An EXCLUSIVE Interview with our NEWEST East Coast Sales Rep - Justin Martin of Integrity Marketing Group!

Steve: So, I just have a few questions for you Justin. It won’t be lengthy, but I wanted to interview you because you’re the guy I know the least and perhaps the rest of the Rep and Dealer force knows the least about. I know that you’ve had considerable experience in the business, so I thought I’d bring some of that to life. So, given that, what pedigree do you have that brings you to rep? I think you were a rep before right?

Justin: Yeah, so, I started off in 1995 at Circuit City and worked there until 2000. After that, I went to Audio America and that’s where I began my career on the sales distribution side. In 2005, I decided to take the leap to sales rep and did that for about 4 years in between two different opportunities.

Steve: Ok, got it.

Justin: When the economy started to go down though, I found myself back to Audio America for about 11 years.  I even moved up to Atlanta for a little while to help them get back up and running there. Then I left 12-Volt world in March of last year to go into home audio, working for an integrator doing sales. Scott (The owner of Integrity Marketing Group) called me and said he needed to add somebody, and it would bring a good opportunity, so I ended up back on the sales rep side through Integrity Marketing.

Steve: Cool!  Well we are glad to have you by the way.

Justin: Ha, thanks!

Steve: I know Scott talked a long time ago about bringing somebody on and he was very discerning about whom it is that he would do that with, so you should consider that a feather in your cap. I bugged him for a long time about bringing somebody else in and he just wouldn’t do it.

Justin: Well yeah, I mean I’ve known Scott for a long time, and we’ve worked together on several different occasions and he knows me, I know him, and it just made sense. He needed to take a load off of what he was doing. Covering a whole state is hard by yourself ha-ha.

Steve: So, you’ve had a couple of stints from different perspectives in the 12-Volt business. How would you compare what you’re seeing since you’ve been back working with Scott with what you had seen before that? How would things change?

Justin: It’s kind of funny.  Right now I think that compared to what it use to be, you know there was a time when people chose brands because they wanted to have something different in their store or not the same things as everybody else… and they stood behind those brands.  And then it kind of got endogenized where everybody just wanted the same thing that everybody else had. They just wanted to clerk the items and now due to availability, people are going back to stretching out the brands that they maybe wouldn’t have had before. You know, the ones that aren’t the top tier brand and the biggest line out there. So, I think that’s kind of an interesting turn of events and I think, hopefully, that’s going to make some of these dealers realize that it’s not the main brand that always sells it, it’s their stores, their service, their reputation. You know, I always told dealers the most important brand you sell is the main one in the door, not the brand on yourself. So, to me it’s kind of an interesting observation. In that regard I think it’s the upturn in business that none of us really expected because where things have been in the 12-Volt world for a little while.  The strongest dealers have survived because they offered more than just one type of thing. You know by adding different types of accessories and expanding their business. Embrace marine, embrace power sports. You know every year you’d have 10 new guys and a small territory that would pop up and go away and I think now it’s very interesting with the upturn in business and how strong everything has been in all categories.

Steve: And how do you see JVC fitting into the environment that you just described?

Justin: I’ve sold JVC at just about every point in my career, except for my 6 or so years repping. But  since I started with the big box retail, I’d sold JVC since that time in 95 and I think a lot of dealers had complacencies with not just JVC but a lot of other brands. They took the easy sell and instead of showing some of the features and some of the things that make it unique and make it desirable, they just wanted to move a box and I think that now the availability issue is putting more emphasis on it again to people that weren’t already supporting it and are realizing that they can’t sell it. It’s a lot better and a lot cooler than they may have thought just because it didn’t have a certain name on it that everybody was buying on the internet. I think they are starting to realize again how important the brand JVC is on the market.

Steve: Well, you know this is going to be sent out nationally and I wondered, from your unique perspective and as the newest member of the crew, if you had any insight to the retail base that perhaps they would find helpful.

Justin: So, in my little section I have a very unique base because we have the marine market, which is its own unique entity, down there ha-ha. That is kind of different from everywhere else. The one common thing I’m seeing is no matter what part of the state I’m in, the marine business is strong. Motorcycles have also been really strong in my area, so the small shield amps that have a lot of power, like the ones you guys are coming out with, they are very important with every vendor that I have.  So that’s the one thing that I think is the commonality I see.  It doesn’t matter if I’m on the West Coast of Fort Meyers, down in Miami, or up in Steward. It doesn’t matter, that’s universal. You know, unrelated security business is rather strong which I did not expect.  That’s been really good for us but that’s kind of unrelated … I think the biggest thing is the addition of the power sports amps and marine products because that business has stayed just nonstop busy. And of course, double DIN and Spring sales are still strong.  I’ve seen some guys getting into brands that they never would have considered at any other point.

Steve: Yeah crazy times, drive us to do crazy things.

Justin: That’s the truth! 

Steve:  Justin- A sincere thank you for your time and I’m looking forward to what you will achieve and bring to our JVC rep force in the future!