If you’re not a Control4 dealer, this blog is probably not for you, though I’m sure other control systems have products from time to time which are shiny and drive customer demand. For Control4 dealers, that time is now. We finally have the remote we’ve been begging for and customers seem to be taking notice.
Just this week we’ve sold five Neeo remotes before even having a chance to craft our go-to-market strategy. In case you haven’t seen the Neeo, it’s sexy, well designed and easy to use. The kind of product perfect for customers who’ve had the same boring remote for years.
We’ve decided at Livewire to approach the new Neeo market thoughtfully and put together a plan to test, upgrade, and specify the remote into new projects. Here’s what we’ve done and plan on doing moving forward:
Testing
Control4 sent us one of the Neeo remotes last week to test out and I installed it in a variety of different wireless environments. In some cases, it’s an easy self install living up to Control4’s billing that the remote is meant to be sent to the client and they can configure it themselves. In other cases, I encountered an error message that was easily conquered by a home technology professional but something that would’ve stopped a homeowner dead in their tracks. We’re therefore recommending the remote be professionally installed and baby sat during the nail-biting controller firmware upgrades that invariably need to happen during hardware upgrades. Our final offering will be the remote plus two hours of on-site time for a fixed price.
Existing Client Upgrades
I took to our company blog and wrote an article called “Should I Buy The New Control4 Neeo Remote?” I wanted to offer up a quick product review and give our clients an easy path to purchase. We shared the blog post on social media and encouraged our employees to do the same. I encourage you to follow suit. It’s been great to have a quick resource to send out to interested clients.
Control4 has gotten into the game as well. All of your Control4 customers received an email earlier this week encouraging them to check out the Neeo. I’m grateful that all their communications drive customers to their dealers. The larger question is, are dealers ready for the onslaught of new business? If we don’t think this through, we could all end up with unhappy clients if they don’t realize they need a system overhaul to use the Neeo. If we set their expectations ahead of time, it’s no big deal. Sell them remote for a fixed price and go back with your hat in hand asking for more money? Now you’ve got issues.
All our new NEEO remote requests are first being put through Control4’s Smart Home OS 3 upgrade checker to ensure our folks show up prepared to do the job right the first time.
New Projects
This one’s easy. We’ll continue offering Control4’s basic remote and the Neeo as an upgrade. I’m tempted to switch our remote offering over to Neeo exclusively, but I feel like we need to have a sub-$1000 solution as a starter for some of our client base. We need to do a better job of offering upgrades on our proposals, and the Neeo is a perfect example of scoring easy $300-$400 upgrades on a consistent basis. Across hundreds of proposals, that could really add up. As an example, we started rolling out two-year extended warranty upgrades at the beginning of 2019. We’ve sold over $40,000 worth so far this year. All those dollars flow through to our bottom line, helping to atone for lower margin items (I’m looking at you, televisions).
I’ll keep you posted on our progress, and it would be great to hear about yours. If you’re like us, there are hundreds of clients out there waiting to hear from you. What are you waiting for?
Stay frosty, and see you in the field.