4-19-2017, Mobile Electronics -- Looks can be deceiving. As Western culture took over as the popular culture in the world, people's looks became indistinguishable from the personality of their cultures. If you dressed like a cowboy, that must have meant you were from Texas and liked to ride horses. If you were a guy with long dreadlocks, wore flip flops, tie-dyed shirts and shorts you must have been a hippie. But after meeting Jason Kranitz, owner of Kingpin Car and Marine Audio, you'd quickly learn that there's more to a person than their sense of fashion.

With spiked hair, a no-nonsense attitude and a sleeve of flame tattoos, one might relegate Kranitz to that of a punk-rocker. While he shares many traits with that sub-culture, including his refusal to play by the rules of hiring only established installation technicians, Kranitz's views on industry topics, his shop's appointment-only business model and high standards of excellence prove that he's much more than a rebel with a cause.

"We do things so differently, we expect perfection. A lot of experienced guys come over to our shop, get going and realize it isn't for them," Kranitz said regarding his decision to train workers from scratch. "People inside the industry tend to view training as punishment; but new hires view training as a way to learn and grow and welcome it."

Due to the large growth period the company is experiencing as of late, Kranitz had to make an executive decision on his company's employment strategy—either hire experienced staff, pulling from other parts of the country and potentially spending large sums of money to bring in a hired gun quickly, or start fresh with enthusiastic newcomers. Choosing the latter has been a game changer, according to Kranitz. The only concern now, is how to not grow too fast.

"We're looking to expand and to own our own building in two years. The problem is everything is on the upswing of the real estate market. I'd rather purchase on the down side to get a better deal," Kranitz said. "When it comes to employees, I'm done trying to find only seasoned people in the industry. There are too many shops that will take people with experience and pay too much for them. My most recent hires have all been rookies. It's more work to train from scratch but it's working out better already."

Taking Up The Cause

Although the company has had its fair share of struggles in recent years, including the loss of seasoned employees, Kranitz knows that sometimes the way forward is by reviewing the past. After spending time at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon with law enforcement as his career path, Kranitz realized it wasn't for him after seeing the same criminals being caught repeatedly. Soon enough, he found himself in another career that had been in front of him the whole time.

"I got started way back in the day as a consumer. A local shop I bought all my stuff from asked me if I wanted to hang around and sweep floors and do some work. So I continued to sweep floors and stuff. I was hanging out in the back with installers and started running wires. That's where I started," Kranitz said. "Kevin Cornutt, who's currently with Stereo King, was the installer at Focus Electronics where I swept floors. They decided to get out of car audio. Kevin went to work for Car Tunes. He called me up one day, said they had an opening. That was my first paid install job. I did nothing but come-backs—all the repair work. It sucked but it was the best thing for me because it taught me how to troubleshoot."

He would go on to work for Phoenix Gold for a year before returning to retail Car Toys for seven years. "At the time I liked it. Their business model didn't change. I thought I was going to work there forever. They went from 21 stores to 56 stores. Eventually, the focus changed to being about numbers and not necessarily on sound quality stuff," Kranitz said. "I would talk to my mom on the way home every day and talk to her about how they're doing things wrong and how there are better ways to serve clients. My mom told me one day to just do it. I said 'What if I fail?' She said 'What's the worst that could happen? Just get a job someplace else. Show them how you think it should be done.' I had a plan to start my business three weeks later."

With $30,000 in savings behind him, Kranitz opened Kingpin Car Audio and Marine in August of 2006. The facility was chosen by finding a balance between price and location, eventually landing in the small town of Wilsonville, a suburb of Portland, Ore., where there were no other car stereo shops. "Hindsight 20/20, I wouldn't have done it. I would have chosen an area that has a stereo shop. If you have another shop nearby, you let their advertising dollars bring clients to the area, then when they don't live up to the clients' expectations, the client would come to me. It would get them into my facility."

The shop operates out of an 8,000 square foot facility, with 2,000 square feet dedicated to the sales floor and the rest used for installation bay, wood, metal, fabrication and upholstery. As a boutique specialist in an area filled with big box retailers, the challenge was creating a market in the area and beyond. Thankfully, Kranitz doesn't operate his business or life by the book.

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4-5-2017, Mobile Electronics -- For any retailer, knowing the ins and outs of product can be the difference between making a large sale and watching their revenue walk out the door. Since its inception, KnowledgeFest has been an event that offers retailers a chance to brush up on product and service knowledge, for both the novice and veteran.

Aside from the workshops, networking and Mobile Electronics Show booth reveals, anyone's 12-volt IQ can be enhanced even further with manufacturer trainings, which are taught by some of the biggest names in the industry.  Not to mention, there are plenty of goodie bags handed out.

Companies offering training this year include Voxx Electronics, DD Audio, Omega Research & Development, Compustar and Alpine Electronics, among others. While most of the companies maintain a focus on specific products, there are some surprises mixed in, such as how products work with different vehicle models, bettering the customer experience with specific products or how to make installing certain products easier on the installer.

New Innovations

In an effort to promote the latest and greatest products that 12-volt has to offer, vendors will be going in-depth on the inner workings of their 2017 offerings. One such company is Omega Research & Development, which will be discussing the Excalibur 70-series, the most advanced remote start line the company has yet released. It contains built-in accelerometers and other high-end features, according to the company.

"We focused on refining the installer experience by adding a very comprehensive vehicle learn routine, and on the user experience by adding a BUILT-IN 3D accelerometer for manual transmission, starting without the complicated exit routine, as well as a cold-temperature start included in the 'entry units,'" a spokesman for the company said. "Every single remote start has a built-in Alarm Suite, so let us show you how easy it is to upsell your customer with little or no additional install."

 Remote start manufacturer Firstech will have a similar offering at its training by discussing the latest additions to the Firstech product lineup, including the new in-car dash camera systems, the Momento M4 and M5.  "Two new online resources for Firstech dealers are FirstechData.com, an installation resource website, and myFirstech.com, an e-commerce platform where dealers can place, track, and manage their orders for Firstech products," said Justin Lee, Marketing Manager for Firstech. "We will open the floor for discussion and review the challenges faced during the 2016 remote start season, followed by our team’s proposed solutions for 2017."

To compliment the brand launch of the Momento dash camera systems, Firstech will reveal an in-store display concept. In addition, the company will discuss its myFirstech Rewards program, which pays owners, installers and salespeople for every DroneMobile activation. "Entering 2017, Firstech remains the only company that is offering every dealer this type of revenue-share opportunity," Lee said. "To further promote awareness for myFirstech Rewards, dealers will be able to register their business and employees for the revenue-share program at Firstech’s booth so that they can get paid for every DroneMobile activation."

American Road Products hopes to educate its retailers on how best to sell the safety category during its training. Its latest product, the omniDRIVE 2.0, which began shipping in April, is a CES Innovations Award winner that provides great opportunity to tap into the safety category, according to the company.

"Retailers will take away knowledge that will help them 1) increase their gross margin per ticket, 2) build a new category business foundation that will expand sales and 3) learn new business and installation skills that will help them in the overall Active Safety category," said Steve Witt, president and Chief Technology Executive at American Road Products. The ARP Dealer Training will focus on why a retailer should sell active safety products, how to sell omniDRIVE and what to sell that is relevant to both commercial and consumer customers, according to Witt.

Ease of Installation

Finding the balance between installation knowledge and product knowledge for installation techs is a strong focus for DD Audio this year as they offer a tech vs. product session. "Our goal with the training we’ve developed is to demystify the dark art of subwoofer enclosure design for DD Audio's products. Our customer service department receives several requests daily for subwoofer enclosure design assistance," said Kevin Doyle, service, sales and support representative for DD Audio. "These requests not only come from inexperienced end users but from seasoned dealers and installers as well. Many of the enclosure design questions we get could easily be answered by using our tried-and-true DD Box system."

The DD Box system has been developed over several years of subwoofer and enclosure design, according to the company. One of the major things that the enclosure design system different from what other manufacturers offer is that they started off by engineering a high-efficiency type of ported enclosure, then they set about engineering their subwoofers to optimize the box energy.

"This order of design is the reverse of most manufacturers' TS parameter driven, speaker then box, design approach. Our subwoofer designs are intended to handle much more than 1w so we keep the moving mass low, energy high and add a suspension with high restoring force to help control cone motion. This means that our subs will not have to rely on the box for their loading," Doyle said. "The DD Box training will explain why our no-nonsense approach to enclosure design works in real world applications allowing installers to consistently and efficiently design great sounding subwoofer enclosures. We will also be expanding on the basic DD Box system to help designers tailor enclosures to their customer's specific needs."  

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