In your organization, please provide the names and titles of up to 5 people who are directly responsible for the company’s performance in the chosen category.

Herb Brown, National Sales Manager, 21-years

Jake Acker, Eastern Regional Sales Manager, 25-years

Jason Noel, Midwest Regional Sales Manager, 14-years

Jorge Fornos, Western Regional Sales Manager, 3-years

John Catalano, Stinger Product Line Manager, 12-years

What is your department’s support goal?

The goal of the Stinger sales team is simple – to ensure our customers have the right product mix to enjoy success and profitability from the brand. To do this, each Stinger sales rep acts as a customer service and sales consultation contact to the independent retailers and chains they service. This is the winning formula that has kept Stinger on top of the accessories field for more than 20 years, and it’s why Stinger is the “go to” brand for car audio shops around the globe.

Provide a brief description of how the department functions, and how the functionality benefits your customers.

The Stinger sales team is possibly the best trained and most experienced in the industry. To ensure this, the team members spend almost as much time and effort learning about car audio technology and best industry practices as they do servicing their accounts. This constant training directly impacts Stinger customers by giving them access to a level of insight that is difficult – if not impossible – to match.

What sets your department apart from competitors’ similar departments?

All retailers should know that their hottest items (high-end subs, amps and head units) typically not bring in the big profits, due largely to neighboring competition, monthly promotions, or the Internet. This creates the need to add some profit-boosting items to the ticket. This is where the Stinger sales team comes in.   Each Stinger sales rep is a highly trained and knowledgeable professional with at least 10 years of experience in the car audio and electronics industry. Most of these sales reps have several years of practical experience as either shop owners or installers, and all understand that the key to profitability – especially in this market – is through the proper merchandising and face-to-face sale of accessories like wiring kits, capacitors, batteries and more.       Stinger sales reps know that higher margin items like sound damping materials, wiring kits and interconnects should all be merchandised close to the "hot" items that initially caused the customers to visit the store. Therefore, our team not only sells merchandizing packages proven to be successful in the current retail environment, but also consult their accounts on the best way to approach customers and ensure a successful sale.

How has your department improved from 2011 to 2012?

In the last year, the Stinger brand has gone through some changes – changes aimed at making it easier for customers to make purchasing decisions when it comes to accessories. Additionally, we launched some innovative products and merchandizing tools aimed at helping our customers reduce inventory and installation waste while maximizing profits. To support this, the Stinger sales team has taken on a much more hands-on, “in the field” approach and visited their accounts individually to provide training and consultation of the best way to deploy the new Stinger merchandizing plans.

What changes or improvements, if any, are planned for your department in the coming year?

In the coming year, the Stinger sales team will be laser-focused on enhancing and improving the technology available to provide information and assistance to the customer and the end-user. The company has made a huge investment into Web-based solutions that bridge the gap between salesperson and customer, and marketing communications channels that make it easier to educate and excite end users.