From [Link: cepro.com]

“We've been reinvigorating our installed solutions channel with new products and a renewed commitment to the professional installer community,” says Spence.

OK, when will they stop competing with us?

old habits die hard.

I think half of the bean counters have realized they need us more then they want to admit and the other half just keeps turning the knife.

I do actually wonder if they regret going public. The investors now dictate what they can and cant do. They also get forced to rush things to market. (Im convinced it is why the beam sounds like complete ass)

Just like C4 did with Triad, Sonos is now adding high profit items to help offset the low margin goods to help their bottom line.

They improved by 6% last year- if they want to add a category and base it on one years' performance, I bet they'll have new management soon enough.

The article indicated that the Beam led their growth- “If I were to highlight one thing form Q1, it would be the success of our home theater portfolio,” says CEO Patrick Spence speaking with investors. “Beam led the way, and we achieved 42 percent year-over-year growth across the home theater portfolio.”

Well, it is a fact that can't be refuted, that they are trying to woo us while selling to our clients. The only thing they can do, frankly, is to step up the wooing, to try to overshadow the selling to our clients. I am sorry they have made this their business plan. It could be a great working relationship.

Sonos is telling both sides what they want to hear. Its just business.

You should look at Sonos the same way you look at lag bolts, moving blankets, zip ties, speaker cable, TV mounts, Speakers etc. Does it get the job done? Does it help you make money?

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Until they start offering installation. That would be a non-verbal admission that they don't need us, at all. They're a networking company that got into audio- what's to stop them creating a link for auto-programming though Alexa, Google Home or some other voice-operated gadget, to make setup possible by people who have no idea how and requiring them only to answer some questions?

Y'all just hang in there making pitiful margins until such time as they get bought out, lose the investors, or drop you for not meeting goals.

It makes me sick when I read crap like this. We are quality and performance oriented, and want the best and coolest for our clients (and don't forget that it's a kick for us to get to install and set up this stuff!)... while this article doesn't come anywhere near mentioning, let alone claiming, that the quality of their equipment increased, or was responsible for their growth... this is just about numbers.

And their willingness to sell around their dealers instead of through them shows they don't care about their primary customers, we the installers.

Or am I just too naive?

Have you setup a Sonos system? Anyone can do it.

Installation? Lmfao. Still waiting for Comcast to get that part right. They can give the product away if they want...If they want a clean hidden install they have to call us. We can charge whatever we want. We can sell them a new network and surge protection and high end speakers. Sonos is giving us customers/money the same way the iPod/iPad has.

I'm with Mac. People call up asking for SONOS. Easy sales. Easy installs. Happy clients. Referrals. $ is $.

I have a lot of SONOS clients out there. They all get the ads on the app or in their email. Do you know how many have bought additional SONOS gear from SONOS? Zero. They are our clients for a reason.

One of the first Sonos systems I installed was for a very rich client I have been dealing with for almost 20 years.
He was given a Sonos connect amp from some event he was at.
This was at least 6 or 7 years ago.
Called me to see if I could hook it up for him to try out, he had heard good things about it.
Got it working, and the next thing I knew I was changing over the old 4 zone house audio system to Sonos
Then we added a portable speaker for outdoor use.
Then we added Sonos to his theatre area system and higher end audio system.
Through all this time I am sure he received the sales emails from Sonos, and all they did was remind him he wanted to add another box to another system in his house. So he kept calling me to come and bring another one of those Sonos boxes and add it here and there.
Installation, the small margin I could get on Sonos along with changing programming on some system remotes was where I made money each trip.
And I have a customer that continues to be happy with the work I do for him.
This past year I just did a $100,000 upgrade to his 25 year old Lutron system.
This year we will be upgrading his theater area TV to 4k. With clients like this there is always something to do as the gear gets older.
In the end it is all about giving a client the right product that is easy to use and retaining them as a client for years. In a few years from now, my guess is all the old Sonos boxes will have something new and even better to take their place, and he will be interested in in those.

I have and it's child's play, unless the place is just not conducive to WiFi or running new cables. If they really want to hard-wire it, and many don't want to tear up their house, sure- we make money. I was referring to the sales that come through Sonos contacting the customers and if they start to offer installation through some new network of people who may be able to do it but aren't actually CI. I know of one dealer who had quoted some Sonos equipment + install and the woman said that as soon as she returned from that dealer, she found that Sonos had e-mailed her with an offer of 30% off of the normal price. She called the dealer and asked if they would still install everything if she bought it direct and he turned it down, even tough they were charging $95/hour. All I could do was say "Sure, I'll do it".

I should send a bottle of wine to the store owner- she called me because of several recommendations on the Next Door site and not only did I set up the Sonos, I put the TV on an articulating mount that I provided, sold a network switch that needed to be wired to the router in the basement and re-ran some other cabling that was like a rat's nest. I also moved the router to improve WiFi range. I got a couple of referrals from her, too.

Thanks, Dave (owner of the store that turned her down).

The lesson being noted here is that any job can turn into a lead / more work.
There are times when it won't.
There are times when it will.

What's the saying? The harder you work, the luckier you get...

HOWEVER, if you have enough work on and the Sonos Connect + Play 1 install won't make half the margin and everyone wants it NOW, then it does make sense to prioritize higher return work.
The issue that Sonos has (among a few others of their own doing) is that many of their products can be left behind margin-wise and can be installed by the company itself. As per normal, any install can lead to more work! But is Sonos the only arrow to have in your quiver? Nope... even Sonos recognize this (ie their deal with Sonance) but I doubt anyone on this forum is running a Sonos only business. If so, you'd expect they were living solely on the Sonos.com forums instead.

The argument about Sonos selling direct to clients, with setup no less, is valid. But give it a rest with the margin argument. Pretty much nothing has real margin anymore. Sonos is 30 points. Add speakers and your install and you made money. If you buy via disty that's your own fault for selling a product you know has 15 point margin. But at 30 points, it's not a big difference over anything else. Factor in the repeat business for it and you'll be ahead of other gear in no time.

What else are you selling at 30 points? Im not complaining Sonos is what it is and ibelieve in leveraging it to sell more, but most products are 40 min and usually 50-60 (not counting Tv's rokus etc that yes are all abismall on margin) speakers, amps cables, control systems, hell even racks make significant more margin than sonos. so I think its a valid complaint that its only a 30 point line