21 Lessons Learned From the Residential Integrator School

You really have to be serious about training to sit indoors in San Diego for a week when the 80-degree sun, sand and surf are just a stone's throw away!

But that's just what I did, along with nearly 20 integrators, to take Home Controls Inc.'s Residential Integrator School (RIS).

The training is run by distributor Home Controls and integrator AVD Media, and the four days had a special focus on equipment from Home Automation Inc. (HAI).

The course is broken up into two distinct segments: the first two days are sales and marketing training and the last two days are hands-on installation and programming training.

The first two days are taught by Roland Graham of AVD Media, and the last two days are taught by Bobby Kalua of AVD Media. Thomas Pickral of HAI was also in attendance as were several HCI staff members.

The group also got a private tour of Home Controls new facility, just a mile away. Ken Kerr, president of Home Controls, and Brian Callan, head of the Connect Home dealer group, gave the tour and offered insights into the fulfillment process at the distribution company.

Graham spent two days offering specific sales advice. He believes that the primary motivation for purchasing A/V equipment is emotional, not intellectual.

According to Graham, nearly every customer (96 percent) is willing to pay more money for a product that is emotionally important to him.

Indeed, 46 percent are willing to spend as much as they can for a product in a specific category. He cited Starbucks, Victoria's Secret and other brands as evidence.

Graham lumps buying motivation triggers into four areas:

1. Taking care of me (stress relief, comfort)


2. Connecting (family, love, sex)


3. Questing (wanting to take an adventure)


4. Individual style (dreaming big)

He also cited research that emotional intelligence is significantly more important than technical expertise. Also, the "higher" you go in the organization, the more important emotions are.

According to Communication World, emotional skills represent 90 percent of what makes "a leader."

Finally, three out of every four homeowners report that spending on their home makes them feel "happy," he says. About 70 percent say it makes them feel "safe."

Other emotions include successful, confident, accomplished and smart.

"Sales is not about cajoling people into buying," says Graham. "It's about enabling and educating the customer to make a wise decision."

He cites real estate agents as good representatives of this sales technique. They very rarely try to strong-arm a prospect into buying a home.

He also strongly recommends that all dealers use good/better/best sales packages, and that dealers always learn from their failures by following up with lost customers.

The second few days of the event are hands-on training. Attendees got to first design the layout of a structured wiring enclosure, then program an HAI OmniPro II panel for security, lighting, HVAC and control.

Many of the attendees were new to the industry, from either the telecom or IT industries. Of course, yours truly was also there ... proving that with great instruction, you can learn anything!

21 Sales Tips to Improve Your Business

1. If a customer selects a component (or has a legacy component) that you do not recommend, then make sure to have the client sign off on its functionality before you start the installation.

2. Offer a digital scanning service for customers' digital photo files and load them onto the media server you install.

3. Sell yourself, not the equipment. If you are passionate about the job and your company, it will rub off on the
customer.

4. Prepare the client for the anxiety of seeing a mass of messy wiring during the installation. Often, builders will see the wiring and remark, "We just want to keep it simple."

Your response should be: "All this wiring is what makes it simple."

5. Free downloadable icons for your construction documents are available from the TechHome Division of the Consumer Electronics Association.

6. Bring a three-ring binder of all the jobs you have done on a sales call and put it on the table in front of the prospect.

7. It's a good investment to get a drawing program, like off-the-shelf Vizio, if you can't afford a program like D-Tools initially.

At the very minimum, bring a pad of sticky notes with you to mark up a blueprint during the sales presentation.

8. Don't be afraid to show the client a schedule of the entire installation process up front. This will let them know how much work you are doing and give them a good timetable for the job.

9. A good way to still make money if the job is being "shopped" to other integration companies is to ask three questions:

• "Are you putting this job out to bid?"


• "Has the job been designed yet?


• "Would you like some help with the design?"

These questions will help you be hired to design the overall job so everyone is bidding against the same set of plans.

10. Never offer an opinion on plasma vs. LCD. You have a 50-50 chance of espousing one technology over the other, and the client might be a big fan of the other format!

If you are asked that question, respond by asking, "What have you heard?" That will help guide your response.

11. Practice asking questions in front a mirror.

12. Refer to your sales staff as "consultants," "facilitators" or "educators." It is less intimidating for the prospect.

13. Laminate your blueprints on 18- x 24-inch paper using 3-mil thickness, which will allow you to roll it up.

14. Never meet your prospect for the first time on a construction site unless there will be nobody else there. There is too much risk for distraction.

15. Consider bidding all your retrofit work as Time & Materials.

16. Carry a voice recorder on the job site and vocalized your design points. This way you are not reliant on your handwriting and you can keep more eye contact with the customer.

17. If you are going to hand off the job to a project manager and are concerned about the reaction from the customer, use it as an opportunity to brag about how good your team is with some self-deprecating humor.

"These guys are so good. They only let me handle the money." That also lets the client know that whenever you are going to be showing up on the job, it will likely be to get a payment.

18. Don't talk too much. According to a study by the University of Wisconsin, the No. 1 customer complaint during the sales process is that the salesperson talked too much (41 percent).

19. Put your amps up higher on the rack. Since they generate the most heat, they will have less effect on the other components on the top.

20. In California, a contractor cannot ask for more than 10 percent of the job cost upfront before starting work. To get around that, ask for the 10 percent downpayment, then ask for 40 percent a week later. Never buy the equipment without getting that money first.

21. When you finish the job, let the customer actually try to do things with the remote control vs. just watching you instruct them. Graham's favorite is the hand them the remote and ask them to turn on the system and find CNN.