About We ♥ Our Dealers
At Race Sport® Lighting we love our dealer partners. “We ♥ Our Dealers” is a video series capturing success stories from our top dealers around the country. This affords us the privileged of learning from and sharing in their successes in the lighting category. These are dealer lighting stories, in their words.
In this video we chat with Vikas from Avenue Sound located in the Freeport, New York. You can watch the video above and read a summary below followed by What We Learned from Vikas.
Before you hooked up with Race Sport Lighting, what were you doing for lighting? Tell me about the “Pre-Race Sport Days”
So, the lighting category is a very saturated category, as we all know, but the one quorum and the one difficulty that Avenue Sound always had in the past was there was never one vendor that could fill all those pockets. As we do recreational vehicles like side by sides, bikes, slingshots, motorcycles, boats, ATVs and obviously cars. Prior to having Race Sport we had to source a good quality solution for cars from one vendor, good quality solution for trucks from another vendor, for boats from another vendor. So, it became difficult for inventory management for us. It also became difficult for our customers and our customers usually wanted the same brand across all of their vehicles, and throughout every single vehicle. Fortunately, we now have one brand that fills all those pockets. So that’s really what made one of the biggest differences for us.
Vikas – Avenue Sound
How exactly did you guys get introduced to Race Sport?
I believe one of my manufacturer reps that we used for another vendor had introduced the line to us and then what I had done was I just did a little bit research. I spoke with Mr. Jergensen and we had a great conversation. We had a great meeting and then understood exactly everything you guys had to offer. And it was a perfect partnership. I mean it’s been going good for at least five or six years now. Good. Consistent. Constantly growing. Never better.
Vikas – Avenue Sound
What are you having success with right now?
Race Sport Lighting: You were talking about how you found success once you found a one stop shop like us but, you also said that it’s still growing. What are you having success with right now? Like is it under body kits? Is it HIDs? What are you guys doing a ton of right now?
So, for example one of the reasons every single pocket or solution whether it’s cube lights, flush mount lights, light bars, HIDs and LEDs, it’s all growing for different reasons. So, for example with HID lights because you guys have your GEN6® CANBUS [lifetime] warranty solution that we offer. We generally only offer that to our customers not because of the higher price point but because it works in every car. When our customers leave and they hit the road, they know that the product that we installed in the car is going to work and in the event that it doesn’t we’ll be able to take care of them for as long as they are going to have that car. It’s growing because now the consumer confidence is there, and we can increase our sales with no qualms about it.
Vikas – Avenue Sound
Now, with LED it’s the same thing: we use your Terminator LED lights and we have the special decoders for the cars that require them. On the cube lights and recreational lights, 99% of it is waterproof. So when I’m putting it on a side by side or a Wrangler or anything along those lines, you know, these guys are going off-roading, Wranglers are driving over cars like monster trucks! These guys don’t have to worry about lights failing on them. I think consumer confidence is really what helps all our categories grow.
Vikas – Avenue Sound
What do you normally say to peers about Race Sport?
Race Sport Lighting: There’s a lot of dealers across the country that look up to you and your guys’ shop and you do have some influence there. What do you normally say about Race Sport? And you’re not going to hurt my feelings so be direct.
My honest feedback when I’m talking to another industry affiliate, I speak to them in car talk of course. I’ll take a car manufacturer and I’ll explain it that way. For example, General Motors. I’ll say Race Sport is General Motors. They have a solution for everybody. Different sizes, different types, different quality levels, and different trim levels within that size for that type.
When you go and look at the Race Sport portfolio, or SKU list, you guys have tons of SKUs. We don’t stock them all. We know our area, we know our customers, we know the quality of goods that our customers are looking for. No matter what that dealer did product wise or business wise previously, I tell them with confidence: “you can move over to Race Sport and you’ll get a better quality product at the same price point,” and if their customers are generally looking for entry level stuff, Race Sport has better quality entry level stuff. If their customers are looking for higher end equipment, Race Sport has better quality higher end equipment. Just like those GEN6® HIDs. Even though you guys also offer Vision Extreme which is your entry level line. It’s still a million times better than anything else you could order off Amazon for $29. You know and it just kind of makes sense.
So, when I talk to other dealers, I tell them kind of in car talk that it’s the right vendor because they are fully setup to cover every sub-category within the lighting category and cater to every clientele that you have.
Vikas – Avenue Sound
