Gregg Hildebrant

If you want to learn about the latest developments in recording technology, there’s no better source than Gregg Hildebrandt. In his more than twenty years in the industry he’s been involved in a number of revolutions, such as the move from tube to solid state electronics, from analog to digital, and many others. During his sixteen- year tenure at TASCAM, a name synonymous with the evolution of recording in America, he has been a product manager, clinician, division manager, and regional sales rep. Although he modestly admits to little or no musical ability, his interpersonal skills and knowledge of recording technology have made him a respected industry resource.

Gregg recently left TASCAM’s U.S. headquarters, where he had been division manager, to get back to his first love, working directly one-on-one with dealers and customers, listening to their needs, and helping them develop solutions with TASCAM technology.

Keith: Initially, Gregg, what drew you to music?

Gregg: Actually, it was kind of by accident. I was going to college at Fresno State at the time, and working on a major in electronic engineering and a minor in computer science.

I got a job working in a music store in Fresno fixing guitar amplifiers, because at that time solid state amplifiers had just hit the scene. So a lot of companies were coming out with solid state guitar amplifiers. That’s how I ended up in the music business.

K: You knew which type of transistor did what, in other words?

G: Yeah, because it was a unique time, right at the end of the tube technology –era and the beginning of solid state. At the time, Kustom had just come out with a line of guitar amplifiers and so the music store that I worked for in Fresno was the Kustom dealer. And of course, they had a lifetime guarantee. So since solid state was not as stable as it is now—you could say it kept me pretty busy. [Laughs]

K: You mentioned you were studying electronics and computers at Fresno State. Did that help your career?

G: To be perfectly blunt, neither the electronics background nor the computer science background has really helped that much, long term. Those technologies were developing so rapidly, frankly, they evolved way past what I had learned within a matter of two or three years.

The formal training that’s been the most helpful to me, believe it or not, is various sales training and sales seminars. I have always been fascinated with just the theory of selling because it requires convincing people to your way of thinking.

K: Did you have any early mentors?

G: Absolutely. My first job was at a music store called Sound Stage in Fresno. As a matter of fact, that store still exists. The Spitzer family owns it now, but at the time Bob and Camille Wilson owned it. Bob Wilson was really my biggest early mentor. Because again, I had no music background whatsoever—just a technical background.

Bob came to me one day and said, “You know, you are pretty good talking with customers. Why don’t you become a salesman and sell things for me?” And I said, “Gee Bob, I could never be a salesman.” Because at that time, my impression of what a salesman was—what most people’s impression is—a used-car type of salesman. You know, with white shoes and a white belt. [Laughs.]

And Bob said, “No, all you really need to do is just explain the products to people. And if it’s the right product…they will buy it.” And I answered, “But I’m not a musician, I don’t know anything about this type of equipment.”

Then he asked me, “Well, I tell you what, what are you really interested in?” I told him that I liked hi-fi and stereo equipment. So he said, “Well, that’s great. Why don’t we open up a little stereo section here and why don’t you pick a few lines, and get started selling hi-fi equipment? Okay?”

So we did that, and of course it was about six months later that I kind of evolved into learning more and more about musical instruments and started selling musical instruments.

He saw something in me and really got me started in the business and was very much of a guiding hand the first several years. He actually made me a store manager and then a branch manager as well.

K: It sounds as if there are two key points worth emphasizing regarding your start. The first is that, for people to excel, they have to work on something that they are enthusiastic about.

G: That’s exactly right.

K: So Bob knew that and put it to good use to get you into selling. He likely knew that long term, he wasn’t going to be a hi-fi dealer. The second point is that often the toughest part of selling, especially for someone who is new to sales, is demolishing their mental image of the pushy used-car salesman.

G: Yes, the myth that all sales people have to be high-pressure types. To this day, I find that really, it is just explaining the concept clearly and concisely, and then listening to what the customer has to say.

Bob Wilson actually taught me to be a pretty decent guitar salesman, even though I couldn’t even tune a guitar at the time. Simply because other stores would hire hot guitar players to sell guitars, and of course when somebody comes in, and the salesman pulls a guitar down and starts wailing on it—there’s a real intimidation…

K: The customer promptly walks out the door.

G: Yes. And with me, I didn’t have that option. I would put the guitar in their hands [laughs]…and beg them, “Do something with it… please.”

K: That’s so true. You mentioned earlier, you’re currently representing TASCAM products throughout Northern California. So that means you are calling on…

G: Music stores…everything from small music stores to pro audio accounts, to film facilities like Skywalker, Saul Zaentz, and Zoetrope film centers. Because TASCAM has such a broad line of recording products, I also call on sound contractors and a few broadcast accounts as well.

Before that, I was division manager of TASCAM for eight years, and I lived in Los Angeles. Frankly, that’s life in the fast lane. After a certain amount of time, it became pretty obvious that I was ready for a change; I needed to kind of slow down a little bit.

I was fortunate because my boss knew that I had always wanted to move back home to Northern California, where I was born and raised. He suggested, “Why don’t you open up a sales office for us up there?” So I did. I’m back out with customers and I love it.

I work with a wide variety of different users, with different applications and different levels of experiences and expertise: everything from a guitar player who is trying to buy his first mini-studio, up through Skywalker Sound, which is trying to figure out how to cram as much audio information over a high-speed network as possible while they build the next blockbuster movie soundtrack.

K: What’s the ratio of time you spend out in the field versus your home office?

G: Well, I typically try and spend one day a week in my home office, and that’s generally on Monday. And then I spend the rest of the week out in the field, because frankly that’s the part of the job that I enjoy the most—getting a chance to work with people, doing sales training and product training. I also like talking to some of the higher-end-users that are trying to figure out how to push that envelope a little bit.

K: So you’re helping people get the most out of the latest products and technologies, and training retailers to understand and educate their end-users about how TASCAM products work.

G: Yes, but the part of the job that is still the most fun, believe it or not, is when you are talking to somebody who has never done any recording before. I like to go through the basics of how multitrack works and what that can do to expand their fun. You will see their eyes light up when they realize the possibilities, and that new-found sense of discovery. It’s really something.

K: Could you describe an entry-level position at TASCAM?

G: TASCAM is a manufacturer and a distributor of recording products in the U. S. What most people would probably think of as entry-level would probably be at our headquarters in Los Angeles for order entry and things like that.

But what I would consider more of an entry-level position from a sales standpoint would be a sales rep position. Essentially that would be going out and calling on end-users and dealers on a regular basis.