Audio Video Interiors: Different by Design

No system shall be sold before its time. That's the mantra at Medina, Ohio-based Audio Video Interiors (AVI).

Akin to the notion in real estate that sales are based on "location, location, location," sales at AVI are contingent upon "design, design, design."

Michael Pope, president, is rigid in this posture, which has proven to be a strong backbone for AVI's success and a valuable differentiator in its market as well.

AVI makes it clear to clients up front that they're paying $150 an hour for design. "We start every initial consultation meeting by telling our prospects that Audio Video Interiors does three things," Pope points out.

"We design custom electronic solutions for our customers, we project-manage the installation of custom electronic solutions for our customers and we install custom electronic solutions for our customers. We explain to our prospects that the most important part of any engineered solution is the design."

Pope's reasoning is sound. A great installation team cannot, he believes, make a poorly designed system meet or exceed customers' expectations. An average installation team, on the other hand, can install a well-designed system.

AVI figures the design cost into the quote and puts the question to customers: "Doesn't it make sense to pay for a good design upfront so that you get exactly what you want, that is proven on paper to work and at a price you can afford?"

Prior to adapting this policy, AVI found that one of its biggest overhead expenses came from paying its designer/programmers to engineer systems for proposals that were never sold.

"We were providing great system designs for free that clients would take to our competitors for bids," Pope recalls. "The cost to our competitors to bid a system that was already designed is minimal. We were losing business because our client's did not value our designs since they were 'free,'" he says.

According to Pope, AVI's clients considered the designs to be merely sales proposals.

"Once we placed importance and value on the system design," he says, "we set ourselves apart from our competition. We also eliminated prospective customers who were only interested in the cheapest price before we had invested any of our resources."

From Security to A/V

Pope started the business in 1990, primarily installing security and communications systems. He began adding A/V systems to his product mix in 1993 and, in '99, purchased AVI, which was a small retail A/V store.

The company expanded into the custom installations that it does today, continuing to evolve by redefining "custom systems."