By John Sciacca May 20, 2013
I had the unique, two-hours-only-a-parent-could-love, pleasure of attending my daughter’s ballet recital this past weekend. And if you’ve never had the opportunity, I can assure you that watching dozens of 4-12 year old girls dancing ballet and tap to covers of Michael Jackson hits is every bit as fun as it sounds. (Did I mention that there was no intermission? Or bar? And that it was two hours?)
By Gary Yacoubian May 20, 2013
Let’s call a truce. Direct-to-consumer AV brands are not the enemy of
brick-and-mortar AV dealers. Manufacturers that adhere to a strict,
Internet-only sales platform certainly don’t help the retail sales of
independent or locally owned businesses, but traditionally
consumer-direct companies pursuing a blended distribution strategy offer
plenty of compelling reasons why you should consider adding them to the
product line-up.
By Heather L. Sidorowicz May 16, 2013
You’ve met with the client. You’ve demonstrated the system for them. You’ve gone over the quote line by line, but they’re still on the fence. Mr. Ziglar, an American author, salesman, and motivational speaker, has simplified sales hiccups for us.
By Todd Anthony Puma May 15, 2013
Months ago, I wrote in this space about not judging a customer by how
they dress or what they drive. Last week, I described ways to build
partnerships with other firms in the industry. This week, I want to
bring it all together. The bottom line is focusing on customer service
as the priority. Make the customer happy, work with each other as peers,
and we will all not only grow the industry but make more money and be
more successful.
By John Sciacca May 13, 2013
Doing the right thing might not always be easy. And it might not always be the most profitable. But a large part of being successful as an integrator is developing a solid reputation for always doing the right thing, and it will almost definitely win out in the long run.
By Jeremy J. Glowacki May 09, 2013
Mitch Witten says that he’s been having “a blast” since Core Brands
hired him as brand manager for Niles and Sunfire. It was not only
refreshing to hear such enthusiasm about two iconic custom installation
brands, but it was comforting to hear it from someone who has just about
seen it all in this business.
By Heather L Sidorowicz May 09, 2013
There was a time that I looked for talent in my new employees without
worrying about them having a good attitude. I believed it was worth the
trade off. Work is work, right? It doesn’t have to be a happy place. It
is called work for a reason. The clients didn’t complain. The work got
finished.
By Todd Anthony Puma May 07, 2013
There is a lot of competition between integrators, but there needs to be cooperation as well. Everyone needs a way to quickly scale up or down, or just have someone they can lean on in a time crunch. By John Sciacca May 07, 2013
The world’s largest technology distributor, Ingram Micro Inc., owners of
CE distribution powerhouses AVAD and DBL Distributing, hosted a vendor
expo for resellers this past week in Scottsdale, AZ, at the absolutely
beautiful Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort, a AAA 5-Diamond rated
property.
By Jeremy J. Glowacki May 06, 2013
Turn on NPR’s Marketplace report any weekday afternoon, and you’ll find
out the latest stock market reports and Dow Jones Industrial Average—but other than helping to gauge the mood of the typical high-net-worth
client, they don’t say much about the state of the custom install
market. A recent discussion with the president of national AV products
distributor Capitol, however, gave me one of the best signs that
business is improving for the channel.