Dealer Profile
Audio Advice
Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina
| Co-owners | |
| Leon Shaw | |
| Scott Newnam | |
| Key Statistics & Information | |
| Founded | 1978 |
| Harman Brands Supported |
Arcam, JBL Synthesis, |
At the Harman Luxury Audio Group, we consider ourselves fortunate to work with so many amazing dealer partners. This month, we spoke with Scott Newnam from Audio Advice, a leader in North Carolina’s audio business scene since 1978. That works out to an impressive 41 years in business. So what is the secret sauce to being successful for that long? Newnam tells us a big part is the company’s purpose of “delivering happiness.”
“Honestly, the real heartbeat of Audio Advice is our incredible team. We are blessed to have terrific managers and expert staff throughout the company that make us who we are. First and foremost, everyone in the company loves audio and loves making customers happy. When we interview people we use behavioral interviewing to see how people treat others. Whether it’s a customer, vendor or co-worker we honestly want to bring happiness to those with whom we interact. We also pride ourselves on being good citizens of the audio world. In other words, we know the vast majority of our competitors and want to have great relationships with them as well. It’s important to us to help create a rising tide that helps everyone in the business. We like to think that in the markets we serve that if a company had to select two companies to sell products, that they would include us along with themselves.
Newnam also tells us a similarity in philosophy is a big part of Audio Advice’s longstanding and successful relationship with Harman.
“We have had a terrific relationship with Harman. It so happens that our brands match up extremely well. We believe in great audio and they do as well. We tend to be very honest about who we are and what our strengths and weaknesses are. As such, over the past year or two, the transparent relationship with Harman has led to a lot of great progression in business and in supporting each other. Chris Trojnar, who is our direct rep at Harman is also very honest and transparent which has led to a great win/win for Harman and Audio Advice.”
Like virtually anything worth doing, being successful in the audio business arena comes with its challenges. Currently, Newnam sees one from a “smart” source. “The biggest challenge in the audio industry has been the proliferation of low audio quality smart speakers. We would be fooling ourselves if we did not accept that many people have purchased smart speakers to the detriment of higher performing speakers in our industry. However, there are some really encouraging signs as well. The move to higher resolution services such as Qobuz, Tidal and even Amazon is a good sign. We should all be doing as much as we can to support their success.”
Another catalyst to Audio Advice’s success and longevity is how importantly and seriously they take their role in the bigger picture of the industry.
“Our name, Audio Advice, probably says it all. We are jam packed with people who love music, audio and home theater experiences. As many have seen, we are producing a lot of content that talks about the value of great audio and home theaters. We know that much of our investment in this content, whether it's our website, YouTube videos or social media is helping drive general awareness and leads to way more sales outside of Audio Advice then at Audio Advice itself. So many have argued that our investment in this content makes no sense for us. From a pure short term perspective, this is probably accurate. The cost is just too high when you know only a small portion of the resulting purchases end up at Audio Advice. However, from a long term perspective, we need to do our part to help educate the world on how much fun great audio can be and what great gear is out there. In the end, we hope we can capture our fair share of that customer base. We all know that once someone experiences great audio and they find that avenue of escaping daily stresses in an amazing audio or home theater system, that we have truly delivered happiness!”
You can learn more about Audio Advice at audioadvice.com.
