Hello,

Our primary business is custom home theaters and media rooms for homeowners, so we are only now beginning to work with homebuilders to discuss low voltage prewiring that includes a basic compliment of Control4 products for media, lighting and security control.

We'd like to hear from any of you who are currently selling Control4 to he builder market in terms of what sort of discounts you must offer to win the business, plus any other tips you would like to share.

Regards,

Gregory

Discount nothing unless its a really good customer. Or maybe if theres a contract for X amount of units and its worth it to you. Like some wise man from here said, if you don't value your time, no one will.

Carl,

That seems to make sense to us here, while there is no published retail pricing. But when C4 hits Circuit City in CA like it has in FL that may bring some pressure. Even then we still value our time.

Regards,

Gregory

But when C4 hits

Isnt that the reason many on here have decided not to sell it? (among many other reasons)

Ditto Idodishez

No discounts! Take rhe Builder out to the Best Steakhouse for dinner sometime. Get him a little liquored-up, maybe offer to trick out his home...

Is CC really going to carry it? If that is true, that is just mind-blowingly stupid on C4's part, don't you think.
I was looking into it, but not now. Holy crap!

Elan has a hard time being sold at Reatail level in some of the better-staffed retail places... C4 & CC, that's like Walmart carrying Crestron!

Mr. Stanley, I don't know if I would compare Crestron to C4?

The WalMart/CC anology works.

I used to sell appliances to builders. A rep once told me that CC made $1 million profit each year, but made $2 mil profit from extended warranties. Think about it.

At Circuit City, 50% of the price of the "performance guarantee" is the clerk's commission..

Where is Elan being sold over the counter at retail?

Locally here in Seattle Magnolia HiFi... They had a little Elan KIOSK set up with the different controllers, TouchPanels speakers etc..
I'm not sure where else, but Mag is right in our back yard...
Usually if a client shows interest, the floor salesperson will turn them over to their custom division, but I have run into instances where they over the counter it... We have mass techie guys up here with Microsoft, who prefer to do their own programming... A company I used to be with was a Crestron dealer, and it wasn't uncommon for homeowners, after they moved in, to wipe clean the systems programming and start over themselves... Same with Lite-Touch and Vantage systems... (I think a lot of these guys hang out in the Microsoft Cafeteria at lunch & compete with each other on their home systems, and how THEY can re-write the code etc.)... Pretty bizzare.
So for a lot of these guys, ELAN is child's play... :

No, no, no!!! I wasn't comparing them either, sorry for the misunderstanding. It was a weak analogy... I totally respect Crestron 100%... I have lost respect for C4, if they want to start mass marketing the stuff, which I think is totally ludicrous.

Yeah, extended warranties... THOSE are why I quit working for a great HI FI company up here... They hired this hot-shot corporate guy... He told us that we had to start selling the damn things... The worst part was that Warranties had to make up no less than 10% of our overall sales numbers each month... If you slipped below 10%, you had to go in and get chewed out by this guy... if it happened a second time... well, adios MF!!!
I had a real problem with that... so I told them bye, bye...
Right after I left, this genious added to his plan... Every customer that you talked to, you had to bring up Monster Cable products in your conversation... Then, he instituted a similar program for Monster Cable sales.... You not only had to sell at LEAST 10% in warranties, but another 10% of your sales HAD to be in Monster Cable products!!! ... And each month your sales % were supposed to go-up... show improvement, or you got called on the carpet!!!

Now what REALLY ticks me off, is to walk into BB stores... the first thing the salesman tells you is "Hey man, whassup? Look around, ask questions... Oh- and we are not on commission, so it's cool"... Well they may not be on comission for selling Hardware... but they do HAVE to pitch the hell out of warranties, and I'll guarantee you they get a comission, or spiff off of selling those damn things... WHAT A CROCK!!! I was in one of their stores last night, and this sales guy was scaring the hell out of this nice old couple... "Oh, you better get our warranty... so when this breaks, you're covered..." He was selling them a Yamaha Home Theater in A Box system for like $599.00--- He followed that up with selling them a $200 Monster power center, bunch of Monster Cables, and the killer... Over $400 in frickin' warranties... (By the way BB purchased Magnolia a couple years ago)... It killed me to see this guy bending this nice old couple over.
I kind of lingered around until they left the store... as I could see they were really hesitant about buying the warranties, but the sales dude just kept insisting they would be foolish not to buy them... I could just see by their body language they were kinda bummed as they left the store...
Anyway, I told the couple as soon as they were out the door (and I don't make a practice of doing this... ) - , that I just wanted to let them know they had the option to cancel the warranties, and that the Monster Stuff wasn't going to be that beneficial in their case... I mean it's like criminal... Here these two (not well to do by any means) old man and wife, venture into the store, get beat-up by Mr. Sales Guy, and end up paying MORE for the Monster Stuff & Warranties, than what they were planning on spending for the system!!!!
Anyway, sorry to go on and on, but I think it totally sucks... It's a rip off, unless you're buying like a complicated mechanical device like a cam-corder or whatever... The companies' profits on the warranties, when all is said and done is like 97%... because people so rarely have to use them!!!
Now, If I bought a new or used car I might consider one... but that's a different story...

... A company I used to be

do they end up having to reboot ELAN products? lol

When I saw the thread name I just *assumed* it was about C4 setting up Builders directly. "Alls you gotta do is hook it up!"

Sony's already done that with their pre-packaged rack of distributed whatever-its-called, but I'm *sure* C4 will stay clean.

Its a Brave New World out there.

Barry, you got it all wrong. C4 wants to protect their dealers and would never do that. That would ruin the distribution channel they are working so hard to set up - electricians ;-) :-).

Just to be clear so SOMEONE does not start repeating that statement as fact - that's a joke. C4 is not working on plans to sell C4 at electrical distributors. Electrical distributors are far too exclusive. They prefer Circuit City :-).

I had not heard the CC rumor, but I am going to attend the Salt Lake training in two weeks. Believe me, I will ask the right questions, and reply to everyone. I had asked this when I first signed up, and I was told they (C4) would eventually have a less complete, less complicated, DIY product, but is far down the road. I think right know they need to make sure they can keep up with the custom sales channel, and from the online trianings I have taken, it seems they have plenty to work on prior to spreading their eggs around.