The key to a healthy relationship is open, clear communication. That applies to not only personal relationships, but also business ones. And central to having a positive relationship with your clients is how well you and they communicate with each other. That clarity has to begin right away. In the initial discussion and subsequent needs […]
The Germans always have the best words for everything. In particular, “schadenfreude” is a real banger. If you don’t know, it means “enjoying the misfortunes of others.” I bring this up because we all love talking about work problems — ours and other people’s. Often, we’re all gossiping about the not-perfect clients who range on […]
One of my friends who owns a small, specialized, successful distribution company once characterized the people on his team to me as either “nice guys who don’t know anything” or “guys who know everything about every product but have zero people skills.” It sounds like a stark generalization, but since I know the people he […]
Last week I got an email from one of my biggest dealers that was so out of the ordinary that I had to read it three times. Even then, I had to call my contact there to verbally confirm what I was reading. It was just … wild. No matter how old I feel some […]
Talking with my various contacts (dealers, vendors and whoever), discussions lately always seem to turn to whatever new and unforeseen complications have made life difficult. It’s been a real smorgasbord, from supply chain delays and material shortages to climate disasters and more. And that’s just the last six months. It really does feel like the […]
Somehow the future we’re living in seems to be dumber and more complicated than the one that was predicted. It wasn’t that long ago — ten years ago (if that) — that there was much talk about “cord-cutters,” consumers who were canceling their broadcast TV subscriptions and getting all their entertainment over the internet. Many […]
Back in the 1990s, when the comic strip “Dilbert” was still funny, there was one where the manager said, “I’ve been saying for years that ’employees are our most valuable asset.’ It turns out I was wrong. Money is our most valuable asset. Employees are ninth.” (Eighth was “carbon paper,” which gives you a clue […]
There’s one phrase that I don’t often throw out into discussions, but when I do, I have good reason to. I drag it out when I see people putting an inordinate amount of time into things that have either a very remote chance of a payoff and/or a payoff that’s incredibly small. I call it […]
It’s been said about time management skills that the workday is the daily tension between the important and the urgent. There are the tasks in your calendar you know you have to get done, and there are the ones that you didn’t know you had to get done until they drop in your lap. Oh, […]
The new year doesn’t just mean a chance for friends and family to celebrate. A lot of organizations and institutions mark the new year with a celebration I call “burning through the budget.” That liminal period between Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve can be a busy time as organizations put out a flurry of […]
Everyone likes surprises. I know I do. At least, I like fun surprises. You know, like parties, or free marzipan. To be fair, not all surprises are fun, and most of us don’t like those ones. The series of natural disasters that have assailed British Columbia for a month (although it feels a lot longer) […]
This has been a holiday season like none other I’ve experienced. It was so different from past Christmases that it’s difficult to quantify it. Considering that we’re two years into COVID-19 and its effects on, well, everything, that would make sense. It’s just that this Christmas season is even different from 2020’s season, the first […]
In the initial installment, I talked about how the smart home designation “works with” often has a greater nuance that involves “sort of works with.” Also, for a large part of it, many manufacturers have left it to the installers and end users to figure things out for themselves. That’s where the ball lies, but […]
There are cycles in life, just as there are in nature. Just like how winter turns to spring, people grow, change and sometimes move on. We take comfort in the reliability of cycles; we can count on them because we know what to expect. You can see that in the way we talk to each […]
Going back through old columns and notes from years past in the folders on my laptop is an enlightening experience. Looking back ten or more years is especially thought-provoking, mostly because I’m reminded of opinions and pronouncements I had made in which I was dead wrong. For example, there was a time when I thought […]
One topic that comes up often in discussions with the dealers I work with is aligning incentives towards the activities you want your team members to carry out and the behaviors you want them to exhibit. Sometimes aligning incentives is easy: pay them more if they do x, y or z. Other times it’s less […]
The beginning of the holiday season always makes me think about my time working in the retail side of the business. That’s understandable since I spent so much time there and, like it or not, retail and the holiday season are inextricably linked. I spent a couple of years working for a major department store. […]
I know I’ve recently written about managing lead times and expressing appreciation for your project managers. This column touches upon elements of both, which makes sense when you consider how everything in this business depends on everything else, one way or another. There’s that old expression that says the only constants in life are death […]
An important but seldomly acknowledged part of my job is to be a good listener. It comes with the territory as part of being a value-adding business partner for my dealer network. I like to joke about how providing unpaid business consulting benefits both my clients and me: If they’re successful, then by extension, so […]
It’s probably apparent to rAVe readers that inspiration for columns often comes from things that happen in my work life. I’ll help a client solve a problem and think, “That’s a good idea for a topic. Someone else will probably get something out of reading about it!” Today’s column sprang from a recent conversation with […]
It’s that time again. It hardly seems possible, but the Holiday Season is on the horizon. I’m not kidding! Canadian Thanksgiving is Monday, then comes Halloween. After that, it’s American Thanksgiving, immediately followed by the anticipated/dreaded retail bonanza of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Before you know it, it will be Christmas, and then the weird […]
Last week, I was fortunate to go on my first overnight work trip in 18 months. Also — and these two things are related — that trip was the farthest I’ve been from home in almost two years. One of my biggest dealers held their first Customer Appreciation Day in over two years, and I […]
If AV install companies stick around long enough, they reach a point where they have a large installed base of legacy systems out there. That’s great for a number of reasons: repeat upgrade business and new referral business from satisfied clients. Not to mention — you survived and prospered, while others may have not. But, there […]
Yogi Berra said the following quote: “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.” The difference between theoretical and practical is apparent to any AV pro who’s spent their time in the field. And while you can learn either by doing or by observing, lessons are generally internalized better […]
I’m fortunate that my roster of dealers and resellers encompasses a diverse range of channels and verticals. It means I get to meet many interesting people and help them find solutions for a diverse range of problems. It also means that my problems are diverse as well. Even if readers aren’t embedded in the channel […]
Most AV professionals I know don’t think of AV as being the “construction industry.” While I can entertain arguments for fitting it under that umbrella, if anything, the AV business is “construction-adjacent.” It’s that adjacency that means that AV pros need to understand liens and holdbacks since they’re a reality of doing business. How holdbacks […]
In the first installment, I started talking about the importance of holding the line in the face of unreasonable requests from clients to discount your labor charges. As I am sometimes painfully reminded, there’s a difference between a hobby and business. Specifically this: If it costs you money, it’s a hobby. If it makes you […]
Not long ago, I submitted a piece titled “Things That Come Up a Lot” where I dove into some of the common challenges AV and CE businesses face, regardless of the specific vertical they’re in. I made the point that most are more similar than they are different, and while specific solutions may need to […]
Not long ago, I submitted a piece titled “Things That Come Up a Lot.” I dove into some of the common challenges AV and CE businesses face, regardless of the specific vertical they’re in. I made the point that most are more similar than they are different and that while specific solutions may need to […]
When discussing business matters with my dealer clients, most of the conversations center around finding ways to grow their revenue and increase profit margins. Ideally, we cover both. They’re both worthy objectives, and it’s something clients look to me to help them achieve. But they’re also only part of the puzzle. As important as growing […]
There’s a joke one of my sociology professors used to beat to death. It goes, “There are two types of people: the first type categorizes everyone they meet into one of two types.” I didn’t say it was a good one — my professor certainly thought it was funnier than we did as he always […]
There’s an expression that has stuck with me for a while now: “The way you dress indicates the respect you have for other people.” It stuck with me partly because it’s not an expression I’d already heard a thousand times, like, “The early bird gets the worm.” It also stuck with me because, when you […]
