Sales Pro of the Year: Bridging the Gap

Bridging the Gap While helping clients turn their dreams into reality, Sales Pro of the Year Jayson Cook hopes to give back by teaching and helping foster better communication between salespeople and installers.

WORDS BY ROSA SOPHIA

For most of his career, Jayson Cook has been with Columbus Car Audio and Accessories in Columbus, Ohio. After attending Mobile Dynamics in 1996 with the intention of becoming an installer, Cook started working in sales in 1998 instead. He left once—for about a year— and worked as an installer, but returned to the sales floor.

“When I started in sales, I just ran with it,” he said. “A good friend of mine was a box builder, so everyone around the neighborhood went to him to build boxes, and I helped him a lot with that. A lot of people knew of me, so when I started selling, they were coming in the front door.”

Although he hadn’t intended to become a salesperson, Cook said, “I love this industry. I love cars and audio in general, so what I love about sales is that I’m able to put dream systems together for people and use their money to do it. You get to see their reaction. A lot of the technicians don’t get to see that—the end user getting excited about it. I think my passion overflows into the sales process. People pick up on that and start to get pumped up about what they can do. I have embraced sales over the years.”

Continuous changes in technology require continuous evolution for the salesperson, according to Cook, who noted that it used to be the norm to say, “Let’s change that radio out.” It was the first step, he said. “I’ve got a Model S Tesla back here. There’s no way we could change that. Who would want to change that? I just did an amazing system in a 2020 Ram, and it’s the same thing. It’s got that 12-inch tablet style radio, and I would be stupid to tell the guy, ‘Let’s change that radio out and put this little 7-inch touchscreen in,’ or even a floating Halo 9-inch.”

OEM integration is a huge focus, he added. “For me, I’m pitching doing a 5-channel amplifier and a sub to start out, not even touching the speakers because the most difference I see for my clients is when we add a sub. I can put a $3,000 set of front stage components in there, and they’re like, ‘Oh, okay, yeah,’ and then as soon as we put a sub in there, they say, ‘That’s what I was after.’”

Another challenge, he added, involves easy access to information. “When I was young and just getting into this, I had Crutchfield and JC Whitney catalogs. Now you can Google so much stuff. You really have to know what you’re doing, and you have to be able to give that customer the experience.” Creating an experience for the customer is a main focus for the sales team at Columbus Car Audio.

While customers are more educated, he added, they may be more overwhelmed because of the amount of information available. This requires the salesperson to be quick on their feet.

“You have to learn how to adapt. I was told early on in my career that you kind of have to be a chameleon. Everyone is different. You never know what you’re getting. Just because one guy is in a suit and driving a Porsche and the other guy’s driving an old custom vehicle, it doesn’t make them any different. At the end of the day, they’re still people and they’re still wanting what we have to offer,” Cook said. “You have to figure out how to relate to them.”

Cook uses top-down selling to educate the customer and help them decide what they want. “I see myself as just another guy who’s helping somebody out. I start at the top and work my way down. It’s not because the top is the most expensive—it’s because a lot of people who come through this door don’t know what the top is.”

The client may not be aware of what’s available to them, he added, and it’s his job to inform them. “If you come in for a CD player, I’m going to show you one that has navigation because maybe you didn’t know you could get that. We’re going to work our way down, and if we get to a $79 CD player, then that’s fine, but at least you know all the other options that are available. Rather than, ‘Hey, here’s the $79 CD player,’ and you’re done, and they come back a week later saying, ‘You didn’t tell me I could get all this other stuff.’ I like to find solutions.”

When talking with a client, Cook said, “I try to go out to the car. If they come in wanting better sound, you don’t know what it sounds like without going out and listening to it with them,” he explained, adding that he prefers the client show him what they listen to at the volume they most enjoy.

“A lot of guys in the industry have demo tracks they use, and I understand the reasoning, but in my opinion, with music in general, if you put on something I can’t relate to, it’s not going to move me to do anything,” he said. “If I’m showing someone a set of speakers, I may be able to point out the instruments and how clear they are, but it doesn’t matter to them because they don’t listen to that kind of music. I like to listen to whatever the client likes to listen to.”

At Columbus Car Audio, he added, the customer usually decides to go with an amp and sub. “That’s what separates us from just being salespeople. I’m not just clerking boxes, I’m actually trying to find out what will be the best solution for you. I love big-ticket sales—that’s how we make money—but at the same time,

I don’t just want to sell you something. I am not just going to sell you this because I make more money on it,” he said. “I’m going to sell you this because this is the solution you need.”

Last year in Mobile Electronics magazine, the shop shared a red semi build they had just finished. “The guy came in a few months ago with a new blue Kenworth semi,” Cook said. “I said to him, ‘What happened to the red one?’ He said, ‘This is my new one. One of my guys is driving the red one.’ I said, ‘Well, you can’t have one of your guys using a better system than you.’”

Columbus Car Audio outfitted the new semi with Hertz products and Rockford amplifiers. “That was a really cool experience. That’s one of my favorite things: Once I build that relationship, the client comes back. They have faith in you. That’s the greatest thing for me. Over the years, we’ve done so much together that I know what they’re after, and they know what I can give them.”

Cook said he still uses Eddy Kay’s sales techniques to train his staff, but salespeople also have to know the technical side of things. “As a salesperson, you need to know what you’re selling, how it works and what makes it work,” he said. “If someone comes in and they have a pair of woofers and they don’t know how to get it wired down to two ohms, you need to be able to show them how to do that and understand it. I think salespeople need to have a little bit of a technical background—not near as much as an installer, but you need to have some of the basics down.”

Cook said he feels there hasn’t been enough of a focus in the industry on how to sell products. “That’s what I wanted to change. I’ve been in the industry a long time and I feel I have a lot to give back, so we started the 12v Sales Pro Facebook group to have a spot for sales. There are lots of technical outlets, but nothing geared toward, ‘How can I sell this better?’” The main goal of the group, he added, is to share sales ideas. The group is still relatively new, and Cook said Elias Ventura—2017 Sales Pro of the Year—has helped a lot. He’s also one of the group admins.

“I can sell products all day long, but if my guys can’t install it, we’re all at fault,” Cook added. “It is a team effort. Once the award came, the staff here threw a little surprise party for me in the conference room. It’s an individual award, but the people behind me make me who I am. I couldn’t do this without the support I have from everyone here, and in the industry. There are so many people who have had my back or pushed me along over the years.”

Recently, Cook taught a class at a sales training in Pennsylvania with one of his reps. “It was a small turnout, I felt, but everyone came up and was telling me how much they got out of it, so that was cool.” He added that his ultimate goal is to train more and continue to grow the sales staff. “I would like to be more involved in training and spend less time on the sales floor.”

At the end of the day, he noted, he just wants to help people get better at selling. “To grow this industry, it has to start in the front of the house as well as in the back. There should be professional salespeople just like there are professional installers. I love that salespeople are getting more of a voice in the industry now.”

He hopes to teach at KnowledgeFest one day with the goal of growing the sales side of the industry. “I would like to discuss communication between the front and back of the store— working with technicians and salespeople to create a better outcome for the client,” he said. “It’s great when techs knows exactly what you’re after, and that comes from working as a team.” Salespeople and technicians don’t necessarily know what it’s like to be in each other’s shoes, he added, “and I think that has to change if you want to grow and make your shop successful. I think we do that really well here.”