Re-Tales

The hi-fi industry is evidently experiencing a shortage—not of parts or materials as during COVID and just after, but of qualified salespeople. As this column has pointed out, some hi-fi shops have closed, for various reasons, while some new ones have opened. Meanwhile, not just dealers but also manufacturers and distributors have reported difficulty finding qualified salespeople. Michael Manousselis, president of Americas for Dynaudio, stated as much in emailed responses to my questions. "I have heard more from dealers having a hard time finding experienced salespeople, that is for sure," he said. "We've seen some hire former customers, to groom them for sales."

What's going on? If people are passionate about this hobby, wouldn't they jump at the chance to get more involved in it professionally?

Yes and no.

"Finding salespeople is becoming a big problem," Anthony Chiarella told me in a recent phone conversation. Chiarella owns and operates Specialty Sound and Vision, which provides hi-fi companies with marketing and dealer-related services. He also serves as director of sales and marketing for Gryphon Audio and Brinkmann Audio. "You can't find qualified people. You have dealers fighting over guys in their 70s to work as hi-fi people." He compared this sales staff shortage to a classic bumper sticker slogan: "No farms, no food." For hi-fi, he said, it could become "No salesmen, no stores."

Stores need salespeople to stay in business. Customers need places where they can see, hear, and talk about expensive hi-fi equipment before they buy it.

Rich Maez, president and founder of Monarch Systems Distribution in Colorado, shared similar stories in a recent phone conversation. One dealer nearing retirement, Maez told me, had been looking for more than two years for someone to help manage the store. He's still looking. Dealerships all over the country lack sufficient staff. "They might not be able to serve all of the customers that they've got because they just don't have the staff for it," he said.

Industry people I spoke with shared several reasons for dealers' hiring challenges. A career role in hi-fi retail could seem tenuous—and if in a store, temporary. "I think the general thought of retail in modern times is, it's a stopgap kind of employment; it's not something you stick with for 20 or 30 years," Maez said.

Hi-fi retail, though, isn't like working at a department store. "We need to be experts," said Chris Forman, junior partner at New York's Innovative Audio Video, which has been around for more than 50 years. "We are a different level of sales organization. We are trying to show people a level of professionalism and expertise that is much more bespoke, attentive."

There's an accurate perception, Chiarella said, that retail jobs don't pay well or have good benefits. He emphasized the need for the industry to find ways to entice people to choose hi-fi as a viable career. "If we're going to have a future in hi-fi, we have to make it worthwhile to make a career in hi-fi," Chiarella said.

Manousselis suggested that the hi-fi industry itself might bear some responsibility for staff shortages. "I would venture to guess that since a lot of the hi-fi trade was recruited from retailers, having a significantly reduced number of hi-fi retailers is surely making this more difficult for manufacturers and distributors, while it makes a career in hi-fi sales less compelling to a potential interested party, I'm sure."

Not all reports were grim. Adam Wexler, owner of Brooklyn dealership Resolution AV, told me in a phone conversation that he hired someone recently with about 20 years of experience. "You need goal-oriented people, which are sometimes hard to find," Wexler said.

Some industry sources maintain that a hi-fi career can be lucrative. "You can make a good living doing retail in the high-end audio industry," Maez said, "if you have the knowledge that goes with being able to sell it. But if you consider it a temporary occupation, you're never going to develop that kind of knowledge. Therefore, you're naturally going to limit yourself as far as what the longevity is in that position."

Another challenge is a lack of awareness—of not only the industry but also of career options within it. Maez pointed out that people were more familiar with hi-fi in the past: Older consumers often grew up with hi-fi systems at home, starting with a receiver, but home hi-fi is no longer culturally ubiquitous. Therefore, it's not an obvious career choice.

Selling hi-fi isn't for everyone, so what about engineering? That too may be lost to generational change. "There was a natural pathway for people who were engineers, to understand, 'Oh, I can get into this. This is something that I can do'," Maez said.

Elliot Fishkin, founder of Innovative Audio Video, pointed out that, unlike many specialized fields—law, medicine, finance, architecture, classical music—there is no "educational feeder system" from which to draw and develop talent. There are no industry-wide standards or accreditations.

"We don't have a common framework to know what's 'industry standard' for compensation packages, or even really how to judge someone's value," Fishkin said via email. "Every new hire brings some amount of risk." How quickly can they get up to speed and bring value—and be a good fit? "It's not about the risk of paying someone too much if they're successful."

Innovative told Stereophile that the dealership offers a livable salary, health coverage/benefits, and a 401(k) plan even for entry-level roles, plus incentives and bonuses.

Forman mentioned another cultural shift that's made hiring difficult: COVID-era changes in people's (remote) work habits and expectations. This led to changes in compensation value. "COVID changed the way people work or want to work. We had to pay them substantially more to come in," he said. "There isn't a critical mass of talent out there."

The hi-fi industry needs to find ways to recruit and retain staff—perhaps by putting more fun in the game. What can be done? How can the hi-fi business offer viable career paths? In an upcoming Re-Tales, we'll explore those ideas.