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The dealer thing can go from really good to really awful for all the obvious reasons.
The best solution is to take the stuff home and try it there, but this isn't always practical for size and cost reasons....
Jeff, home audition is indeed a great option, as it allows the customer to hear in the prospective setting, with their own music and equipment for an extended period (not just 20 minutes or so).
The downside is that setup errors, room issues and other similar problems might diminish the performance assessment of the gear in question. Especially for speakers. But in the end, it’s this customer, using his expertise and equipment that will setup the great and be satisfied or not.
So yes, in-home is probably the best bet for getting people to really see/hear what a piece of gear will do in *their* setting.
Roger Sanders seems to have good luck with this model, offering 30 day in-home trials.
I do realize that Shipping a 100+ ML speaker around is going to cost serious coin, so in-home trial could cost close to $500 once it’s all said and done if you don’t keep them.
On the other hand, it both an incentive to keep them (good for the vendor) or if you really don’t like them, return them for less than you’d lose listing them on the ‘Gon (good for the consumer). Plus it creates B-Stock, which is good for the next (cheap) consumer
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Anybody got a great idea?
Sure, how about vendors recognize that sites and members of sites like the MLOF are some of their best advocates and most effective sellers and create some programs to leverage these awesome resources?
This site is covered with threads were member A introduces member B to some new piece of gear or approach and soon enough, members C, F and N are all on board as well.
One of the best approaches might be to sponsor in-home listening sessions for prospective purchasers.
This works well for the kilo and mega-buck product lines (like ML speakers, high-end amps, etc.), as these consumers will likely have good setups with matching gear in somewhat dedicated rooms.
Not that any of us wants to become a constant ‘demo room’ for vendors, but a few times a year, I’d be happy to give some prospective ML owner (suitably vetted) a demo of the system.
No hard sales pitch, a chance to hear the speakers in an idealized setting (acoustically treated dedicated room), with a relaxed environment.
In exchange, I’d expect the program to offer those willing to share, some points program that provides discounts on manufacturers products. I for one, would not mind getting good discount on a pair of CLX’s in exchange for some demo time
Bottom line, there are many, many things a community of interested owners can do for a vendor. Already the MLOF provides free support, great post-sales setup and usage advice, outstanding product advocacy (and yes, some criticism, but that balances the presentation and makes the positives credible). It even features a fun lunatic fringe (led by yours truly) that mods the heck out of the products for ultimate performance.
Yet the vendor is conspicuously absent in their direct (and sometimes indirect) support of the community.
The factory tour and invite was a great move, and provided tons of good will, cemented the loyalty of those of us that went and educated those attending to a new level.
However, not much else has been done since.
Here are a few things ML could do to leverage this community better:
Loaner program:
In exchange for a commitment to host a weekend ‘open house’ show for pre-registered (and vetted) attendees, provide a MLOF member of good standing a set of new model speakers to demo for a month with a discount option to buy that gear at end as well.
So for what they would sell a unit to a dealer, they get a free demo to highly qualified prospects, put those prospects in personal touch with an impartial (well ,not sales driven) advocate and gain even further good-will from that advocate as they enjoy their new-model units.
Even if the units are returned, the good-will factor remains, the exposure remains and any round could well result in new sales to the prospects (including the sale of the ‘demo’ units).
Imagine what the Tampa or Chicago circuit could do with a pair CLX’s on loan (besides an all-out fight for who gets to host them
) - Two weekend demos plus I’m sure lots of MOF-member hang-time at the hosting home would surely sell a couple of units. The Demo’s themselves might be offered to either the host or to one of the propsects, so further shipping is minimized. Win-win.
Loyalty program
I wont say too much here, this is basic marketing. What car vendors offer for referrals and such is a decent model.
I’ve sold at least five or so ML sets, but never got any recognition. Just the satisfaction of having one more set of awesome speakers out there. But it would be nice…
There’s more, but time to go earn some coin to pay for this habit, er, hobby…
