The Future of our Industry - Pt 2

An additional note on the future of our industry. Another thing to consider looking toward your future as a systems integrator, is to look back at the past. In both residential and commercial markets the same things tend to occur. Products we sell to make money on, eventually become commoditized. Take TVs in the residential market; I used to sell a 50" plasma for $5000-10,000 or more and make nearly 40% plus on it. Newer and better TVs barely offer a 7% margin now and can become money losers as soon as one you've installed breaks and needs warranty work.

In the commercial world, the same thing has occured. These businesses used to do $1M or more a year in box sales of projectors and similar products. Today, if you're shopped, you can't buy it for what they are available online for, so projectors have become the commodity of the commercial A/V world. They are the loss leaders of the day now, only sold to get the rest of the project.

Consider, what is it we are selling. Is it a product? Is it a bunch of products? Is it a service? OR is it SOLUTIONS.

To worsen the situation, I see dealers in both markets making, what is to me, detrimental decisions to thier own livelyhood and that of the industry. I see dealers and installers reducing prices for or eliminating altogether things like programming, design, installation and other charges ,that to me DEFINE an integrator or installers talents and should not only NOT be discounted or removed, but should be enhanced and promoted as what makes your company, product, solution, whatever, better. otherwise, we are all just selling A/V gear. I propose, that our industry is made up of some very intelligent people who have talents, experience and credentials that enable them to quickly research, learn about, figure out, install and program the plethura of new products and systems that come into our market(s) on an almost daily basis now.

Our industry needs to stand up for what we are, Systems Integrators. We are not just TV installers, A/V dealers, home theater specialist. I think we, as an industry, are much more and offer much more than that, and in fact are short-changing ourselves if we don't promote otherwise. We should promote the fact that we charge for design time, installation and programming, and that these are in-fact the exact things that differntiate us from our competition. We are not a big box store just selling products, we sell solutions, and to do so, takes experience, talent, education and more that we have all elected to put the time and efforts into learning.

So let's not shortchange our industry and begin to charge appropriately for what we should be, our time and talents, and not just try to make money on products we sell, and then wonder every few years why something we sold before that made us money, doesn't any more and what do we do now. Promote your company for what it is and offers, not what it sells, which we have little or no control over.