Having both attended and exhibited at churches conferences and expos, I’ve learned that while a vendor may have the coolest/best/newest technology on display on the show floor, there’s nothing more compelling to church influencers and buyers than a great training or education session off of the show floor to drive quality leads. The reason is […]

Almost all manufacturers and systems integrators have had at least some experience selling to churches, though those who have mastered the art of the sale to the house of worship market are surprisingly few. I’m going to share my two decades of sales experience in this oft-misunderstood vertical niche and help you know when a […]

In early January I wrote a blog A Direct Look at the AV Environment – The Focus Ahead which in one section talks about how the AV integrator is the heartbeat, the lifeblood of this industry and their models of advancement certainly serve as an example. AVI-SPL, based in Tampa, is that example of an […]

I get ribbed a lot over what one of my friends calls my “hate-crush” on Nassim Nicholas Taleb, who, if you don’t know is the author of Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable and Antifragile: Things That Gain […]

In a meeting last week with the senior management at one of my biggest clients, they shared with me a metric that was frustrating them. Their retail sales associates, as a whole, are incapable of getting attachment sales of any accessory that costs more than $50. Management can see it in the numbers: in the […]

So by now you know that I’m a huge proponent of ensuring that your proposal to the customer is carefully thought out and 110 percent customer-centric. It has to be customer focused, succinct, written in language they understand (no technical terms or jargon), short enough that they will actually read it, and solely focused on […]

As integrators, how many of us know exactly what it costs for each proposal we produce? I don’t have any empirical data, but from having had the privilege of doing this for almost 15 years, my anecdotal answer would be: very few. I know, I know — everyone thinks his own are great and his […]

The perfect product has not yet been built, but that doesn’t stop today’s audio, video and lighting manufacturer’s engineers from trying to build it. If they did, they’d end up building the product they wanted to use, right down to the subtle minutiae of every killer feature and ergonomic design. And it would be a […]

Those who know me know I like to talk. I’ll leave that thought there for now. Recently, in a business discussion I was asked “Why do you answer every question with a story?” I sat there for a few moments and – yes – was speechless (imagine…). Now I’m not sure exactly what my answer […]

Interestingly I listen to sales people in the AV (AV/IT, etc.) industry talk about trying to explain what they do to someone whether at an event, a party or even in an elevator, where of course you have about 20-30 seconds (thus the elevator pitch) to get that Aha moment from the listener. In my almost […]

I’m not a fan of link baiting titles (“Five ways to better…three steps for…”, etc.) but I was tempted to entitle this article “The Five Questions to Ask Churches” because, well, that’s what I’ve written about. However, there’s a warning that comes with this article: These are not sales techniques, but are a paradigm shift […]

Is selling into the house of worship market about more and better leads or about better follow-up to existing clients? The answer is ‘yes;’ the better question is ‘How?’ to get both. Content marketing automation is not new, but it has grown up. The digital sales pipeline represents a huge opportunity for getting more leads, […]

Who is the best person on your integration team? Where are you getting the highest value? Is it the engineer who can design a flawless system and bring it life through a detailed program report and drawing package? Is it the project manager who manages time, scope, and cost with incredible resource management skills and […]

(An exerpt from the book Da Vinci Sales – The 7 Keys to Selling Like Leonardo) Sales is a dog eat dog world. In sales you don’t have time to care and you can’t be weak…or can you? Should you?  Does sympathy pay off in sales? If so, which should you be, sympathetic or empathetic? […]

I had the unique pleasure of helping an existing integrator open up its business to new verticals to see where it may be best suited to be profitable based on the type of work involved. If you work for an integrator, you know that each vertical market has its own unique personality, especially when it […]

If you are an AV integrator reading this post, you are most likely very familiar with the term “Scope Creep”.  It is a term that typically describes what happens when a contracted project starts to grow incrementally at the end-user or client’s request.  “Scope Creep” has been a traditional sieve for project profits, because in […]

“We’re a church with a limited budget. How much budget do we need for this gear?” “We have ‘this amount’ of budget, what technology do you recommend?” Or, my least favorite, “We need to set a budget for our audio, video and lighting. What’s a good amount?” I hear these question from well-meaning people who are […]

Like any business, AV pros face many challenges. Margins, product availability deadlines — all the ones you might expect. I want to focus on just one for this column: Your prospective customers don’t like you. This is not a challenge that’s unique to the AV channel by any means. I don’t like car dealerships, their […]

Note: Chuck Espinoza, CTS-D/I,CQT,ISF-C,DMC-E,EAVA is a co-contributor to this blog article (where noted). After being through the bidding and install job competition wars for over 15 years in the AV industry, I can safely say that I along with others who have written blogs and articles have some great (and frustrating) stories to tell. Many of […]

How much should a church set aside for making audio, video and lighting (AVL) upgrades? As each church is unique and budgets are vastly different from church to church, the best way to answer that is to look at what drives their budget. Considering about 50 percent of a church’s annual finances are dedicated towards […]

Show, don’t tell. It is THE quintessential writing advice for good reason. Don’t tell us that a character is brave – show them facing a fear. While you’re at it, don’t tell us they are afraid — show us the quickening pulse, the sweaty palms, the tightness in the belly. Paint a word picture. Avoid […]

By Ron DeVoe Successful Sales Consulting “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” This phrase was uttered by Strother Martin in the classic, late ’60s movie Cool Hand Luke. While I have again dated myself, I believe this quote is truer now more than ever. As an ancient member of the AV Industry […]

“Stop selling my products” — This would be my new tagline if I were to move back into sales. This may sound like a stupid statement for a sales person to say but bear with me for a little bit.  I can think of a million resellers that can sell my products exactly the way […]

There is an encouraging shift happening in the AV Integration industry.  This shift is happening at the integrator level and at the manufacturer representative level. If you are a not a part of it, you will absolutely need to be or you will be left behind — barefoot and in the cold. This shift illustrates […]

Ask yourself these questions so your customers never have to. Among many attributes, it takes humility, an inquisitive nature and great listening skills to be a good salesperson. Those attributes seem almost obvious, right? OK, I’ll give you that. I think what takes a little more thought and may not be as obvious is the […]

As an entrepreneur, I’ve discovered, lived and taught that change is a constant. When I started consulting with churches, the focus was on audio, video, and lighting system design. This tech-centric focus increased with the addition of teaching and speaking opportunities where I was able to rattle off the latest model numbers and point people […]

How many sales people do you have that transitioned from technical staff into sales? How many of those people had proper sales training? How many of your sales staff has had any formal sales training for that matter? Does it matter? Of course it matters. Back a while ago in my blog I recalled the […]

If there’s anything that I’ve done more often than attending trade shows, it’s been writing about attending trade shows. That includes both editorials and blog posts about how to work the show as an exhibitor to get the maximum return on your company’s investment, as well as suggestions on how, as a member of the […]

If you didn’t see my previous post, this is a retread of five blogs I wrote in 2011 about Sales Etiquette. I was inspired by Lee Distad’s recent blog on manners so I thought I’d share these lessons for anyone who may be able to get something out of them. Sales Etiquette I don’t know […]

I just saw a post on this site by Lee Distad on Why Good Manners Make a Difference. I liked Lee’s post as it questioned whether or not manners are going “out of style” so to speak.  I think we have come into an era where the entitlement attitude of the celebration generation may very […]

Hello to the rAVe World! I am told that many of the readers of this publication are manufacturers reps and integrators. That is good, because I am calling all of you out right here, right now. You may want to do some homework before reading any further. I wrote a blog about this in April, […]

I awoke Friday morning to promptly receive an email from Chief’s own Joel Hagen.  Joel emailed me a link to Scott Tiner‘s post of that day entitled “Over Here! Over Here!” in which he in essence called out his local manufacturer’s reps for ignoring him even though he specifies and even installs much of the […]