SIGHT AND SOUND TECHNOLOGY

PODCAST EPISODE 69

Stuart Lawler: Hello and welcome in to the Sight and Sound Technology podcast. My name is Stuart Lawler and this is episode number 69.

Stuart Lawler: It's great to be back and welcome in to another show from Sight and Sound Technology. It feels like quite a while since we were with you last and it has been because there's been so much going on. More about that in just a sec, but thank you as always for your company and we hope you're going to enjoy the show. Coming up today, we'll be introducing the newest member of the Sight and Sound Technology team. Nick Alsbury has recently joined as part of our field sales staff. We'll be finding out all about him. Stay right where you are.

Stuart Lawler: But before we do all that, podcast@sightandsound.co.uk is the email address if you'd like to get in touch with us. We always enjoy feedback and comments and suggestions for the show and we appreciate everybody who writes in and gets in touch or gives us a call or what often happens, of course, is I find myself at exhibitions, like we had at Sight Village London and Sight Village Birmingham last year and the amount of people who came up and said, I listen to the podcast and I love the webinars and all that stuff, so it's really, really nice to hear. We have been getting some nice feedback, by the way, on our podcast transcripts. Our wonderful podcast transcriber, Hazel, is doing a really great job for us and we'd love to get your feedback. If you find the podcast transcripts to be useful, please do let us know. I know, in particular for people who maybe can't listen to the show or for people who haven't time to listen to the show, it may be a really useful addition and help you find the information that we discuss. It's been a very busy couple of months at Sight and Sound Technology, lots going on. We're going to have Glenn Tookey on the show in the not too distant future, because we're long overdue a chat with Glenn and we want to catch up with him on a number of things. Sight Village exhibitions are starting very soon with Cardiff in April and in a couple of weeks time, I'm going to be talking to Paul Hopkins from QAC, because we want to find out all about the Sight Village calendar for the year ahead and what people can look forward to. It's a bit of a tradition really, isn't it, for lots of people - head down to Sight Village. So, that's going on. We've been running some Hable One Challenges over the last couple of weeks with our friends from Hable and more about that on a future podcast as well. As I say, if you'd like to get in touch with us, podcast@sightandsound.co.uk. We always love to hear from you.

Stuart Lawler: Well, if you're a regular listener to this podcast, you'll know we enjoy introducing new staff to the Sight and Sound Technology team and to our podcast listeners and in mid January, Nick Alsbury joined us as one of our national sales team. He's one of the field based sales team, travelling around the London area, and probably further afield as well, I think, and Nick has a very interesting background which you'll hear about in a sec. Nick, welcome to the show first of all.

Nick Alsbury: Good morning. Thanks very much, Stuart.

Stuart Lawler: Thanks for joining us. About two months in, is that right?

Nick Alsbury: It is, yes. Time seems to be flying. Two months in. Thoroughly enjoying myself, completely new career for me and it's something I'm really enjoying. Every day is different.

Stuart Lawler: That's great, and it's true. When you work in Sight and Sound, every day is different, very different. Listen, and this is completely by chance, I may not have known this when we were doing this interview, but I was chatting to Stephanie Davies a couple of weeks ago, who's been on this show before, and she said something about Nick used to work for QVC, and I said, "Seriously?" So, you've had kind of an history in the media, right?

Nick Alsbury: I have, yes. I worked for QVC and I also worked actually for BBC3 Counties Radio as well, but basically for QVC, I worked as a freelance presenter of technology products and I did that for 16 years. I initially went in there to sell them a product and they said, "Of course, you know the product better than anybody else. Why don't you come on air and sell it?" And then I moved companies and QVC said to me, "Well, seeing as your background is in tech products, why don't you become our freelance tech presenter?" So, I went in and I presented any tech. It could be anything from a mobile phone to a laptop to a tablet to a TV, DVD and Blu-ray players when they first came out and I did that for 16 years. My claim to fame is that I have actually got a blooper on YouTube. So, if anybody wants to have a little chuckle at my expense, go and look up QVC Presenter Breaks Plasma, on YouTube, and you'll see me smashing a TV live on air. It was quite interesting. I did sell a million and a half pounds worth of those TVs in the day, but unfortunately I had a little accident with one of them.

Stuart Lawler: Well, I think the fact that you broke one and still sold a million and a half, I'm sure they forgave you. I must look that up after the show. I'm wondering, Nick, what's it like doing that on TV? You're speaking to camera but you're not obviously engaging directly with people and presumably in your other sales work, you were very much customer focused, people in the same room. Is that different?

Nick Alsbury: It is slightly. They did used to get quite a few viewers. Viewers could sometimes run into many hundreds of thousands and sometimes up to a couple of a million people viewing, which was quite scary, but it's almost like you become their friend and you have to explain stuff to them. Because you're doing it over the TV and it's something that they can't actually touch and feel, you have to keep it really simple and explain stuff to them and I used to get people that would stop me in the street and say, "Oh, we've seen you on the TV. You make stuff really simple for us to explain." And I have to say, that's something that, now I'm working for Sight and Sound Technology, has expanded even more, because lots of the customers that I'm dealing with, who are visually impaired, you have to make the stuff easy for them to use. I think that if you know how to explain stuff really simply, so that people aren't worried about technology. Technology is actually quite easy, it's people's perception that it's difficult and you have to get over that preconception.

Stuart Lawler: Just, Nick, going back to QVC for a sec, because I was thinking about this earlier today, you were a presenter on QVC and this was, I guess, just before we all went online and now just click and buy something. You make an interesting point about talking directly to people over the telly. We're kind of missing that now, aren't we? People are just online, click, go to Amazon or wherever. Something has gone, hasn't it?

Nick Alsbury: Yes. When I first started on QVC, the only way you could order was to telephone, was to ring up and actually speak to an operator at QVC. As it went on and the internet became more popular and more people were using it, lots of people actually used to watch the programme on TV but then order online, so they wouldn't ring up, they'd actually sit there with their TV and their laptop or their mobile phone. I think we have lost a bit of that face to face thing now and that's one thing that I'm enjoying at Sight and Sound, because it is face to face. I think that it's all very well and good buying stuff over the internet, but if you really want some expertise, you really need to speak to somebody and get that personal service and I think that's where maybe some people like Sight and Sound, and at retail level, some of the smaller retailers, have made it their niche that, okay, we may not be the cheapest but we can offer the service and I think people are thinking now, "Well, do you know what, I don't mind paying a little bit more if I know I'm going to get a really good service."

Stuart Lawler: I think that's so true and, as you say, that personal contact which is what we like at Sight and Sound. You went to the motor industry, I think, for a while, working with BMW. I guess, that would be very different to QVC and all the technology stuff that you had been doing.

Nick Alsbury: Yes, it was. I've been a petrol-head all my life. I'm absolutely mad about cars and people have said to me, why don't you go and work in the car industry? Initially I went to work for a big leasing company and then due to different things, the company decided to shut the office down and I got made redundant, so I went to work for Hyundai for a few months on their corporate fleet side. Then I went to do a similar job with BMW and, don't get me wrong, the companies I worked for were great employers. I just hated the job and I think a lot of it, especially with BMW, with respect, and I don't mean to offend anybody who drives a BMW, but some of the BMW customers that came in had this sort of, "I'm buying a BMW, I'm privileged" attitude and didn't treat the people in the dealerships very well. So, I thought, I'm of an age where I don't really want all this aggravation and I found about the job at Sight and Sound Technology and went along and I thought, that's really up my street, it's dealing with people face to face and also it's a lot more fulfilling, helping somebody out. I don't mean to be patronising, but you go in there and hopefully you're helping somebody with their visual impairment and I feel a lot better than just having people who have probably got a lot of money that want to go out and buy a flash car.

Stuart Lawler: Yes, it's not just the sale, there's a little bit more to it, isn't there?

Nick Alsbury: Yes. It's a much more personal thing. I was saying to you a while ago, I meet such a diverse range of people and I even met a chap this week that used to be a Brigadier General in the Nigerian military.

Stuart Lawler: Wow.

Nick Alsbury: He was a really nice chap and if we can work together, he wants to write a book, so I went there to help him out with some technology that can help him write his book and it was great to be able to do that sort of thing. A lot more fulfilling, I'm really enjoying it.

Stuart Lawler: So, what's it been like, two months in, because I think everybody coming into this industry, there is a lot of technology and even for those of us who've been in this industry for a while, there's lots of stuff coming along, what's it been like for you just getting your head around all the bits?

Nick Alsbury: It's not too bad. I'm used to technology. There are some bits that at the moment are a complete mystery to me, especially some of the braille products. In fact, I've got a presentation tomorrow with some braille products, but luckily enough, at Sight and Sound Technology, we've got enough wealth of people and expertise, so my colleague Tony Shrubb is actually coming with me to do the braille part of the presentation tomorrow and I'll learn from that. We did a recent exhibition down at the ExCel in London, the 100% Optical, and I learned a lot from working with people like Tony and Graham, who's one of my other colleagues who works up in Scotland, and with Stephanie, and I learned a lot from them about the products and also different ways that these products that we sell can help people, not realising that something like a RUBY 7, that's got the rotatable camera on the top, is ideal for ladies with a visual impairment to help them put their makeup on. Now, that's something I've never thought of, but that's something, I'm thinking, wow, that's so obvious, if you think about. So I'm learning new stuff all the time and, again, really enjoying it.

Stuart Lawler: You know something, it's something I never thought of either until you said it. Got to get my makeup sorted for the next time. We're entering into the exhibition season. Sight Villages are going to be starting up in a couple of months. Are you looking forward to really getting out and meeting lots of customers?

Nick Alsbury: Yes. I've got some smaller local events. One of my colleagues, Sam Coulson, who works in the North, he's got a show on this Friday which he's unable to attend, so I'm actually doing it on his behalf. So, I'm doing a show for him up in Hull. I'm going down to one in Devon in a couple of weeks time with Tony because he's got three or four down in Devon and he can only make one of them, so I'm going down to see what the setup is for this one and then I'm doing the next three for him. Then we've got a big show in Cardiff in April. So, in fact I'm doing a show in Cardiff one day and then I'm working with some of my customers in South Wales the next day and then I'm driving down nearly to Plymouth the day after that to do another show for Tony down in Cornwall. So, really looking forward to it, and again meeting lots of different people. I enjoy talking to people, I think that's one of the things I love about this job and different people that you meet and different experiences that they've had. You almost become, I suppose, a friend, if you know what I mean, to some of them. Even now, after only a couple of months, I have people that ring me up and say, "Oh, Nick, thanks for coming out the other day. I wonder if you'd just help me. How do you do this? Or what can do that? Or if I've got this product, what will this do to help me?" They tend to rely on you a bit more and I love that, I really enjoy it.

Stuart Lawler: I agree with you. It's lovely and it's lovely to have that personal contact with people. I can tell already, you're incredibly busy. Is your car your little portable office? Do you spend a lot of time in the car?

Nick Alsbury: I do, yes. In fact, I made Stephanie laugh the other week, because she asked me what I was doing and I told her I'd got my office set up in my car. She said, what do you mean, and I said, well, I've got a little clip-on desk for my steering wheel, and I've got an adapter that I can plug into my car that I can then plug in my laptop with a three-pin socket, so I can actually sit there at my steering wheel with my desk clipped onto it with my laptop on it and I can type away, instead of trying to type on your lap or on the armrest. I've actually got this clip-on desk for my steering wheel, so I can actually work in the car. If you get a break sometimes in between calls, or you stop for a coffee or a lunch or something, you can just check up on your emails while you're there and with the technology and hotspotting and all that sort of stuff nowadays, so, yes, my car is my office. I have everything in there really. I even carry a bag that's got some toiletries in it and a spare shirt and a spare pair of underwear so that if I get caught somewhere and I have to end up having to stop out the night, I've got an emergency kit in the car.

Stuart Lawler: You're a seasoned salesman, for sure. Nick, it's been so nice to chat to you and I can absolutely tell already, customers who meet you are going to have a really great experience, really warm personality. It's lovely to chat to you. How can people get in touch with you? If there's people around your-- I was going to say your region. You're kind of London based, aren't you, but I guess, as you've told us, you're covering a whole load of other areas as well. If people want to get in touch with you, how can they do that?

Nick Alsbury: Well, I do London, the north part of London. I do the Midlands and I go up around Birmingham area and up to Peterborough, plus I do a little bit in South Wales as well. So, they can either get me on my usual email, which is nick.alsbury@sightandsound.co.uk, or they can give me a call on my mobile which is 07485 397713.

Stuart Lawler: Alright, Nick, so nice to catch up with you. We haven't actually met in person yet, but looking forward to that happening at hopefully one of the Sight Village shows during the year. Continued success at Sight and Sound, don't break any more plasma screens and we'll be in touch soon. Thanks a million for the interview.

Nick Alsbury: Thanks very much, Stuart. Nice to speak to you.

Stuart Lawler: Well, I thoroughly enjoyed that conversation with Nick Alsbury, great to catch up with Nick and really looking forward to meeting him in person, really genuinely nice guy and we're delighted to have him as part of our field based sales team, who really are the first point of contact for so many of our customers. Well, that's just about it for this show. We will be back very soon. Until then, from Stuart Lawler and everybody at Sight and Sound Technology, take care and thanks for listening. Bye, bye.