4 Tips to Selling Lighting Control

Lots of home technologies boost convenience. Others improve aesthetics. And others reduce energy costs.

Lighting control is one of the few that can do all three.

So why is lighting control's penetration rate so weak in new and existing homes? Erik Anderson, national sales manager of residential construction for Lutron Electronics, says the industry needs to improve its salesmanship.

"There is a paradigm shift taking place in the industry for integrators. They need to shift their focus from new construction to existing homes," says Anderson. "The days of selling lots of systems rolled into the mortgages of a new home buyer are gone.

"Now dealers need to show clients how lighting control can add value to their lifestyle. They need to ask good probing questions about their family and lifestyle. They can't just demonstrate lighting control. They really need to become better salesmen."

Here are four ways to improve your lighting control sales technique.

Give Examples to Customers Before Probing

You can’t just sit down with a client and start asking questions about their personal habits to determine what lighting control system fits their needs. Some questions can be misconstrued and too forward if asked out of the blue early in the conversation.

For instance:

• "Does your husband travel a lot?"
• "Who goes to bed last in your household and who turns off the lights?"
• "Who sleeps on what side of the bed?"
• "Do you get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom?"

Before you can ask those personal questions, a salesperson needs to prepare the client by first providing some examples of problems and solutions.

John Park, marketing manager for the Residential Solutions Group at Lutron, offers these good examples:

• "Do you ever come home at night and fumble to try to find the front door house key?" The salesperson can then explain how a remote keyfob can eliminate the problem
• "Do your kids ever leave the lights on for hours in the basement after they are done playing?" The salesperson can then explain how simple motion-activated lighting control can turn off the light.

Be Careful When Bringing Up Energy Savings

Not all homeowners are concerned about saving energy. Some clients are even "anti-green." So it is not wise to introduce energy savings in your conversation with a client unless you have certain indicators.

"A salesperson needs to qualify a customer before introducing energy savings into the conversation," he says. "If you see a Prius parked in the driveway, that's a good indicator. But if it's a big house with only one resident, perhaps you should only discuss energy savings if the homeowner brings it up."