What’s Your Most Underappreciated Product?

In the custom installation channel, some product categories hog the limelight.

Whether it's great big flat-panel TVs, giant shiny amplifiers, or thundering speakers, some products are just more thrilling than others.

But just because a product category doesn't get the lion's share of media attention or have convention-goers flocking to their booth doesn't mean that they can't be a solid staple of your business.

Quite to the contrary, some of the most unsung, unglamorous products can be a profitable category for you as an integrator.

Here are some examples of what successful integrators have found to be unappreciated, but valuable, products.

Central Vacs, Window Coverings and Prewire

An often-mentioned example of an under-appreciated category is built-in central vacuums.

Many integrators deride the idea of installing vacuums as somehow "beneath" them. Yet other integrators do so happily, and see them as a cash cow.

For Jeff Greekas, designer at Edmonton, AB-based Systems Inc (my former employer), automated window coverings are a solid but often overlooked product category.

"Automated shades are something that hardly any client thinks of when they walk in the door," he says.

"To be honest, it's something that few people really need. However, every client who's agreed to do a few windows, like all the south or west-facing ones has wished afterwards that they had sprung to do all of their windows."

John Stumpf, Sales Manager for Fergus, ON-based integrator Station Earth, swears that prewires are as unglamorous as they come, and yet they pay the bills.

"They may not be cool, in fact, you need to have the uncool prewire done before you can install all the 'cool' gear," he says. It's a philosophy that the company lives by.

"We have 13 trucks, and they're all out everyday, pulling wire, day in and day out. We go through over 100,000 feet of RG-6 alone, every month. Add labor to the materials, and go from there."

Charging for Design Time and Documentation

Des Young, General Manager of Barrie, ON-based Bravo AV Solutions has an offbeat favorite. After some thought, he confided that the most underrated product is twofold: charging for design time and supplying your client with comprehensive documentation.

"Charging for your design time is so obvious, and yet, it took a while before we implemented it," he says. "Now, we can't believe that we ever didn't do it."

Young believes that preparing documentation and system manuals is time well spent, especially since the client is paying for them.

"Experts all talk about delivering system documents to your clients, and yet so many guys don't do it. That was us too, at first. Clear, concise instructional materials ratchet up the client satisfaction, and it adds to the bottom line.

"There's an old-school mentality some guys have that if they hand their client a comprehensive function document they're losing control, and the client can get someone else to help him later," he says.

But Young is quick to rebut that. "I think that's ridiculous. If you've done your job as you're supposed to, your client will love you forever, and look to you to take care of them in the future."

What product category is a big winner for you? Let us know in the comments below.

Lee Distad is a freelance CEDIA Certified Professional Designer who offers design and process consultation to firms in the Custom Installation industry, as well as copy writing and other professional writing services. Lee’s business and industry blog can be read at http://www.leedistad.com