Ibiquity has overhauled its retail sales Web site, www.hdradiouniversity.com.
The revamped site is designed to inform retail salespeople about HD Radio in an “informative and fun way,” according to the announcement.
Chalk Media, which works with Best Buy, Samsung and other organizations, worked together on the project.
The site was last revamped in 2006, updating what had been a CD (and in its earliest form, a binder) for training.
I found the site easy to navigate and taking the test was fun. However I’m curious what, if any, incentives — or even mandates — retail salespeople have to go and look for the information.
On the site, benefits touted to the salespeople are that taking the course will result in higher sales, higher referrals and fewer returns.
Will their employers make them look at this? You can tell by talking to sales people in CE stores that many of them have misperceptions about HD-R. Is that going to change? I’m told the constant turnover of sales staff in big-box retail makes sales training for HD-R difficult, though that sounds thin, given that every new consumer electronics product requires training.
I’d love for someone from the CE world to reach out to me on this question and explain the incentive to sell the HD-R product vs. some other radio or a device that also includes a radio, that carries a higher ticket price.
Does the radio industry need to throw some cash the retailers’ way to make this happen faster? Yes, alliance stations are carving out airtime for ads that benefit retailers; but what more can the industry do?
