Tips and Tricks from 2017's Dealer of the Year

I started playing music at a really young age. I played piano, drums and clarinet. I attended Valparaiso University in Indiana and actually got a NAMM scholarship before I even knew what NAMM was! My professor told me they wanted to try to combine music and business degrees, and I could learn more at The NAMM show. I received the NAMM Music Business Scholarship after I went to the show in Chicago and finished my degree.

I worked with and for people who were always really concerned about what other competitors are doing. I think that’s important but not the most important question. “What can we be doing?” is the better question. Rather than try to beat them at the game, I would like to invent the game. One thing that sets us apart is our philosophy. It’s not just about selling the product. It’s important to bring people in and create more music makers.

Beginning band is like a cruise ship that pulls up to your school in 4th or 5th grade, but once that ship sails off, there aren’t a lot of other entry points for music making. We’ve asked ourselves the question: “where can we dock that cruise ship and load more people on?” So, we have started targeting empty nesters—people in their 50s. We found the most appealing way to reach them is to create an event that this new audience wanted to attend. We’ll send out an eblast that says, “Band tonight. You don’t have to have an instrument. Just come.” We can target these band parents by knowing what grade their child was in when they first rented an instrument from us. For example, we can identify parents whose kids have finished high school by pulling up all accounts that originated in a certain year and send them an eblast. I’m also on the board of a few civic organizations and I target people who are going to concerts, but may not be music makers.

That’s easy. Going to the school and meeting up with the kids who are going to have their very first day of band. I don’t care how bad your day has been, that face when a child opens up their instrument case for the first time will make your day. After 23 years it never gets old. I tell them, “show me your excited face!” but usually I don’t have to because they are already so excited.

That’s a tough question. I’d say the relationships we have with some of the school districts that surround us. This chunk of Michigan is unique—we straddle the second-most affluent county on one side and then Detroit on the other side, which has a long way to go. When I started running A&G, I felt like the chasm was wider between the two demographics, and with the help of amazing band directors, the chasm is narrowing so more kids are getting equal access to a quality sequential music education. I’m a real believer in equal access to music. We work hard on it. What’s really cool is we have gotten buy-in from these more affluent communities. A year ago, we tried to get these affluent kids to sponsor a kid in need to attend the same music camps that they were going to and many people were receptive to that. It’s about building bridges.

The people I am surrounded by every day keep me motivated. When I’m on the struggle bus, they are here to pick me up. 5 am-10 pm is not glamorous five days a week. I could be feeling really beat up and then someone tells me a story of a kid who got his or her first saxophone. That keeps me going. The educators keep me motivated. I think I am having a bad day and they tell me about their day and I say I am good!

Recently I was sitting with George Quinlan and he said this to me, “You know Robert, for the type of activity we are doing every day, we could be selling plumbing supplies but I’m so glad we’re not!” It’s so true. The good thing is what we do every day is wrapped up in this big glittery bow called music. I have been making music since I was five. It’s a part of me. I can be working in my office doing paperwork and can hear a kid 13 feet away playing trumpet. It’s a constant reminder of why I do what I do every day.

The best advice I’ve ever gotten is from one of the previous owners of A&G Music. When I bought the store, he told me that on the darkest day when things look the worst and on the best day when things are going perfect, it doesn’t last. So, don’t get too high or too low. All things pass. Make incremental changes every day. Stay focused on the long-term impact.

I know this may sound backwards, but I think we are right-sized. Often when I talk to my friends who are in this industry, they talk about growth. The future for me doesn’t look like a chain of A&G rental stores throughout Michigan. I would like to focus on what we began with, which are music makers and sustainable growth. I would really like us to capitalize on reaching non-music makers. We are constantly looking for activities where people who aren’t even sure they can make music can feel comfortable making music for the first time. Success and growth look like more kids in band programs and more people coming into the fold who have never even considered making music.

That’s easy. When we go to the trade shows, we camp out in the Idea Center. NAMM members are pretty generous in sharing their ideas. There is bravery in that and value in that. I always think, someone on stage is living my life, just in a different spot. Everything that the NAMM Foundation is doing—the research is unbelievably beneficial to us. We don’t have the means to do that research and it helps us a lot. Years ago,I was banging on and on about how beneficial education is to my customers. Now I’ve seen a shift and they will come in and tell me the benefits. I think that has a lot to do with NAMM. Combined together, we cannot fail. NAMM has a lot of outlets. In general, we do a good job about getting people to tell their stories. The music products industry is unique in the fact that we are so willing to share. Because we all already have something in common, it’s easier to get into a discussion. In the end, that helps everybody.

We got some impact from the press releases and the local paper. I feel like you get instant credibility. We will be coming up on 50 years in business but all of the sudden being Dealer of the Year gives us credibility. The biggest thing it has done for us, is it’s allowed us to go a little gonzo on our own marketing. We thanked our customers by putting a banner up in our store and had people take pictures with us. The Music Makes a Difference award was also such a validation of what we’re trying to do every day. We were able to share that with a lot of our band director partners.