We were lucky to catch up with Shai Ashkenazi recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Shai thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a fun one – what’s something you believe that most people in your industry (or in general) disagree with?
I believe in full disclosure and transparency. I am doing the best I can to communicate in all honesty and be as direct as possible. I found that even though being direct and to the point may be a bit shocking at first, but very quickly being appreciated and saves a lot of time. Unfortunately in my industry, and honestly in most others, sellers tend to be dishonest and focus on the sole purpose of turning profit, even if it means not telling the truth.
Shai, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
We specialize in buying, selling, trading and repairing used and vintage instruments, mainly guitars and amps. I LOVE doing that and after over 23 years in the business, I feel very confident about my knowledge in the field. As a business owner, in an industry I have great passion for, it is very important for me and retain good relationships. for that, I find that proper and honest communication is key. I do not believe that the customer is always right, and with the proper communication, I will let them know. Doing the best you can to try and make people happy, wether it’s a customer, an employee or even myself is most important, however not always achievable.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
We opened the first location in Burbank California in the midst of a global financial crisis. Many have told us this is silly and risky, but with dedication, we thrived. During the covid pandemic, with restrictions from the govermnet and many businesses going out, We kept working, with new guidelines, kept all our employees paid, and came out winning. I find that being flexible and fluid with times and certain hurdles, can help overcome almost any problem.
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
An example of a crisis that turned out to be a blessing. We had a theft at one of our locations. A woman, with some pre planning, was able to snatch 2 guitars off our walls totaling about $20,000 and escaped. Thanks to an extensive social media campaign I have initiated immediately, we were able to recover the guitar back in about a week. What did happen as a result to our social media attention, is that almost every news channel contacted us asking for the security footage we had, and the story made it to the news. within 3 days we received an assesed publicity of over $100,000 and to this date, you can still find the story all over the internet. Our sales grew in the following months and the woman ended up in jail. Not an ideal situation, but what a great result!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://imperialvintageguitars.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imperial_vintage/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imperialvintageguitars
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shai-ashkenazi-06a04b1b
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/imperialguitars
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/IVGUITARS
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/imperial-vintage-guitars-burbank-2