vary greatly in their price points and corresponding accuracy. The simplest of solutions are dashcams that include ADAS features. Many models also include lane departure warnings, but take note that these systems don’t interface with the vehicle turn signals, so they will provide an alert even if the lane change is intentional.

More advanced ADAS solutions require some level of calibration after installation so the system knows its position relative to the boundaries of the vehicle and can better calculate the position and size of objects moving toward that space.

Quick Tip #4: Nothing Beats a Demonstration

While you might be able to display the hardware for a camera-based ADAS solution in your store, it’s difficult to convey just how these systems work without a demonstration. Here’re two options. You can add a video of a system providing alerts to your vehicle safety display. An inexpensive Android tablet can be had for under $200 and it will likely include a camera you can use to capture the video. Heck, you can even edit the video together and include some title screens right there on the touchscreen.

The second option—which is significantly more powerful—is to have an available vehicle equipped with the solutions you want to sell. In the same way that demonstrating an audio upgrade is immersive in a vehicle, being able to show customers how these warning systems work in the vehicle is also a great idea. Some shops around the country have equipped their loaner vehicles with several safety systems to expose their clients to the technology.

Take the Time to Upgrade Your Safety Game

Any time you can attract a different type of client to your store, you’ve opened the door to a whole new world of selling opportunities. If someone is looking for a backup camera, but notices your remote car starter, floor mat, truck accessory or dashcam display, that information will at the very least remain in their subconscious. When someone needs that solution, you’ll get a free referral.

This means marketing the different

safety solutions you offer is crucial to growing the category. Make sure everything is clearly labeled with titles that are intuitive and easy to read from several feet away. Fine print isn’t going to help you here.

Lastly, if you’re serious about selling safety solutions, make sure you’ve registered with Vision Zero as a Preferred Retailer to get your business listed on their site. You can find the application by following this link: https://vzan.org/ preferred-retailer-application. There is no cost to submit a request or to have your store listed.

Be sure to join us over the next few months as we take a closer look at the top vehicle safety system technologies currently available. We’ll also provide additional sales and installation tips to help ensure your clients get the solutions they need.

Dave MacKinnon has worked in the mobile electronics industry since 1988 in almost every capacity, including roles as a Retail Salesperson, Installer, Sales Representative, Technical Trainer and Product

Development Manager for some of the largest car audio companies in the world. Dave started his writing career in 2000 as the Technical Editor of a Toronto-based car audio magazine and has reviewed more than 450 products. Formally trained as an Electronics Technician, Dave is considered an industry expert when it comes to explaining how mobile audio components work, and he has crafted thousands of articles to share that knowledge. He’s currently the Head Writer for 1sixty8 media and the Editor-inChief at BestCarAudio.com.