In recent editorials, I’ve been going over Porter’s Five Forces and putting them into context for businesses of the AV business. To review, here are the Five Forces: Threat of new entrants Threat of substitutes Bargaining power of customers Bargaining power of suppliers Industry rivalry For this installment, I want to discuss the threat of […]
When I browse the video department of modern retails I’m struck by how lucky kids today have it. When I was their age, demonstrating video quality was much more difficult. I’m going to take you way back in time, before DVD, before HDTV, to the 1990s. Back then we had neither digital signal nor fancy […]
Ask anybody who’s been in business a long time and they’ll tell you how crucial repeat and referral business has been to their success. It’s not hard to get someone to do business with you once, but the trick is to be good enough for them to not only do business with you twice, but […]
Professional AV companies have a selection of certifications they can qualify for, from industry trade associations like InfoComm and CEDIA, to product category-specific certifications from major vendors like Crestron or AMX or the Imaging Sciences Foundation and so on. How important is it for you and your people to be certified? Granted, many municipalities require […]
The first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs is drawing to a close, which makes these reminiscences timely. Let me just say that I’m not a gambler. Like, at all. If there is a “gambling gene” it’s complete absent from my makeup. It’s not that I don’t approve of gambling; I’ve got no moral objections […]
Making generalities are useful when establishing guidelines. In general, if you work with enough business owners and managers, and review the performance of their teams, you’ll see commonalities and trends. And, speaking generally, comparable businesses in the same channel have more in common than they are different. One of the most common of those commonalities is […]
The business news this past week has been abuzz with stories about retailer bankruptcies, increasingly vacant shopping malls, and the looming threat of an economic recession. Those trends are ominous, but it a blackly humorous way reminded me of some of my own misadventures in retail. I was managing an electronics store, and it happened […]
AV install professionals like to see themselves as completely different from the mass-market consumer electronics retailers. Exterior details may vary from upscale retail storefront, or by-appointment-only showrooms and they take pains to present an impeccable image of expertise and professionalism that sets them apart from the look and feel of a big box store. The […]
People who haven’t worked in retail seldom have a grasp of how pernicious fraud is. Proactively countering it, and retroactively uncovering it is a Sisyphean task that has be done almost daily. When you work for a company that sells big ticket electronics, credit card fraud is constant issue. I’m barely exaggerating when I say […]
Previously I’d been reminiscing about the various people who walked through the doors of the stereo shops I worked at, from Tire Kickers to the Whales. Of course, there are many others. There’s also the Perpetually Upset. Everyone who’s worked with the public knows that there are some people who just want to be unhappy, […]
While everybody has an important role to play, it can be argued that the most important part of AV company are the techs. It’s important that everyone, sales, design, project management, programming and support do exemplary work that their job, but If the install and service techs aren’t an A-List team, none of the rest […]
When faced with a challenging situation there are two actions that can be taken which can go a long way towards defusing the situation and moving towards a productive resolution. Apologizing and taking responsibility. Even if you yourself had nothing to do with it. Even if the problem originated with someone or something else somewhere […]
Stock balancing, simply, is the dealer returning unsold inventory to their supplier. The underlying motivation in stock balancing is to free up dollars that are tied up in slow moving inventory in order to purchase new stock that the dealer plans to turn over quicker than the slow moving stock. It’s typical for dealers to arrange a […]
Recently, I’ve blogged about salesperson lingo, specifically, tirekickers and be-backs. Since I’ve been diving into the vernacular of the salesfloor, here’s some more. Just as prospective customers who never buy anything have their own nickname, so to do their opposites: the customers who buy. In the parlance, a “whale” is a customer who’s spending big. […]
It just occurred to me that I haven’t regaled rAVe readers with any tales from my retail days in quite some time. Then it occurred to me that I’ve been out of the retail trenches for nearly twelve years. Like awakening from a bad dream, the memories are slowly fading. I’ve seen things you people […]
I have what I consider to be an advantage in my job. I’m responsible for a business territory that covers 661,848 km², larger than Montana and Wyoming put together. And because of the oil and gas sector, I get to travel to most of it. As a result of the impact that oil and gas […]
They say it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. Without sinking into a lengthy digression about what that really means, I’ll just gloss it over with “getting to know people is important.” For many of us, the best opportunities we’ve had have come to us by way of our personal and professional networks. […]
Everybody likes to make money, and see their business grow. That’s hard to dispute. When business is slow, it’s entirely natural to seek new business partners, both inside your channel as well as out. But how far should one go, and how far is too far? When searching for growth opportunities, the guiding question should […]
Nobody’s business operates in a vacuum. Your company is surrounded by a network of clients, vendors, collaborators and competitors. Everyone in that network has their own challenges that they’re dealing with. Some of it won’t impact you and some of it will. The key is to maintain awareness of the world outside your own little […]
I was just remarking earlier how much I’m enjoying my years-long streak of not having to attend CES. But just because I’m not there, doesn’t mean I can’t reminisce about trade shows. Frankly, my favorite part of trade shows has never been the technology. Nope, it was the catering. From the wine and cheese receptions […]
In case you missed it, back last October Gary posted a brief, to-the-point blog post entitled Are You Thinking Ahead? The Smartphone Is Killing the Large-Screen TV. Take the time to read it now, if you haven’t already. I’m going to take the opportunity to support his thesis with my own observations. He’s absolutely correct […]
With the holiday season upon us, I’m reminded of a predicament I found myself in a couple of years ago. A friend of my parents planned a combination holiday party and Trailer Park Boys marathon. I remain mystified by the obsession my parents and their peers, doctors, judges, university administrators and similar, have with watching […]
I have often blogged about the power of coffee to open doors and cement relationships. Just this past week, I walked into the office of one of my customers who, normally, have a very rigid approach towards scheduling meetings. I know that, and always respect it. However this time, I walked in armed with a […]
I wanted to use that title, so I’m going to break my moratorium on too many editorials with too many Jerry McGuire references too close together. While the business climate seems to be slowly improving, I have yet to talk to anyone in the various channels of the AV and CE business who’s told me […]
Competition in the electronics business is tough. There are lots of products to choose from, and plenty of places to buy them from. You can sell on price, or you can sell on value. The problem with selling on price is if all you have to offer is a low price, there’s no really good […]
Like Dickey Fox said in Jerry Maguire, “The key to this business is *claps hands* personal relationships!” Regardless of how fantastic their products are, vendor sales reps need to understand that the personal relationship they build with their dealers can be the make or break factor in how much business they get, or if they […]
While redesigning the new controls for my media room I encountered a technical nuisance that I felt deserved its own sidebar, separate from the larger article I’ve been working on about my new control system. Drunk with the power that comes from the potential realized by an IP-enabled control system that works over my home’s […]
Room design that allows for adequate airflow for cinema rooms can be an event more noted in the breach than in the observance. In needs assessment meetings with potential clients to develop their wish list for the things they want their media or cinema room to do, they inevitably focus on things like how big […]
When you work in sales you encounter a wide variety of personalities. That’s doubly so when you work in retail and deal with the public all day. Pivotal to being successful in sales is to identify the approach that works best with a specific person to secure their agreement, and “make the sale,” as they […]
Not that I seriously believe that anyone has been following the saga of my rebuilding of my Media Room post-flood, and my search for a new control system for my AV gear. BUT IF YOU WERE, you might be interested to know that after much research and discussion with knowledgeable AV Pros, I elected to […]
Recent experiences have brought security installations to the forefront of my thinking. Security subsystems are something that AV pros have polarizing opinions on. Some don’t mind handling them, some do so only grudgingly, and others won’t touch them. Like everything, when deciding whether to do security at all there are pros and cons. The most […]
I get asked periodically for a copy of our catalog. That’s when I refer them to our website and say “that’s our catalog now.” In any channel where technology advances quarterly, or even more often, and what’s hot can change weekly, combined with printing costs, and a general rise in eco-friendly sentiments have put print […]
