rave europe av survival guide 2009

8/14/2019 rAVe Europe AV SURVIVAL GUIDE 2009

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FOR EUROPES PRO AV SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS IN A NETWORKED WORLD

Yes, We Can.

European AV Integrators

Pocket Survival Guide

Kayyes Krystal Ball 2009

CATEGORIES OF INTEREST

Projection & Screens

Displays

Audio

Rich Media

Conferencing

Control & Integrator Solutions

Digital Signage

Distributor News

Residential Systems

RAVEEUROPE

-Vol5No1-www.ProAVbiz-europe.com


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The right solutionfor the right application


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rAVe Europe | 1

EDITORIAL

Bob Snyder, Editor-in-ChieCristiano Cameroni, Associate Editor

Klaus Herrero, Assistant EditorNero Bassum, Assistant Editor

DESIGN & ARTErnesto Angiolini

PRODUCTIONHans van Belkum

ADMINISTRATIONBetty van de Maele

CIRCULATIONJune Borg

I.T. & NETWORKJoseph Glover

SPONSORSHIPS & SALES

Europe: Tony [email protected]

USA: Etienne [email protected]

Japan: Yuki [email protected]

PUBLISHER

The Distribution Channel Ltd.Rue DArgens, 3A

Msida, MALTA MSD 1368www.proAVbiz-europe.com

www.custominstaller.eu

www.digitalsignagenews.eu

Welcome2009

ost of you know us from our weekly e-newsletter, rAVeEurope. This print publication is a special promotion for2009. Weve included in these pagesGary Kayyes Krystal

Ball 2009 to help AV system integrators to look at the wider panoramaof product trends.

Then, given the unusual nature of the general economy, we wantedto step away from product knowledge (although briefly) and focus onsome of the business issues. We believe sales and marketing will be a

top priority in 2009 and we hope our editorial will stimulate yourthoughts. By definition, we are in a technical business and we histori-cally pay less attention to commercialization. That is a luxury we cantafford any more.

Youll spend more time this year training your sales staff, challeng-ing your marketing people, and re-examining business operations. Wecall this a Pocket Survival Guide. Pocket because we wanted asmall format you wouldnt mind picking up at a trade show. SurvivalGuide because we wanted to highlight the importance of re-examin-ing your sales and marketing skills.

Tools for sales and marketing gain value in your arsenal when busi-ness becomes a battle over territory, a struggle for clients. Weve addedan introduction to D-Tools System Integrator 5.5as a way to high-light the need to win with proposals and streamline operations.

MAGAZINE FOR EuROpEs pRO Av INstAllERs

M

Vol. 5 No. 1 rAVe EUROPE magazine is pub-lished on special occasions in conjunction withthe weekly e-newsletter of the same name. Ourtarget audience is the more than 15,000 systemintegrators, installers, OEMs, distributors, andother channel players in the markets of WesternEurope, Central & Eastern Europe and the largermarkets within Middle East/Africa. You can quali-fy for your FREE subscription by filling out a profileat: www.proAVbiz-europe.com .

rAVe Europe e-newsletter is published in a jointventure with: Kayye Consulting, a company dedi-cated to the interests and success of dealers,manufacturers, and other companies in the pro-fessional audiovisual industry. Gary Kayye, found-er of Kayye Consulting, is one of the most promi-nent personalities in the audiovisual industry.

Known as an accurate and candid visionary, hecalled upon often to deliver seminars and speech-es and to write feature articles and editorials thathelp AV manufacturers and systems integratorsunderstand the future of their businesses.

All material Copyright 2009.


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Contents2009

FEATURES

4 Kayyes Krystal Ball 2009Garys 10th Annual Look Ahead or Our Industry

10 OKayye!How Did Garys Projections Do in 2008?

18 Converting the Screen-LessSelling Screens to SMEs Needs Some Thought

European AV IntegratorsPOCKET SURVIVAL GUIDE

SELLING20 How to Create Messages That Sell30 Selling Technology Value Versus Price32 10 Common Sales Mistakes

36 Five Rules for Closing the Sale40 No, You Cant Get A Better Deal Online

MARKETING42 Recession Survival: Market Segmentation

OPERATIONS44 Stop Blaming The Economy46 Should You Run Your Own Show?

48 Software That Sets You Free

If you find this issue HELPFUL TO YOUR BUSINESS,rAVe EUROPE publishes an industry e-newsletter weekly.

TO READ OUR E-NEWSLETTER, FREE SUBSCRIPTION at

www.proAVbiz-europe.com

www.DigitalSignageNews.eu

www.CustomInstaller.eu

www.ConsumerIT.eu

www.On-CE.net


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by

GaryKayye, cts

10th Annual Kayyes Krystal Ball

Kayyes Krystal

Ball, V.09

Welcometo my 10th annual

Krystal Ball predictingthe upcoming year for

commercial AV (and evensome home AV) technology,

trends and products.Now, What About

2009?


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P

rojectors will become smaller: The

so-called pico-projector is coming in

2009. Weve been seeing prototypes of

pocket-sized projectors for years, and now its

close to reality with 2009 looming...and bat-

tery-operated, too!

Although this is not going to be a boom for

the commercial AV segment, it has a lot of ap-

plication options to offer with portable projec-

tors that are palm-sized. Promised to be two-

to four-hour battery life capable, the size of an

Apple iPhone and resolutions around that oldstandard VGA port, these pico-projectors will

bring the AV market a lot of press.

Laser projectors will debut in 2009: Finally,

we will see the debut of the laser-based projector.

Promised for years, laser projectors are supposed

to bring us an option of UHP (ultra high per-

formance) lamps, and are said to bring us much

better colorimetry. Currently, UHP lamps onlydeliver about 40% of the color gamut that we

(as humans) can see. Everyone from the laser

industry claims that using laser as a light source

will bring us up to 90% of the color gamut.

If this happens, we will see even better color

from rear- and front-screen projectors. Whereas

now, using metal-halide lamps, we have images

that are on the blue side of the color gamut, wewill have a white-point that is closer to white than

red (like halogen), green or blue colorimetry.

The first of these likely will come from a Jap-

anese manufacturer (and probably in the form

of a consumer rear-screen TV), with everyone

watching to see if they are successful. If it works,

expect to see laser become a big deal and prob-

ably the most talked about new projection tech-nology since TIs 1990s debut of DLP.

Flatter-flat screens: 2009 will bring us super-

flat flat-screen TVs. Mirroring more like what

you see with a laptops LCD screen, you will

see flat-screen LCDs that will be in the one-

inch-thin range. This will be big for commer-cial AV.

One of the inhibiting factors to LCDs actu-

ally competing with front-screen projectors is

the weight. Take away the thickness and you

will take away a lot of plastic and electronics

that will eliminate a lot of the weight. One pio-

neer here is Sharp. Sharp has actually shown a

52-inch LCD screen thats only 0.6-inch thick,

Sony has announced a consumer-version LCD

monitor that is 0.5-inch thick, and Samsung

introduced a 40-inch 1080p LCD thats 0.39-

inch thick. We will see super-thin LCDs by the

end of 2009, and they will completely overtake

the flat-screen market by 2010. This is one rea-

son that plasma will die by 2011 (a prediction I

made back in 2007).

Green: Going green will be the trend of2009, from consumer AV to commercial AV.

Although many of you are tired of this hack-

neyed cry of the environmentalists, the time

finally has come to make this a mantra of your

company. Mark my words, you will see every

commercial AV manufacturer make a commit-

ment to some power-saving standard (certainly

ENERGY STAR is the leading one) that willmake it a marketing tool for sales departments

everywhere. And, rightfully so, to be honest.

Have you ever taken the temperature of an AV

rack with gear full of cooling fans? Its stagger-

ing. Then, throw in a few cable TV DVRs and

you dont need a coffee maker or microwave

during installation.

Going green will be a big theme of the nextfew years, especially under a Sierra Club-en-

dorsed President Obama. (Ill bet it would have

been that way for McCain, too.)



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connected to the network. Then, when con-

nected, it becomes a web browsing media player

capable of playing whatever content is sent to it,and capable of fetching content on its own.

Cloud AV systems will take their first steps,

albeit maybe baby ones, in 2009. What eventu-

ally will happen is like what is happening in the

digital signage world now: In digital signage, ei-

ther the display has an integrated media player

in it now (like a mini-netbook), or it has one

behind it. Take a look; all of them have them! In

any case, that computer is being controlled,

managed and fed content from a head-end

across the network. So, that content can be a

presentation, weather, stock information, news,

video and even live TV, all across the network.

Imagine this being the meeting room hub in

the future. That is what we will see and how

we will get to this cloud AV systems future. All

you will have, one day, is a projector in a roomthat is networked and pulling content, being

managed and controlled via the network from

anywhere across the internet.

But, to get there, we need embedded projec-

tors, we need network devices in every

No matter who you are, the gas pricing scam

of 2008 forced us all to wake up to the energy is-

sue. Saving energy will be something that every-

one will harness. You will see LCDs go green,

projectors redesigned to deliver standby modes

that sap up less than 1 watt of power and federal

entities buying AV that is green when given theoption.

Cloud AV: If youve heard of cloud com-

puting, youll understand this (according to

Wikipedia: cloud computing is internet-based

(cloud) development and use of computer

technology (computing). If not, this may be

a leap. But, 2009 will bring us the debut of the

cloud-based AV systems. What are they? Well,right now, we pack meeting rooms and lecture

halls with AV gear that runs itself. Imagine if the

projector had a network device (like a browser)

that could navigate any network (like a typical

browser navigates websites), to find any file or

video and play it right there in the room or in

any room on campus. Or, maybe all rooms on

campus, simultaneously.

This will require some sort of netbook-like

projection system or display: a display with a

tiny embedded computer that is nothing unless


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product category and we need AV integrators

with the vision to build it. If youre doing digital

signage now, youre in a great position to get

there; if not, you have to be.

For example, consider a university. It has

projectors in every classroom on campus with

various content from visiting lecturers using

laptops to network-based content driven to the

display from professors. All of a sudden, theres

a campus-wide emergency. That emergency in-

formation is sent to every display across campus,instantaneously, all via the network.

Control systems will be dumbed-down:

Many control systems today are just too darn

complicated. I am sure AMX and Crestron

would disagree, but they are fulfilling their own

prophecy. Actually, even they might agree be-

cause they, along with Extron, which pioneered

simple control with MediaLink, are starting tobuild simple control systems that dont take an

engineer to program, and can be configured on

the fly.

2009 will bring us even simpler control sys-

tems. The success of these simpler systems, and

their ability to be networked and managed via

one head-end, will drive their acceptance. If you

arent already looking at ways to put in a sophis-ticated touchpanel-less control system that is sim-

ple to program and operate, you will in 2009.

This trend of dumbing down control systems

will continue and there will be plenty of inex-

pensive touchpanels out there so you wont have

to build everything around a $3000 color LCD

thats mostly used for lowering the screen and

turning a projector on and off. For example,

what about the iPhone?

iPhone/Android Control: Speaking of the

iPhone, Google has launched its own iPhone-

ish phone operating system called Android.

These two products make touchscreen phones

fully functional $300 control interfaces. Couple

them with a CPU or a plethora of network-en-

abled AV gear, and you have a whole new way

of controlling AV.

Watch for 2009 to be the year a few totally

new control system companies enter the market

with their own iPhone- and Android-like inter-

faces that will allow you to build fully functional

rooms and control them seamlessly with iPodTouches, iPhones and other inexpensive multi-

touch color screens.

HD-VTC Year 2009: I predict that 2009 will

be a boom for videoconferencing, but not for

the reason you may think. Saying that video-

conferencing systems finally workalmost per-

fectly on almost every type of networkis pow-

erful, and the fact they are cheaper than flyingaround the world for a meeting makes a strong

argument, but there is another reason: fixed

costs versus variable costs. Its not the cost of

the flight that will boost VTC technology; its

the cost of the meeting in general. The flight is

one thing, but the golf, the dinner, the lunches

and snacks, the hotel rooms, the meeting fees,

the setup and breakdown costs... thats why.So, if you are in the VTC market, you will

have a great 2009. This will be one of the lead-

ing AV products to get you into a facility to talk

about the rest of the AV systems world. And,

again, this leverages the network: an inexpen-

sive way to connect to anyone anywhere, way

cheaper than flying around.

Case in point: I was supposed to go to Hong

Kong in November. I had to cancel the trip at

the last minute, but I connected via my Polycom

HDX 9004 system (an HD VTC system)



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to InfoComm Asia in Hong Kong from my of-

fice in Chapel Hill NC. I delivered a two-hour

seminar called AV-2001 (its one of the keynotespeeches I regularly deliver at dealer shows and

industry events).

The cost of the connection was about $300.I saved $3500 in airfare, $1500 in hotel bills,$600 in food and four days minimum of mylife. InfoComm was happy, the attendees werehappy and, heck, we used the technology

weve all been touting for years as the futureof AV.Finally, the Microsoft Rumor: Theres a ru-

mor that Microsoft is trying to buy a manufac-

turer in the commercial AV market. Of course,

because Microsoft is a public company, represen-

tatives will not confirm anything, but I believe

it makes sense for Microsoft and 2009 could be

the year the company enters commercial AV.

Microsoft is in a perfect position to come

into our market, but I would also think that the

home AV market might be its first target. The

movies-on-demand segment is growing by leaps

and bounds with Netflix, Apple and cable TV

providers dominating that segment right now.

So, no totally bold predictions, but watch

Microsoft carefully as the company could play

its cards for us and become a big commercialAV player by years end.

f youre a regular reader, you know that,

each year, I like to review my own predic-tions from last year. See my predictions from last

year here:


I

Last Years Predictions:How Did Gary Do?OKayye!

http://www.ravepro.com/issues/ 2008/01/

rpvol6iss1/index.html#edit

Why do I do it this way? Well, when I was a

kid, I loved TV and always watched those TV

psychics sell their predictions to viewers who

called in with their credit card numbers. Every

year, they would reappear on TV selling the next

years predictions, but I could never remember

what they predicted to see if they were right. I

always wanted them to remind me of their previ-ous predictions so I could see if it was worth the

price. (I knew my dads credit card number.)

In this case, my predictions are free. Youre

probably not paying to read this, so keep this in

perspective. But, if I may say so myself, over the

past nine years, Ive actually done a pretty good

job... or been real lucky.

So, onto the review of my predictions for2008

IP-IP-IP: I started my predictions for 2008 by

saying wed see a proliferation of IP-enabled AV

devices. I specifically named the digital signage

market as being the driver of this.

Well, the home AV market has jumped in on

this ahead of commercial AVa trend Ive not-

ed in recent years (home AV integrators and us-

ers adopting new technology long before com-

mercial AV integrators and users). Most home

AV integrators are installing streaming video (or

video-on-demand) servers in almost every home

they do now. AppleTV, Roku and Kaleidescape

are a few of the leading boxes being installed.

The commercial AV market is behind in this

trend, but I see a big upswing in this segment

since Summer 2008, especially in the digital sig-nage niche.

In fact, control, management and con-


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tent are nearly 100% delivered via IP-enabled

AV networks. This has allowed some fairly new

players to become market leaders quickly, such

as Visix, Roku and Ronin, to name a few.

I would highly recommend that you get

into the digital signage market. Why? Well, al-

though the markets far from mature and still

using cutting-edge technology to send and re-

ceive content, its the identical way you will be

integrating standard commercial AV systems

(via the network) in the not-too-distant future;

this will give you a good understanding of hownetworked-based AV systems should and will

work.

Control is KEY: I predicted that the control

market was close to an evolutionary revolution.

There are just too many things lining up in fa-

vor of it.

Here was my point: The control system is the

user interface to the entire AV-enabled room.You walk in a room full of thousands of dollars

of AV gear and, to turn it on, the first thing you

have to do is use the control system. Whether

it is a keypad, a touchscreen or a handheld re-

mote, you must use something that simplifies

the use of the AV room.

But, as technology has allowed for sleek soft-

ware features, nice aesthetic designs and theuse of Windows-enabled drivers, many clients

are wondering, Why cant I use a $1500 tab-

let PC to control all this stuff in the room and

save myself $5000 on the price of a traditional

touchpanel?

The answer is simple: The key to a successful

control system isnt in the hardware; its in the

software. Actually, you can use a tablet PC and,

by doing that, you will save $4000 to $5000, but

whos going to manage all the control protocols

for each of the devices when theyre installed...

much less a year later when the customer wants

to add a new source to the system?

Ah, but what about this revolution? Well, for

2008, I predicted that more and more prod-

ucts would become IP-enabled (meaning they

can be controlled via an Ethernet network port

and without custom protocols or stupid RS232

ports); there is standardization of control func-

tions in devices. As that occurs, you will see

more control options that are completely net-

work-based.

But, this transition is not going to be com-plete in one year. Over the next three years, you

will see every AV system built go from being

primarily RS232, I/O and IR-based control to

exclusively IP-based control.

Well, I was only partially right. The control

market has clearly gone toward simplification:

Look at what Extron has done in the past 12

months, for example. But, that revolutionarychange hasnt occurred...yet. It may be because

the cloud AV-based control system companies

havent finished engineering their software, yet,

or it may be that Crestron, Extron and AMX

havent decided to go totally-network based.

But, I stand behind this prediction and believe

it will fully transform in 2009. (For informa-

tion about the cloud AV future and my opinionabout where I think this is all going, read about

it in my 2009 technology forecast.)

Gaming projectors drive prices (and profits)

down even further: There has been a plethora of

sub-$1000 projectors that have driven sales in

places like Best Buy, Office Depot and the in-

ternet. At first glance, they seem comparable to

higher-end, specification-based projectors, but

they are far from ruggedized: Many have weak

lamps and just dont hang with what is needed

in a classroom or meeting room.



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But, some do. This trend of sub-$1000 pro-

jectors has destroyed margin opportunities on

the entire entry-level and mid-level systemsmarket (at least where projectors are concerned),

and will hit the higher end of the market with

sub-$2000 projectors in 2009 that are in the 4K

light output level!

Digital Signage Boom: 2008 will be remem-

bered as the year that the digital signage market

finally exploded.

Well, this one was dead-on. In fact, thereare four digital signage shows now! And, now

were seeing specialized digital signage integra-

tion firms. This is great for the commercial AV

market because this, as I mentioned before, is

the same network we will use eventually to send

content and control integrated systems.

As mentioned earlier, I recommend that you

enter the digital signage market sooner ratherthan later because this is more than a trend: Its

an emerging market!

LED WOW: I predicted youd see the first

flat-panel LEDs aimed squarely at the flat-panel

LCD display market in 2008. Incredible ad-

vancements in technologydown to 4mm full-

color LEDshave made indoor small-form-fac-

tor LED flat-panel displays the answer to brightambient light environments. Companies such

as Lighthouse and Barco have jumped on that

opportunity and, in fact, have worked not only

to displace LCDs, but also rear-screen projec-

tors that used to have to be hung in giant cabi-

nets from the ceiling. These LEDs are still price

prohibitive (and in most cases way too bright)

for your average meeting room application, but

youll see more advancement in 2009 and, by

2010, expect real competition in the small form

factors where super-bright, long-lasting images

are a mustand LED power consumption gives

it a big advantage to those going green.

Plasma Comeback or Death?: I predictedthat 2008 would start the decline of plasma sales

that eventually would spell its death by 2011.

The first half of 2008 saw the rapid increase

of LCD and a decline of plasma sales.

But, as the recession took hold in the latter

half of 2008, most sales tracking firms cite plas-

ma sales increasing because people want bigger

for less...and plasma costs as much as 50% lessthan LCD in same-size configurations. But, this

is truly driven by the recession and eventually

will come to an end. However, because 2009

will see a full year of a recession, we likely will

see plasma sales increasing all year long.

3D: I predicted that 2008 would be the year

we saw 3D again. Well, the very first Info-

Comm booth I toured, Da-Lite Screens, wasall about 3D. Then, I saw 3D displays at Sony,

Philips, Samsung, Electrograph, NEC, JVC,

Texas Instruments DLP division and a dozen

other manufacturers featured 3D-based sections

there. Some of this is being driven by Holly-

wood, with more than 30 movies scheduled for

2009 using 3D glasses and technology.

This will spill over into the home for sureand, believe it or not, into the commercial AV

space, too. In fact, Da-Lites demonstration

at InfoComm of the 3D Virtual Black screen

material had a number of corporate and educa-

tional demos using 3D applications.

Verticalization: I predicted that 2008 would

see a movement of the commercial AV integra-

tor back to an organization based on vertical-

ization. What the heck is verticalization? Well,

companies that target specific vertical markets

with specific vertical market experts have done



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quite well. In other words, instead of having

salespeople who sell by territory or region, have

them sell by vertical market expertise (i.e., edu-cation, worship, hospital, gove rnment, etc.). In

2008, you saw more and more verticalization

than ever before.

The days of selling stuff based on a technical

expertise are here. Now, we must become appli-

cation experts and sell stuff (systems) based on

understanding the workflow of the client and

how you can add AV technology to improvethat workflow outcome. This is a tried and true

successful model and makes a lot more sense

than breaking out a sales region by ZIP code.

Distribution: I noted how big and strong

Electrograph had grown in 2007 and predicted

that it, and the other distributors, would get

more of the commercial AV business in 2008.

This, in fact, has happened. More and moredealers are relying on distributors to help them

manage inventory needs and cash flownot di-

rectly, but indirectly. Using distributors means

that a dealer doesnt have to make large com-

mitments to manufacturers and can get dis-

count pricing on just about anything.I see 2009

being a good year for distributors. More and

more manufacturers are making their productsavailable via distributors and, as manufacturers

crack down on the sell-to-anyone-that-breathes

mentality, you will see more dealers turning to

distributors. Also, it works both ways: As manu-

facturers have old inventory to dump to



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make way for new products, using distributors

to blow through inventories is a great idea.

The Killer InfoComm: I predicted that, with

the NSCA Expo gone, you would see the ulti-

mate AV trade show in InfoComm 2008. And,

it was! Almost 35,000 peoplethe most ever to

attend any audiovisual trade show in historyattended the show in Las Vegas in June. It was a

great event that probably requires another day,

though. Three days are not enough to navigate

a show this size! I hope the InfoComm Execu-

tive Committee will look seriously at making it

a four-day show, adding a dealer-only day. We

need a true industry-insider show, and making

one day only for those of us inside the commer-

cial AV market would be a great start!Finally, the Economy: I predicted that the

economy in 2008 didnt look good and that,


although we would have growth, it would be

less than 10%. More people went to church to

pray about the economy.

InfoComm 2008

This one was dead-on, too. The economy

sucks as I write this in mid-November, and still

will by the time this is published.

2009 will see a recovery, but not until the sec-

ond half of the year. But, dont give up! Watch


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rAVe Europe | 17

Its a jungle out there.Keep an eye on your business.

Free subscription to the industrys best news and analysis at:

www.proAVbiz-europe.comFor ProAV installers, integrators, designers and consultants


expenses carefully, but dont disappear. Cutting

marketing is not the way to wade through a re-

cession: Spend money better and smarter, andcut out the fat and the (I hate to say this as blunt

as this, but it has to be said) people who should

have been cut a long time ago. Work smarter

and manage your past relationships better.

There will be a trend toward bigger govern-

ment in 2009, with the new president, and why

not leverage this? We all know and remember

what happened in the last recession: Government

increased AV spending for itself and education.

And, if you will recall, houses of worship spent

more, too: They had more as more people went

to church to pray about the nervous economy.

Dont believe me? Heres proof: During last

Sundays service, my churchs minister actually

announced that financial pledges for 2009 are

up more than 10% over 2008, and that is with-out some 20% of the congregation left to make

their pledges.

Our increased taxes will increase spending.

Our increased spending will drive more AV

sales. Sure, we may not see as much military

spending in an Obama presidency, but a lot of

money previously spent on wars may just go

into spending on education, infrastructure and

meeting rooms!

My last prediction for 2008 was that the Uni-

versity of North Carolina would win the 2008

USA Mens College Basketball: Wrong: Kansas

won!


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18 | rAVe Europe

P r o j e c t i o n S c r e e n s

hy would a business that invests a smallfortune in beamers and laptops (and on

people who spend days to create a PowerPoint orvideo presentation) then project their images ontoa surface that would blur and distort viewing?

The answer is that, today, almost every corpo-rate on the FT 500 list owns multiple screens,

while many SMEs are still learningand may(out of ignorance or because they think they aresaving money) be trapped in that space knownas Screen-less.

The Screen-less dont know, dont recognizethat any chain is only as good as its weakest linkand-- in an AV chain--a blank wall used as a pro-jection surface easily qualifies as the weakest link.

Converting the

Screen-LessbyMarco adriaans

A wall is simply not intended for projection.Installers of screens must still spend time try-

ing to educate the SME business customers tothe fact that a good screen improves communi-cation and enhances presentations. Maybe to-day, we should call the screen a high definitionfabric display.

If SMEs werent enough of an educationalchallenge, now comes along a new version of anold problem: the emerging home theater market.Heres where installers have to ask their custom-

ers in Socratic fashion, Why would you com-pile a fantastic film collection, buy an expensivehigh def DVD player-- only to break the chainof quality by adding a dumb wall where a qual-

W


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2009 Technology Partner for RAVE EUROPE Virtual Studio

Visitwww.darim.comBroadcast Surveillance E-Learning

Encoder Capture

ity fabric component should be?More and more people only discover how

much more pleasant it is to watch somethingon a large screen when they visit a sports bar,

pub or auditorium where the result of a com-pleted quality chain is so apparent. Exposure toprofessional solutions is a driving force in thehome market where the consumer can inspireto emulate (to his own budget limitation) thevideo quality that impresses him/her the most.

(In this same manner, (i.e., by exposure toquality systems in pro AV environments), moreand more SMEs now also understand that a top-

notch presentation calls for a top quality chainof projection components including a screen atleast equal to the weakest component.)

The projection screen is an indispensablecomponent of any presentation or Home Cin-ema set-up, just as important as the source me-dia, player and beamer. A quick look at a screenmight be deceptive but the factors that go intoa good screen are numerous. The quality of the

fabric (which is not a single quality but a multi-plicity of qualities to achieve the right formula tobuild into the screen fabric the many character-istics it needs to display an image), the quality ofthe black border (which should be there to addto the perceived clarity), the control mechanism(to raise and lower the screen whether manu-

ally of electronically), the ease and durability ofa mounting mechanism, and even the way totransport the screen to the installer and to theinstallers customers (without tearing or degrad-

ing of the screen).In the home, an image must be projected so

several people can see it all at the same time.Each situation is unique and for the best pos-sible projection quality (clarity of the image),the customers need to understand that lightoutput of the projector, size of the projectionscreen and the reflection value of the screen fab-ric should be attuned to one another.

Projecta screens use a special black border (orframe) to improve the perceived clarity of theprojected image. With certain Home Cinemamodels, there is even an extra high black borderon the top and/or bottom of the screen, allowingthe user to choose the ideal viewing height. Thatmakes a difference when placement will be inhigh rooms and in home cinema viewing rooms.

Dealers, distributors and installers who want

to look at the difference a good screen makescan look at web site or contact us.But any way you look at it youre better off

looking at it with a good screen!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marco Adriaans is Marketing& Communications Manager for PROJECTA BV.

www.ProjectaScreens.com

P r o j e c t i o n S c r e e n s


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How to Create Messages

That Sell

S e l l i n g

ost business people dont understandwhat makes a message persuasive. They

tend to create messages that reflect thedull monologue of a product brochure (or worseyet, the blah-blah, rah-rah of a press release.)

Unfortunately, many sales professionals (yes,even most marketing professionals who areup in their elbows in white whiter or crossing

chams) dont understand how to build messagesthat actually motivate the customer to buy.

And failing their ability to mass-market a salesmessage, they disavow advertising in general andlean almost totally on the sales person. (Except

for an occasional foray into sponsorship whenthe CEO wants the company name on a MotorRally, local football team, oryes, this is true as

weve seen ithorse jumping!Now you, the sales person, carry the company

on your backor more correctly, in your typ-ing fingers. Your ability to sell depends on yourability to communicate sales messages. And

were going to show you how to create compel-

ling messages.Lets start by placing the vectors of commu-

nication in a quadrant. The first scale measuresRational and the other Emotional. The

right way to think about the difference is tocompare these communication samples:RATIONAL:The temperature is 18 degrees be-

low zero.EMOTIONAL:

Minus 18? Its freezing!Both convey the same information, but one

expresses more than data.The second scale measures Abstract and

Concrete. Obviously, abstract is conceptual whereas concrete is detailed in the physical,

temporal and mental elements.

ABSTRACT:We should seek shelter.

CONCRETE:Lets run to the car nowThe most persuasive messages are emotional

and concrete. The most unpersuasive (and even

boring) messages are always rationale and ab-stract (you sound like HAL the computer in Ar-

thur C. Clarkes 2001: The Space Odyssey.)

M

For example, here are two messages that com-municate the same information. Which is more

persuasive?RATIONAL & ABSTRACT:The temperature isminus 18 degrees. People would be advised to

seek shelter.


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S e l l i n g

EMOTIONAL & CONCRETE:Youll all freeze to

death if you dont run to the car now.

When you refer to a specific individual, a

specific thing and a specific action (all of which

must be representative of your key sales point),

that concrete communication scores points by

triggering a response in the buyer.

When you use a verb with emergency over-

tones (run) and is phased in the imperative

mood (now!), which adds dramatic urgency.

Engineers are prone to intellectual and con-

crete (and overuse of tech terms and acronyms)

and most marketers are inflated with emo-tional and abstract (with trendy business jargon

thrown in).

Heres an example from an email we recently

received from a vendor:

The VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch screen panelPC, a full featured, entirely fanless panel PC

suitable for intelligent display applications in

demanding environments. Rugged, stable andflexible, the VIA VIPRO is the first in a series ofadvanced display technologies from VIA.

The resilient VIA VIPRO is highly suited forhuman-machine interface (HMI) industrial

applications such as factory automation andcontrol, supporting the addition of a second in-

dependently configured screen for dual-display

applications.As an experiment, lets rewrite the first state-

ment to make it persuasive.

Original:The VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch

screen panel PC, a full featured, entirely fanless

panel PC suitable for intelligent display appli-

cations in demanding environments.

(Abstract, Rational)

Rewrite: With our VP7710 panel PC, your

factory will work faster, produce more with our

touch screen while your workers will save their

ears as fanless means less noise.

(Emotional, Concrete)

While that works well in writing, the EC Rule

(remember it as sounds like EASY) works in

spoken presentations, too.

Here are three excerpts from three possible

pitches on the same subject.Which do you think

is the most persuasive?

Pitch #1: We installed our state-of-the-art

projector solution at the Antwerp Museum in

three weeks and included a 5year lamp guaran-

tee. We improved the efficiency by an average

of 37% and we won a Supplier of Year Award

from their top management.Pitch #2:Our solution will save you 37% of

costs through our 3-week installation and our

elimination of your lamp replacements. We re-

cently had an installation comparable to what

you need. At that Antwerp Museum we achieved

a 37% savings or roughly $150,000, as you can

see in their annual report I brought.

Pitch #3:Did I tell you when I met the Chair-man of the Antwerp Musuem? When he smiled

and said we did a good job, I never felt more

proud. And with good reason, because we saved

them $250,000 a year, according to their an-

nual report!

Which sales message is most

persuasive?

Pitch #1is informative, but less persuasive. It

quotes some facts and figures, but the prospect

must draw his/her own relevance to his own

needs and wants. Its all about the sellers per-

spective, almost an arrogance by its exclusion

of buyer point-of-view. (Count how many

we and us.)

Pitch #3is emotional, yet not persuasive. It con-

tains an anecdote, but it generates less emotion

because its about the sales professionals


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feelings-- not the prospects. Its not clear how

the experience maps into the solution thats be-ing proposed to this particular client. (Count

how many Is.)Pitch #2 is the most persuasive as a verifiableargument why the prospect should buy the so-

lution. Yes, it contains as much information asPitch #1, but the emotional content is carriedby tangible proof an annual report (satisfies the

emotional desire for risk avoidance and fulfillsNLPs kinesthetic definition.) (Count how

many you and yours and ours.)

You can build better sales messages (propos-als, emails, presentations, Power Points, and

even videos) by remembering our EC lesson.

Beware being the Order Taker, someone pos-ing as a salesperson who thinks selling is simply

shoving forward the prices and answering prod-uct questions. Selling is the skill of developingmany creative ways to communicate with a wide

range of human mentalities who each accept in-formation in their own way.

Better communication skills got BarackObama elected despite many obstacles, and

his messages captured global attention. Can

we communicate as well as Obama? In his ownwords, Yes, We Can.

S e l l i n g


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Sales Proposals

Working on a sales proposal? Examine thecurrent draft of your sales proposal carefully.Then answer the following questions ashonestly as you can:

Does the customer know who we are?

Is the customer expecting us to bid on this?

Does the executive summary address customer needs?

Is the executive summary one page or less?

Have we replaced all the jargon thats meaningful only to us?

Are we sure that another vendor doesnt have the inside track?

Does the proposal follow the customers specified format and

outline?

Have we removed all the meaningless marketing fluff

(e.g. state-of-the-art)?

Has someone edited out other customer names from boilerplate

material?

Is the writing clear and forceful rather than flat and technical?

Has the proposal been edited so that it contains no glaring

grammatical errors?

Can the proposal convince the customer that we can actually

deliver?

Does the proposal define how well measure customer

satisfaction?

Is the proposal being submitted on time and to the right people?

If the answer to ANY of these question is NO then youll losethe sale. Its as simple as that.

S e l l i n g


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If youre at ISE, youll find an eye-

catcher in Hall 10 Stand L149: the I2FMediaWheel that spins when it hasan audience. The spinning content, made

by a film director, and the integration of

the hardware (done by ourselves) is de-

signed to attract you to our stand. The main message we

want to convey: this is what you can accomplish with our I2F

Media Products.

Maybe its because we started as a show-control specialist

in the early 90s, but we wanted to demonstrate our two-fold

mission:

Efficient communication: We think you should sendout your message only when it is relevant. We dislike random

noise pollution and flat screens that become wallpaper, play-

ing content loop after loop. We employ sensors on a large

scale to display content only when and where somebody can

listen and watch.An ecological and responsible use of costly

apparatus and energy: Using sensors, you can leaveyour displays, servers, projectors etc. in sleep mode until they

need to do their job.

At Inter2Face, we develop software for 32bits Microsoft

OS: I2F Media Products.Our core software, I2F MediaBrick is a high definition

Spinning Wheel, Got to Go Round

media server that handles standard

formats of still or moving images and

sound, including URL, live camera im-

ages, applications (Google Earth, Flash

etc) and any executable provided it can

run on the chosen hardware.

This package controls all kinds of peripheral devices. And

that is where we distinguish ourselves from many other pro-

viders of software solutions.

We use our thorough knowledge of hardware to squeezeout of a standard motherboard all it has to offer and to control

lights, sound, cameras, projectors, motors, doors... and to

create interactive applications.

We use the information we take from the content to syn-

chronize a frame or sound fragment on the one hand and an

action or event (e.g., lights) on the other.

Like our I2F Media Wheel, it is all a matter of finding

the right load balance between the hardware chosen and thedesired content, as well using industrial protocols creatively

and effectively. We can make a totally unmanned set-up from

just one box and an affordable software licence.

Dont spin your creative wheels with more complicated,

more expensive solutions, when we can spin the wheels of

communication for you. Visit our stand at ISE (Hall 10 Stand

L149) or contact us at the address below.

Inter2Face bvba Pelgrimstraat 9/4 B-3000 Leuven - Belgiumwww.inter2face.com

Tel +32-(0)16/205543 Fax +32-(0)16/205541


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o your prospects focus on the price

of your technology products and ser-

vices and pressure you for discounts?

Youve explained all about the great value theywill receive but they just dont get it.

#1: Forget about selling and try to get your

prospect to buy your technology products and

services. You dont want to start selling your

technology products and services from the very

first conversation with your prospect. Instead,

you want to get your prospect to decide to buyyour technology products and services. Just

have a conversation and ask the right questions

to understand their problem and determine, if

in fact, you can help them.

#2: Have your prospect tell you the value

(instead of you tell them).

If you tell your prospect about the value you

offer, they may or may not see this as relevant.

But if you ask the right questions so your pros-

pect tells you the value of solving their problem,

they will see this value as relevant.

#3: Have valuable conversations. The con-

versations with your prospect should include so

much value they actually thank you for speaking

with themand look forward to having more

conversations with you. How do you have such

conversations? Its easy really. Probably no one

Selling Technology Value

Versus Pricebytessastowe

S e l l i n g

has ever asked your prospect powerful questions

which provoke clarity around their problem and

how much it costs them. This sort of clarity and

information is of great value to your prospect.

#4: Add your value to their value. Once your

prospect tells you the value they will receive

from solving their problem, they will be recep-

tive to how you can add even more value. Not

only will they be receptive to listening to how

you can add more value but they will also be

appreciative of the additional value you canadd. This is because, at this stage, they will have

effectively sold themselves on taking action to

solve the problem.

When you dont sell, but ask the right ques-

tions, your prospect will see the value in solv-

ing their problem-- plus they will see the value

in establishing a business relationship. You can

help them justify a buying decision by adding

more value to what they have told themselves.

This all leads to a decision based on the value,

and not the price, of your technology products

and services.

D

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Tessa Stowe helps technology companiesgrow their sales revenue with less effort.

www.salesconversation.com.


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Years o experience make our editorial team the best source or Con-

sumer Electronics news on the EMEA market. We successully cover the

wide range o product that makes CE vibrant. Youll fnd us at a coner-

ence or PND in Holland, the 3GSM in Barcelona, the CEDIA UK, and

CeBIT in Germanyas well as the main CE shows like IFA and CES. We

also have been the only consistent Media Sponsor o RETAILVISION or

the past years (and the exclusive ofcial Media Sponsor o last years

RETAILVISION Middle East.)

Our 20,000+ readers are the retailers, distributors, OEMs and ven-

dors interested in the type o news that transcends borders. They also

EUROPEs LEADING NEWSLETTER for CE

www.On-CE.net

hop on planes to visit CES, IFA, Hong Kong Electronics, CEDIAand

even ISE. They have inormational needs that go beyond the kitchen

talk o local print publications. By the time the product is mentioned in

their own country, it would already be too late or them to beneft.

Interested Readers can fnd out more at our web site below.

Companies who want to sell across EMEA should contact us about our

cost-eective Sponsorships that include value-added services that add

impact and create channel sales.

Frequency, impact and click-through accountabilityand reach

that is truly pan-European and pan-MEA.


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ere are the ten common mistakes thatmost sales professionals make, with somequick advice for fixing them:

Not keeping your prospect

pipeline primed

Fix: Selling is first and foremost a numbers game with the Key Performance Indicators locked onhow many prospects you can find, how many youcan approach and what percentage you can closein a given time period. Sometimes this is referredto as a sales funnel, as prospects are hopefullyfunneled into your sales process.

At the bottom of the sales funnel, you haveyour customers placing their orders. In the middle,

you have different prospects moving up the funnelas they are engaged at different phases. And at thepeak, you need to keep a flow of prospects cominginto the funnel.

Some companies provide leads to sales via mar-keting. Many vendors pass on sales leads. Some-times you are left to build your own prospect list.No matter where they come from, you need tomonitor that flow just as a power meter tells you

what is coming into an amplifier. Then you need toschedule quality time for contacting prospects andengaging them. Like any funnel, if theres nothingcoming intheyll be nothing coming out.

Calling on contacts that have

no budget

Fix: Qualify your prospects in every conversa-tion with them. For every engagement, you wantto know what, why, and when the customer mightbuyand how much theyre willing to pay. Easyto say, hard to dobut there are lots of tells thatindicate how a company or organization is doing:

10 Common Sales

Mistakesstaff levels, financial reports, credit agencies, staffdiscourse, historical dataandtry thisinter-rogation. Not the bright lights, rubber truncheonkind of questioning, but many times asking thequestion and getting an answer is the simplest re-search.

Insufcient knowledge o your

customers business

Fix: Yes, some companies rely only on prod-uct knowledge as sales training. But it matterswhether you are selling the same AV product toa hotel, church or enterprise. In todays competi-tive world, you are selling solutions and need tomatch those solutions as specifically as possible to

the customers needs.It now matters even which type of enterprise.

Research your target industry and its basic busi-ness models before you start calling on customers.Know who their customers are and how they ap-proach their own customers. When selling ROIsolutions, you need to command a full under-standing of their sales process to conclude yourown.

Ignorance o how the customer

buys

Fix: Find out how the customers purchasingprocess works and who is involved in the decision.Most professional AV sales fall under complexsales where you are selling more than one decision-maker (and sometimes across different depart-ments.) You may need to working on different lev-els simultaneously to speed along the sales process.Worse yet, you could be spending time calling onsomeone who has the ability to say, No but notthe ability to say Yes.

S e l l i n g

H


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WERE BRINGING IT TOGETHER UNDER ONE ROOF

For installers in Europe and Middle East, were pulling togetherthe key products and industry trends rom Home Cinema, Home

Networking, and Home Automation, to create a timely email

newsletter that targets their business interests.

Our audience extends rom CEDIA installers, to multi-room

audio installers, to high end retail shops with installation (like

EON in Dubai), to home automation ranchises (like Adapt), to

home automation etailers, to the building/security installers that

start with the garage or your thermostat. We dont try to overlap

and provide editorial or the general public: we are a business

publication or in-

stallers only.

We cover not

only the hif, TV

and video prod-

ucts but also the

technology and

standards that will

ultimately unite the home. Powerline, Zigbee, HDMI, Home RAID,

KNX, Z-Wave, UWB, DLNA and more acronyms that you can shake

a universal remote control at. We like to think we have the widestvision in the business and that our ability to watch computer, com-

HOME CINEMA - HOME NETWORKING - HOME AUTOMATION

munications, and consumer electronics markets as well as Audio

Video gives us the edge (and thereore, our readers.)Today each market segment in residential installation is small

but growing. Tomorrow they will have grown together into a big-

ger market that unites everyone with an interest in residential

technology.

Today CEDIAs installers tackle the high end rooms that bring

in the best o home theatre; tomorrow they will install whole home

systems as video moves rom movie time to liestyle ubiquity. We

all ollow the customer.

An ABI Research study on residential gateways orecasts home

networking consumer premises equipment and aggregation de-

vices will deliver at least $1.8 billion in annual revenues by theend o 2013. A separate, second ABI study says shipments o our

classes o wireless audio and video connectivity products or the

home (150 million this year) will increase to nearly 700 million

units worldwide by the end o 2013. Bluetooth, WiFi, UWB and

60GHz (or in-home wireless distribution o HD video.) will co-

exist and become closely integrated according to their strengths

and specialties.

So naturally connectivity is an important part o ECI. Were

bringing it all together, under one roo. And wed like you to think

o us as your doorway to any technology that has be installed ina home.

SYSTEMS INTEGRATION FOR THE CONNECTED HOME.

www.ECInews.eu


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Not seeking truth

Fix: Seek the truth, not what makes you or yourmanager feel good. When you want know whatthe customer is thinking, ask. You can deal with

the truth, but imagining the answers will costyou time, money, and, ultimately, the sale.

Insufcient planning

Fix: On a sales call, every word, every phrase,and every sentence should be there for a reasoneven the small talk. You need to know what youare going to say, how you are going to say it, andhow you might respond to their response.

The sales proposal, bless it, should be done in-telligently and fashionably (take a D-Tools soft-ware, if you want to make this into a real process),but in the end you have to bring the document tolife. Your job is to sell which means you have tomove the buyer to an action, and that generallyinvolves getting an emotional response (data canget the buyer to think, to reason but its emotionthat gets the buyer to act, to take decision.)

To get to that emotion, you will need informa-tion about your client, your products, your offerand a PLAN on how to weave the best sales fabricthat will dress your sales approach.

Presenting in a non-stop sales

pitch

Fix: The number one rule in selling: dont beboring. And a non-stop sales pitch is boring. Thinkof a non-stop sales pitch as a long-winded info-

mercial on TV and then youll understand whythe client looks as if he wants to change channels.

Selling is meant to be a creative profession andin AV we are blessed with creative folks. First, askquestions that draw out wants, needs and oppor-tunities; then address them. Creativity is not frivo-lous; it should be pointed and sharp to the point.

Failure to adjust your

approach

Fix: Before, during and after presenting, listento the customer. Focus on everything about thecustomer: words, gestures, tonality and context.

You need to read the customer to shape yourpresentation.

NLP sales training is famous for explaining howdifferent buyers relate to different methods of pre-

sentation. In NLP, you need only three behaviourpatterns to create successful communication intherapy, business and sales:1. To know what outcome you want2. To be flexible in your behaviour to generatedifferent kinds of behaviour (to find out what re-sponse you get)3. To have enough experience (sensory) to noticewhen you get the responses that you want

NLP assumes internal mental processes(problem solving, memory, language) consist ofsensory representations (visual, auditory, kin-esthetic, olfactory, and gustatory) that engage

when people think about problems, proposals,or activities.

You can achieve great sales results without NLPtraining but its important to understand somepeople accept visual information better whileothers respond to speech (and still others need totouch a model.) Maybe youve even experiencedsome buyers will react only on a mobile phone,others via e-mail, and some insist upon physicalpresence for nearly all significant communica-tion. Different strokes for different folks and greatsalespeople constantly shift gears to communicatebetter.

Continuing to sell ater youve

closedFix: When you get a yes, stop talking, smile,

and take the order. Its that simple.

Ignoring your own selling

skills weaknesses

Fix: Notice what you dont do so well and gettraining to fill the gaps. Few are born great insales; most excellent sales people train (train them-

selves and training by others) constantly. Why-- ifOlympic athletes with all their born ability stillneed coaches--do you think sales should be anydifferent?

S e l l i n g


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C u s t o m I n s t a l l


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Linda Richardson is the Founder andChairman of Richardson, a global salestraining business. She is identified by

Training Industry, Inc. as one of the Top 20Most Influential Training Professionals. Linda iscredited with the movement to Consultative Sell-ing, and the author of ten books on selling andsales management. She teaches sales and manage-ment courses at the Wharton Graduate School.

Closing a sale sounds soso...so retail.And it can sound manipulative, as if you weretricking someone into signing up for business.But, in fact, closing techniques are importantin a world filled with competitors, weak middlemanagers, and tech-shy buyers.

Closing Rule #1:Think Like a Closer

According to Richardson, the great closersare prompt and incredibly persistent. Once theyget a lead, theyre on that lead immediately.Paris Hilton with a party invitation could notbe more determined. The closer looks first tosee if the time is right, and they close the dealright then, right there. After theyve closed, theyalways follow up immediately. To be a better

closer, youve got to increase your own resolu-tion and get dogged in your attention to thedeal on the table.

But on top of being willing to be vigilant and

inexhaustible in your focus. Great closers neverfail to try to improve their ability to understandcustomer needs.

Youll never be a great closer if you arent will-ing to constantly improve your skills at dialogand questioning. Youll never be a great closer,if you arent willing to do the extra mental workto build confidence in your own ability. Hey,

just think, reading this already puts you in the

category of sales people that want to improvetheir skill sets!Thats the foundation.

Closing Rule #2:Set Objectives

Its a myth to think every sale has a single, all-important point where the deal closes. Truth:Some simple sales have a defined close point,

but complex sales processes (almost all B2B saleslike we have in the AV industry) have a seriesof points where the prospect makes a decision,even if its just the decision to let you pitch. Salesclosing guru Linda Richardson says all sales gothrough four phases, each with its own closethat permits the sale to move forward.

Initial Phase. You need to close from a cold-

call into a sales call.Developmental Phase. You need to closeby successfully eliciting information about theclients business, information that only the cli-

Five Rules for

Closing the SaleTips based on the guru of Closing Sales,Linda Richardson

S e l l i n g


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ent has, in order to define the solution you willpropose.

Culmination Phase. You need to close byasking for the next step or for the business.

Follow-up Phase. You need to close by en-suring the relationship goes forward and set thepattern for a viable

Part of Rule #2 is that you should set an ob-jective for each meeting. At every point in thesales process, you should always have a closingobjective that is specific, measurable and appro-priately aggressive. Not vague notions like get

closer to the customer or learn about custom-er needs. These are good thoughts, but thoseare processes, not goals.Goals must be specific and measurable:

I will get a list of the key decision-makers.

I will get a copy of the competitors proposal.

I will describe the customers problem.

I will get access to my customer boss.

And, of course, eventually: I will ask for the

business.When you treat the sales cycle as a series of

closes, it makes it easier and more natural to askfor the business when its time to achieve yourultimate objective.

And what is your ultimate objective? You maysay a sale but that falls short of the mark youreally want: a satisfied customer.

A satisfied customer knows what he bought,

why he bought it, who he bought it from, and isconvinced that the value is there.

Closing Rule #3:Overcome Your Fear

Closing is simple. Whats difficult is dealingwith the negative emotions that youre havingabout closing. Those emotions include.

Fear of failure. If I lose this sale, it means thatIm a failure as a sales professional.

Fear of rejection. If I lose this sale, it meansthat the customer doesnt like me.

Fear of financial loss. If I lose this sale, I wontmake the commission and my kids wont eat.

Fear of management disapproval. If I dontmake quota, my boss will be unhappy.

Fear of lost anticipation. If I dont make thesale, Ill lose the pleasant fantasy of winning.

Fear of social blundering. If I ask at the wrongtime, the customer will think Im pushy.

The unifying factor in all these emotions, ofcourse, is fear. The specific quality of that feardiffers from person to person. Some folk dontcare that much about social rejection for exam-

ple, but hate, hate, hate to lose a commission.Other folk are happy to take a financial loss aslong as they dont have look like a fool in frontof a customer. However, regardless of the par-ticular size and shape of your fears, the solutionis the same:

Regardless of how uncomfortable you are orhow terrible you might feel if your close doesntresult in a sale, the truth is that YOU HAVE

TO CLOSE. Its part of the job, no matter howmuch its scaring you. So just do it.

Closing is like standing on the edge of a coldswimming pool. Slowly lowering yourself in the

water is slow torture; better to just take a deepbreath and jump.

Or, to use another analogy, closing is likewalking with Tony Robbins across a bed of hotcoals. If you walk quickly youll be fine, but if

you dawdle youll end up with nasty blisters.

How do you overcome afear?

Familiarity. The more you close, the easier itis to close. Thats why its recommended youtreat the sales cycle as a series of small closes.That way closing on the big deal isnt a big deal

in and of itself.Rehearsal. When it comes to emotions, your

brain cant differentiate between what it imag-ines and whats actually happened in the

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real world. If you repeatedly rehearse closing inyour mind, and while rehearsing force yourselfto feel confident, your behavior in the real world

will imitate your imagination.

Reframing. This entails creating a compari-son that makes the original fear seem trivial. Ex-ample: There are millions of Iraqi citizens whohave to worry about being shot simply if they goto the store to buy some food, so what have yougot to be afraid of?

Association. Ever been to an amusementpark? If so, you probably paid $30 to $50 to befrightened. The fear part of selling is like go-ing on a rollercoaster except that you get tosome steering, so youre more in control. So thefear is the exciting part of selling, right?

Redefinition. Fear is actually just a signal thatyou need to do something. If youre afraid toask for the business, its just your subconsciousmind telling you that its getting close to thepoint where you need to ask for the business.

Closing Rule #4:Always Be Checking

When it comes to closing, timing is every-thing. Classic American sales training, and youmay have heard this, promoted ABC as a wayto remember Always Be Closing.

Today closing guru Linda Richardson rec-ommends the old ABC changes to AlwaysBe Checking. Her idea is to constantly getfeedback from the prospect about whether itstime to close. That way, when you do close, itbecomes less of a moment of truth and morelike a natural extension of the conversation thatyoure having with the prospect.

At convenient points during the sales call (af-ter you have positioned your message, respond-

ed to an objection, answered a question, etc.)ask a question that draws out more informationand which reveals the prospects state of mindrelative to the progress of the sale. Nothing elab-

orate, just normal conversational stuff like:How does that sound?How would that work?

What do you think about?

Asking for feedback not only give you criticalinformation about the prospects problems andpotential to accept your solution, but also in-creases your confidence when it comes to askingfor the business or the next step.

When youre checking, avoid leading ques-tions like Does that make sense to you? orDo you agree? while nodding your head.

Prospects will almost always respond to suchquestions by nodding along with you, withoutreally agreeing. Instead, ask questions that en-courage the prospect to provide you with vitalinformation. Example:

INEFFECTIVE:

Rep (nodding): We have the best HDMISplitter in the business. Do you agree?

Prospect (nodding back): Uh huh. (Think-ing: Yeah, I hear you.)EFFECTIVE:

Rep: Do you think our service programcould satisfy your needs?

Prospect: We need a global deployment forservice.

Rep: I can see why thats important. We haveinternational partners who deliver our services.

How would that meet your concern?According to Richardson, the best part about

always be checking is that much of the timethe client will preemptively close the sale for you,saying something like So, when do we start?

Closing Rule #5:Close with Confidence

The old Always Be Closing philosophy isoften misinterpreted to mean harassing the cus-tomer until the customer buys. Thats too bad,because that interpretation of the ABC strategy

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creates a sense of overwhelming pressure. And

that inevitably creates resistance to the sale be-cause the prospect doesnt want to feel that heor she is being manipulated.

Most of the time high pressure tactics back-fire, even when they work. Almost all B2Bsales involve a long-term relationship betweentwo firms, so if you make a high pressure sale,chances are youve made your customer contactfeel like a fool, and youll be persona non gratanext time you need some business.

If youve been following the rules from thisarticle, youve used checking to get feedbackand to position your offerings. If so, you shouldbe able to sense the rhythm of the conversationand whether the customer is ready to make adecision.

Thats when you close. Closing guru Linda

Richardson describes this as a five step process: Summarize. Make a concise, powerful sum-mary that reiterates the benefits of your offer-ings and its appropriateness for the prospect.

Speak with confidence, but dont let your voiceslip into sales pitch babble. Keep it real andconversational. Final Check. Once youve summarized, doone final check - not for understanding but foragreement. Example: I think weve pretty muchconcluded that our solution will solve yourproblem and save you money; how does thatmeet your objective? Dont be pushy and dontask a leading question like: Do you agree? Ask for the Business. If the final checkdoesnt surface a new objection, be direct and

ask for the business confidently and clearly.Example: Shall we go ahead and sign the neces-sary documents? Conclude with Confidence. Chances areyou just made a sale, in which case it should beeasy to conclude the meeting with confidence,energy, and rapport. But even if you didnt getthe sale, you want to leave the (almost) customer

with the sense that you are a person with whom

they want to do business. Follow up Immediately. Many reps stum-ble because theyre so elated at getting the busi-ness. They think the job is done and dont takethe necessary steps to make sure their executeddeal begins properly (someone elses depart-ment now) and the customer starts off happy.Do what you have to do to make sure yourcompany appreciates your sale by a pain-less en-

trance into your accounting, technical support,logistics and other departments.

The most elegant thing about the above se-quence is that it builds on the previous fourrules.Summary of the Five Rules That Close Sales

Now its time for us to close this article. Doyou think the above article will satisfy yourneeds to learn more about closing a sale?

Yes. ok, shall we turn the page and see whatelse RAVE EUROPE has to offer?

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specially if you sell residential AV, youveheard this from your customers before:We can get better prices online. But

dont take it as a fact. CEDIA member David

Ault (Audio Video Planners in USA) made hisclient listen while Ault called not one but threeetailers who all claimed the best prices.

ETAILER#1AVP:Do you have this 65-inch plasma TV instock?Etailer 1: Back-orderedAVP:What should I do?Etailer 1: Call back daily until we have one.

AVP:How much would shipping cost for the TV?Etailer 1: $325 for basic shipping once wecan get one.AVP:What is basic shipping?Etailer 1: A semi truck, not a lift gate truck.AVP:So, I have to get a 65 plasma off of a semi trailer?Etailer 1: Yes, sir. Residential trucks are morethan $325...AVP:What if there is a problem or the TV is

broken? Or, worse yet, what if there are pixelsout on the TV? Panasonic claims up to 4 pixelscan be burned out in their warranty info. Who

will check this for me?Etailer 1: You must do that while the driver isstill on site.AVP:What! In my driveway?Etailer 1: Yes sir. The driver will wait.AVP:So, what if I dont test the TV until I can

get it into my house?Vendor 1: Then you repackage the TV and paythe shipping back if a problem is found.

AVP: What about a replacement TV?

No, You Cant Get a Better

Deal Online

Etailer 1: Sir, you pay ALL shipping expenses asour terms state.AVP:Even for a replacement?Etailer 1: Yes sir. We might be able to give you

a $100 discount if you need a replacement.AVP:SoI would pay to ship the TV here, shipthe TV back, and then pay to ship the replace-ment TV here all with lift gate trucks? I maybe looking at as much as $1,500 in shippingfees?Etailer 1: That is a possibility. It is a heavy andlarge TV.

ETAILER# 2

We phoned another etailer to ask if the plasmaTV was in stock. We were put on hold. After15 minutes, the etailer came back, Were out.

And he hung up on us.

ETAILER# 3

AVP:Do you have this TV in stock?Etailer 3: We shipped one yesterday!AVP:Do you have another in stock?Etailer 3: Im not sure. Give me your credit

card number and we will only charge your cardif we can get you the TV.AVP:Do you stock the Sony Blu-ray player?Etailer 3: No problem!AVP:Great! Have you done the latest firmwareupdate?Etailer 3: Huh?AVP:You know, the Sony download required toplay one third of the newest Blu-ray discs?

Etailer 3: I dont know.AVP:Do you know in every Sony Blu-ray playerbox it says you need to do this firmware updatefor any player to operate correctly?

This AV dealer didnt call the customers bluffhe dialed it!

E

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M a r k e t i n g

till trying to sell everybody? Marketsegmentation can improve profit mar-gins and win market share. And when

markets are in turmoil, then differentiation is ata premium, and segmentation strategy can meanthe difference between survival and road-kill.

Market segmentation will leverage whatever

differentiates you from competitors to targeta distinct market segment with common cus-tomer attributes. If successful, the benefits arehigher profit margins and, in some cases, mar-ket share and revenue growth.

Segmentation lets David slay Goliath. Geof-frey Moore (Crossing the Chasm fame) callsit niche marketing, but its essentially the samething: Trying to cross the chasm without tak-

ing a niche market approach is like trying tostart a fire without kindling.

Try this 3-step process to develop your mar-ket segmentation strategy:

1. Develop an objective picture of your market-

place with an internal (executives, key employ-

ees) and external (customers, analysts) audit.

Do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportu-

nities, Threats) analysis based on this audit.

Where is your organization strongest in skills?

What AV product ranges do well for you?

2. Get your smartest people in a room and

brainstorm market opportunities that match

your companys unique DNA. If your prod-

ucts or services have a value proposition and

theres a market segment that needs them,

theyll find each other in that room.

3. Then build the key strategies for targeting,

selling, and even dominating the segment. De-

velop specific strategies and tactics for spe-

cific customer or application niches.

The history of AV sales is that we tend tobroadcast our general services, instead of build-ing our marketing messages to specific commu-nities. The last position you want to be in today:random sales following random marketing.

Build your case for segmentation by estab-lishing standard metrics to quantify the AV in-

vestment return. Help your customers establishtheir own key performance indicators (KPIs)for AV in their segment. Position AV systems asproductive, revenue-generating (or cost-saving,depends upon application) and as communica-tion tools that streamline and enervate businessprocesses. What are possible KPIs to match toyour particular products, applications and seg-ments like hospitality, education, retail signage,

rental and others?

Increased sales (or sales traffic) Cost-savings Utilization (%) Transactions per day Equipment tracking Inventory control Total # of classes served

Cancelled classes (due to non-working AVsystems) Number of AV facilities supported Successful trouble ticket resolution (%) Time to resolve AV trouble ticket Number of events covered (projection/soundsystems deployed, etc.) Number of videoconference sessions

When theres a chasm to cross, youll need tobuild a bridge. Using ROI measures like thesewill help you build investments and your seg-mentation strategies.

Survival Strategy:

Market SegmentationS


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www.ConsumerIT.eu

Audience: 37,000+ dealers, distributors and resellers across

EMEA. If you want to nd new distributors or to sell more at

RETAIL, please ask us for our cost-effective rates.

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O p e r a t i o n s

utinside all the Quarterly Reportsthat put the blame on the economy,there are companies (vendors and inte-

grators) trying to hide their business sins. Com-panies that are using the excuse of the economyto cover up their mismanagement, to distractfrom their poor returns, and to create an excusefor actions they would prefer to disguise fromstaff, customers and shareholders.

They can run but they cant hide. This marketwill grind down those who imposter real busi-ness managers. Succeeding in a down economycalls on your skill sets as an operations manager.Heres what we think it will take to succeed in2009-2010Go on the offensive. This isnt the time to gointo a bunker. If you get on the defensive youredead. Get aggressive, set aggressive goals.Select better sales targets. Improve yourmethodology so that you dont waste time oncustomers who arent going to buy.Dont lower prices. Find new and innovative

ways to lower the risk of purchase. Make do-ing business easier and create a better customerexperience.Focus on the customer. If you make your own

sales people nervous, theyll choke. Dont gointo high-pressure mode. Ask: how can we helpYOU to win? (And then do whatever it takes.)Improve everything. You cant operate the way

you did last year. You need to improve people,process, and technology.Get creative. It pains me to say this, but weneed more creativity in this industry. We needmore creative folks that can take our AV mes-sage out to customers that are pinched by otherindustries.Return to basics. Marketing need to focus onthe only one metric that really matters: revenue.

Advertising might cause an immediate revenueimpact, or it may have a delayed impact, but if itdoes not drive revenue, it was not successful.Drive transactions:The web is the best plat-form for getting consumers from awareness totransaction the world has ever seen, yet few AVadvertisers leverage the web as a transactionplatform. Were still stuck in print pages and aCPM world. This narrow focus ignores the op-portunities in leveraging the targeting informa-tion we have to help customers find productsand complete meaningful transactions.Ask the CEO into the market. If your CEOhasnt spoken with customers this week, hehasnt yet changed his job to match what thiseconomy needs.Stop blaming the economy. There are still

plenty of customers out there. And youll watchthe worst of your competitors float away likejetsam as the tide goes outleaving more busi-ness for you when the tide comes back.

Stop Blaming The

EconomyThere is no question the global economy hasbeen completely mismanaged. Many companiessuffer and others will follow.

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Welcome to Digital Signage News EMEA. We wel-come all interested installers, distributors and in-dustry members to subscribe or ree to our e-mailnewsletter.

Digital signage is exciting as it straddles bothI.T. and Pro AV markets. You need a publisher thatknows both markets well to cover the industry de-velopments in Europe, Middle East and Arica.

Our intention is to concentrate on the hardware,sotware, connectivity, and content-delivery issuesas opposed to the media networks aspect. Weveelected to stay with digital signage: instead o theacronym DOOH, (not only because, duh, thats not

a handsome name or a growing sector that wantsto attract support rom customers) to highlight thesignifcance o digital, the conversion o signagenot only to the IP platorm, but the connectivity thatdoes imply or mobility and wireless technologies.

SIGN UP FOR

YOUR FREESUBSCRIPTION In 2008, 90% of all DS networking connections were Ethernet.

In 2008, 169,000 newly-installed digital displays had Bluetooth,RFID, Wi-Fi or SMS capabilities or some combo.

HDMI may comprise 70% of connections to newly installed digital displays by 2012.

40% of new network digital display platform installations will useSMS for interactivity by 2012

Europe is becoming more signicant in the digital signage market.

One o our highlights will be RETAIL becausewe are a major publisher or some o the largestEMEAs retail business (sponsor o RETAILVISIONevents) and we understand retail very well.

Another contribution will be our true pan-EMEAeort. We know well the markets and cultures oEastern Europe, Russia (where we are already inour second year o sponsoring The Colours oDigital Signage in Moscow), southern Europe, andthe Middle East. We are not armchair publishers.Ater years in Brussels, we are now based in Maltawith ofces in UK, Italy, Belgium, Silicon Valleyand New York.

Interested Readers can fnd an easy subscriptionorm on our website below. Interested Sponsorsshould contact us to discover how our value-add-ed services make participation cost-eective andaddictive.

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Should You Run Your Own

Show?

O p e r a t i o n s

or the answer to theabove question, we turnto the first-ever AWE

EXPO, hosted by UK distribu-

tor AWE. They had more than180 installers attending a 3-dayevent at the companys head of-fice.

AWE provided extensive train-ing on its Philips Pronto and

Xantech products with delegatesattending more that 300 educa-tion sessions. Visitors could also take a close-up

look at the latest innovation from brands han-dled by AWE. These included the launch of thenew Pronto TSU-9800 touchscreen controller,new video, magnetic, audio, light and voltagesensors from Xantech, the ultra- slim PioneerKRP-600M 60 Kuro monitor and KRP-500AKuro TV with media box and Onkyos newflagship TX-NR906 AV Receiver and Europesfirst showing of their AV processor.

Daily Xantech training sessions covered anoverview of the products now available from

AWE and an insight into future products, as well as training on Dragon programming formultiroom systems. Bite size Pronto sessionsproved extremely popular and focussed on thenew Pronto TSU-9800, new PEP2 software(Pronto Edit Professional) and an introductionto Pronto for those new to this quality, wholehouse control solution.

The AWE EXPO surpassed expectationsand proved a highly popular format for install-

ers keen to see the latest products, take advan-

tage of training and network with their industrypeers explains Stuart Tickle, AWEs ManagingDirector.

A fun element to the AWE Expo was a pooltable competition where delegates had to potall the striped balls in the fastest time withoutpotting any other balls.

Potting balls may not underline the success,

but the verdict is in. Any time distributors ori

rave europe av survival guide 2009

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