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with a built-in microphone in<br />
addition to the vibration sensor.”<br />
cliP-oN, cliP-off<br />
Pitching a tuner doesn’t require<br />
special tricks or selling<br />
tactics. Ray Aleshire, purchasing<br />
department manager for Lansing,<br />
Mich.-based Elderly Instruments,<br />
uses his store’s website and customer<br />
e-mail lists to promote the<br />
category.<br />
“We include tuners in our<br />
usual e-mails to our customers<br />
whenever [tuners] are on sale,<br />
which is fairly often,” Aleshire<br />
said. “Also, we list them as featured<br />
items and as suggested<br />
add-ons for most instruments<br />
on our website.”<br />
Aleshire also makes sure to<br />
cross-promote tuners alongside<br />
instruments on the show floor.<br />
“The tuners we actually use to<br />
tune our instruments are in our<br />
showroom,” he said.<br />
Keeping instruments on the<br />
floor in tune is essential to valueadded<br />
retail, and keeping tuners<br />
near those instruments lets<br />
customers see firsthand how the<br />
tuners function.<br />
“Having well-tuned instruments<br />
hanging from the walls<br />
sells more instruments,” said<br />
Chris Labriola, designer for<br />
Peterson Electro-<strong>Music</strong>al Products.<br />
“When a customer tries an<br />
instrument, the first strum can<br />
determine whether they keep<br />
playing it or if it goes back on<br />
the wall.<br />
“When a salesperson tunes a<br />
new instrument before casing it<br />
up for a customer, it reinforces<br />
the important role of a tuner in<br />
TREND SEGMENTS<br />
TUNERS<br />
‘clip-on<br />
tuners are<br />
hot because<br />
of their easy-<br />
TREND SEGMENTS<br />
TUNERS to-store size,<br />
speed and<br />
accuracy.’<br />
— Neil Lilien<br />
assuring that the instrument<br />
always plays and sounds at its<br />
full potential. At that moment,<br />
a tuner is as easy of an add-on<br />
as is the case.”<br />
Bobby Boyles, owner of Oklahoma<br />
Vintage Guitar in El Reno,<br />
Okla., carries a tuner around in<br />
his pocket.<br />
“It’s just so easy to keep in my<br />
pocket now, and anytime someone<br />
wants to try a guitar, banjo<br />
or mandolin, I clip the tuner on<br />
the instrument and tune it for<br />
the customer,” he said. “This<br />
becomes a subtle sales demonstration<br />
of the tuner, and I just<br />
close with, ‘By the way, this tuner<br />
model is only $19.99 this month.’<br />
This gives me a tuner sale a high<br />
percentage of the time, even if<br />
we don’t sell the guitar.”<br />
Snark Tuners’ Steve Ridinger<br />
suggested using sales staff as clipon<br />
models.<br />
“Store employees can attach<br />
one to a name badge or clothing,<br />
and when a customer asks to try<br />
an instrument, such as a guitar,<br />
the employee can hand them the<br />
tuner and suggest they tune it<br />
before playing it,” Ridinger said.<br />
MAY 2011 I MUSIC INC. I 57
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