Several sources have reported that Parasound Vice President of Sales Larry Bennett has left the company. Bennett was one of the first people brought in when new owner David Sheriff purchased the company from retiring founder Richard Schram and has been at his side during a challenging transition period. I reached out to both Larry Bennett and CEO David Sheriff, finally connecting with Sheriff late Wednesday afternoon, to learn more about this unexpected news.
Learn more about Larry Bennett leaving Parasound
Well-known throughout the industry, Bennett has broad experience in audio, specialty audio, pro audio, and custom integration. This experience was a key reason Sheriff brought Bennett on board to help deal with a dynamic period of transition for Parasound, a company well-established in high-value, high-performance audio gear, as well as a brand that had branched into a few custom installation models as well.
On a Teams video call with Sheriff, he confirmed that Bennett had in fact left the company at the beginning of July. He says that this was a mutually agreed upon decision as Parasound is entering a new phase after more than a year of often challenging transition to the new ownership.
Challenging Times During Ownership Transition
During this transition, there were many issues that needed to be dealt with, Parasound’s CEO told me. And Bennett jumped right in and carried much of the load by doing things that were critical. For example, helping reconfigure the company’s dealer base which included terminating some relationships and finding and opening up new ones.
Larry, did a great job handling the transition and taking a lot of the pressure off of me during that period.
David Sheriff, Parasound CEO
Now, Sheriff says, the company has refined its dealer base and has entered what he called their “focus” mode. In its current configuration, Parasound is not looking for rapid expansion of the dealer base, the job of the sales manager. Instead, the company is now set to focus on its existing dealer base to optimize their business relationship. Sheriff is stepping up to do more of that as he is in constant communication with dealers both by email and phone.
Of course, there will still be some incremental organic growth in the dealer base, he tells me. About 10% of the current dealer base came to them as a result of a referral from one of their existing dealers. But in general, the company is more in the mode of enriching relationships with existing dealers – sort of a customer service process – rather than chasing new dealers to drive more growth.
With the business transitioning to this less sales-intensive model, Sheriff and Bennett mutually agreed to part.
Learn more about Parasound by visiting parasound.com.
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