In the AV industry, it’s easy for integrators and end users to urn up their noses at the price. Pete Baker explains why it shouldn’t always be the case.

Over the past few months, I have had the great pleasure and opportunity to attend several dealer events and trade shows, in the USA and internationally. One of the comments I have received repeatedly from integrators regarding various products was something along the lines of: “That’s too expensive, my customer would never pay that much.”

It’s important to mention that the products were not thousands of dollars higher than a competitive product currently being offered by the dealer. Rather, they were $50 or $100 more, for a product under $500.

This was quite shocking to me for several reasons, the first being that they had no idea who their new client might be and secondly because the benefits offered by the higher price product were either never considered or ignored.

I fully understand that price is a concern and budgets must be considered, having designed and sold low voltage systems for over 20 years; however, I am also a firm believer in discussing unique benefits offered by professional-grade products.

By professional-grade solutions, I am referring to products that are only available through professional integrators who are trusted authorised dealers and resellers for the products. At the end of the day, you will be judged on the ultimate performance, ease of use and satisfaction of the solution you provide to your customer. Many of the professional-grade solutions have unique benefits, which aren’t available in direct-to-consumer products. Additionally, if they can buy the product directly, it may decrease the value of hiring you.

In the consumer electronics industry, the consumer is constantly barraged with marketing for direct-to-consumer products. This will not go away anytime soon; it’s increasing, and we are seeing a higher transition into do-it-yourself “smart home” products from big-name, trusted companies. In this regard, it’s very common for a consumer to come in with a preconceived idea of the brand of front door camera, streaming audio solution or many other products that they want for their new system. So, how do we compete against online and retail direct-to-consumer sales and market the value of using professional-grade solutions in project designs?

Discuss the professional research your team has completed

As an integrator, many of us invest significant amounts of time and money to research and evaluate products. This effort occurs in several different ways: reading industry publications, visiting trade shows and dealer events, education and training (in person and online) and talking with other industry professionals.

Research and education are important elements in our profession. It can (and should) be discussed with potential clients.

For example, I have said to prospective clients on countless occasions something along the following lines: “That is a great brand and product. I can understand why it would be attractive to you. Part of my responsibility as a professional in the AV/CE industry is to continuously research and evaluate products. My team and I invest countless hours annually to visit trade shows, participate in trainings and test and evaluate products to determine the most reliable products, that will deliver the best value and performance for our clients. Based on our extensive research, I don’t believe this will be the best solution for you and I want you to hold me personally responsible for your ultimate enjoyment of the system after we complete your installation.”

Whenever I said this to a potential client, they always appreciated and respected my professional advice and product suggestions.

Promote your product’s unique benefits

The professional-grade products offered to integrators often come with unique benefits, not found in cheaper or direct-to-consumer products. These unique benefits should be discussed with each potential client and could help you to win the project.

A few examples may be as follows:

1. Better third-party integration with a control system or other product integrated into the system
2. Better performance. Maybe your surveillance system will offer better night vision or perimeter protection (fewer false alerts) or maybe your streaming solution will offer hi-resolution audio
3. The speakers or other products you are offering may have a better warranty
4. Possibly the outdoor speakers are made by a company that only operates in this space and they’re exceptional in this specific product category. I love finding companies and products like this, where they have a very unique specialty or expertise in one product category.

Discussing unique benefits offered by products in your portfolio can absolutely be the reason why the customer chooses you over the competition.

Consider, for example, the surveillance solution you offer. Usually, if a consumer requests a surveillance solution, they have a very good reason why they want a surveillance system. Maybe they had issues in the past or safety concerns. If you discuss better night vision, so they can see bad guys better at night, this may provide that consumer with better comfort and security and that has great value. Or simply discussing the difference between compressed audio, compared to hi-resolution audio and how it doesn’t need to cost much more to enjoy better quality audio in their new system.

They may say, they don’t care about sound quality, they just want tunes in their house. Using a simple comparison to high-resolution video, compared to old cable TV or maybe VHS compared to Blu-ray can often be a helpful analogy.

Another analogy I have used in buying a nice car and putting bad gas into it, since they are investing in a distributed audio system they should use great fuel. Hi-resolution audio will help them fully enjoy the new sound system.

More importantly, if you discuss these elements and your competitors don’t, that could be the reason they choose you instead of your competitor.

Don’t sell with your wallet

When I hear someone say: “That’s too expensive, my customer would never pay for that” I can only imagine they are really saying: “That’s too hard for me to sell and remain competitive”.

This comment completely ignores who the new, potential customer is and what benefits may be valuable to them, not to you.

It is an essential exercise to evaluate every product in your portfolio and carefully identify the key and unique benefits offered by those products. As an independent sales rep, I can discuss the unique benefits offered by any product in my portfolio and you should also be able to.

Please understand that I am not suggesting or promoting over-selling any consumer. Rather, I’m encouraging you to carefully consider your product offering and find ways to offer unique benefits to potential customers. When you offer the same products as your competition, it can simply come down to price and make it much harder to win the project. Of course, there are many other elements in the buying decision process by each of us as consumers: the company, the person, the price, confidence in the ease of use for the proposed solution and so on, but unique benefits play an integral role as well.

Give this a try in your next meeting with a potential client and I am confident you will be surprised by the positive outcome you will experience. Happy selling!