On 11/17/04 05:10 ET, FRR said...
Light fixtures can be or are a pain in the butt
unless you are selling mid to high end fixtures.
Otherwise you're competing with the electricians
(no offense Larry, but I think you know what I
mean) and Home Depot with very small margins.
Yeah, Larry is a regular technology renaissance man.
I enjoy reading his posts.
The next step after selling lighting fixtures
or progression to selling lighting fixtures is
lighting design. Lighting design is what will
seperate you from the low cost product provider.
It also is another differentiator when it comes
time for the architect to recommend a home automation
company. Lighting design is an iterative process
that involves you (the lighting designer) the
architect and client. If they like your work they're
going to think twice about another home automation
company or at least lighting control company.
Maybe it's different in other areas of the country, but here the lighting people do NOT want to get involved in the automation part of the job aside from specifying which fixtures are in the scenes and determining the light levels on each fixture for the desired effect for the scene.
And yes, I've sold a truck load of fixtures this
year because of a lighting design and have developed
a strong working relationship with a very talented
architect because of it.
It sounds like you are more involved than most, and if I didn't already have great people in my market to work with, I would also get more deeply involved with the design elements because I enjoy working with lighting.
In my market at least, it pays to maintain a symbiotic relationship with the lighting designers and the top electricians and be the guy that creates the interface for all of these subsystems and then makes it all work.
