Finaly Got A Shop ... Now Need Input.

that is easy

Seperate the 2 Completly


I know ALOT of Online Dealers that Run Local Shop, and you can not tell


the use a PO box or their HOME address as the "offical" address for the onlline shop etc etc

some of them even have 2 web site, one for the local shop, one for the online catalog

pretty easy to do.........

 

Adire would be a fun challenge, I think...
Challenge in that you are right, the locals might not be familiar... but then again, I'm sure people in Boca are online too...
But fun, because there's enough product integrity that if you can just get a little education in their ear, it could be an easy sale.
A poster on the wall giving a very brief introduction to BL curves, for example. Maybe a couple DUMAX comparisons to keep on-hand. You could always get things DUMAXed yourself, it's not that expensive.

Before you do anything though, before selecting brands, you need to identify who your customer is though.
If the people walking in your door see what they want, they'll buy it.
If they don't, they won't.
You need to know who's going to be walking in the door, and cater to that.
And then you also need to strategize how you are going to get the people in your door that you DO want to come in.
Really the same thing... chicken, then egg... then chicken. B)

Once you identify who the customers are, then it might be pretty apparent what brands you should carry to cater to them.

But EVERY shop that I've ever visited, who carried the higher end products alongside of the cheaper products - even flea-market type - said the cheaper products flew out the door, while the higher end sales were fewer and farther between.

Just something to ponder, you likely want a mix...
Some cheap stuff to be your "bread and butter" volume sellers...
Some high-end stuff to maintain your shop's high-end image that you want.

Consider the newbie enthusiast... everyone starts out with crap, right?
My first amp was a $20 mobile authority 20x2 amp that was probably an optimistic rating, and a "ghetto blaster" style sub box with a grab handle at the top and plastic piezo tweeters, and a pair of no-name eights that I bet I didn't pay $40 for.. because that's all I could afford at 16, and thought "why would I buy that stuff that's 5x more expensive?"

You want to carry the cheap stuff to sell to the newbie... who'd otherwise simply walk out, frustrated that they couldn't afford anything...
Consider this though:
Those are your future high-end product customers.
Cater to them, and bring them up.
Some of them won't stick around, some of them won't advance... but some of them will, and those will be your high-end customers. Loyal customers, at that point. B)

Very few people start out with their first system being a high-end system...
And of those people who do... it's often high-end product, without any real install strategy to get high-end results.

Wouldn't it be fun to hold DIY-installer seminars for some of those low-end newbies, get them to create ideal-type installs, and then upgrade the gear into more ideal installations?
Alright, now my imagination is just going crazy.

 

man, i wish shops would have that here!

 

There's a new shop (started ealier last spring) that actually was planning on doing SQ clinics using both hearing, and the AudioControl and print off the response chart graph, give the people some suggestions on how to improve imaging/ stage, and freq response. All this for $25 a person.... we're planning on doing it every tuesday. I was never able to make it due to work, but i really wanted to.
Funny thing, i introduced that manager to Adire..... he replaced some 12" subs in some Tower Speakers(HT) with some Shiva's and ABSOLUTELY LOVED THEM... he was thinking about throwing dual Brahma10's in small sealed boxes in his mustang, but haven't been able to reach him at work since early last summer. So i don't know if he ever did.
He prolly would've picked up adire for the store.... but he actually didn't own the place, just ran it, and the owner was pretty set in the brands to carry already.

Anyways.... i still plan on doing the SQ thing with them, but not untill i get everything installed. still got my AC EQT's and 2XS and a bunch of fiberglassing to do until i'm ready... hopefully by summer i'll be ready.

 

Didn't read all the posts but doesn't phonix produce higher quality products?

 

Phoenix Gold makes Entry Level to High end (well high end mainstream) products.


However they have been focusing more on the Entry and mid level, For instance they have Discontinued their High end Amplifier lines, they on have the mid level Octane R's lets now...