I've been in the CE side of the business for over 15 years and working with builders, remodelers and the like for the past 2.

We are already a Polk dealer and can get Denon and Yamaha. I would like one line of separates. I think we are going to go with Nuvo, Élan, Netstream and probably Crestron - since I have already got a customer asking for Crestron. (Can I make money and still be competitive getting the Crestron through a dealer and have them do the programming?) Honeywell for structured wiring and HAI for basic automation.

Not that we all are not but I'm looking for lines with great stories that really separate themselves from everyone else. Best example I can think of is Genelec. KEF a name that comes to mind that has just sort of disappeared. Sonus and Vienna would be great choices.

I would love to do Mits - at least for DLP - but their buy in is huge. It's a shame they whored themselves out but not as bad as the others that have video products.

How many of you offer security monitoring?

What lines would you not do is probably a better question that would do?

Stewarts the best but between Day-Lite, Draper and Vutex who would you pick?

We seem to be leaning to the BenQ projectors really want to stay away from Infocus any other suggestions?

Marc

Wow. Please take this suggestion the right way, but if you need to ask this question you need to hire someone with retail experience to do the buying. There are so many pitfalls to buying lines for a retail store that you can burn through an unlimited amount of cash buying lines that will not sell or that have low street pricing.

Just my $.02.

Please don't take this the wrong way, but just because you sold a Crestron job does not mean Crestron will beat down you door trying to sell to you.

I think you are looking at this a bit skewed. You sound like you want to buy everything directly from the manufacturer. Well, good luck with that. With buy ins and yearly commitments you are talking a large investment with no guarantees. First thing I would do is go to CEDAI Expo and meet with a few manufactuer reps. Talk to the guys at A**D, A*I, and a few others I won't mention here. See what lines are willing to talk to you. Start small and grow as you can judge what the customers want.

We are just about ready to start offering monitoring. I am checking with my insurance agent about liability etc. It is a profit center, but it can also be a huge hassle. Be prepared to have someone available 24/7/365 for emergancies.

But I have to agree with Owen, it sounds like you need someone with retail management experience helping you out.

You missed the first line. I have over 15 years experience in consumer electronic including management. And over 34 years total in either some form of retail, sales and/or management. We already are doing business with the the disbutors that you mentioned but so is everyone else. That's the reason for the questions we would like to be different so we can maintain our margins. These are not lines we want to have immidiately but they are our goals as we grow. As far as meeting reps I know a lot of them already or know people who do so that's not a big issue. It is always helpful to get other peoples input. No matter how much experience you have. It is also as important if not more important to find out the problems so you don't repeat them.

Marc

Are you talking abnout a retail store to sell stuff over the counter, or a showroom for your CI offerings? Either way, the above advice holds. Consider some of the lines you talked about, then talk to the rep for your area.


Like tschulte said, just because a customer asked about Crestron, that doesn't mean much. In Atlanta, I would hazard to guess that there are a bunch of existing Crestron dealers and the opening order is 15k. And if there are exisitng dealers that are willing to tranship to you , they won't be dealers for long.

What is your market? Who are your customers? Genelec are great but how many 5k per speaker deals will you sell? Same with Sonus Faber etc. If you aren't selling these lines now what is the prospect that you will sell them if you ahve a showroom?

Lots of questions to answer. Look at www.imagecrafters.com if you want some store/showroom design assistance.

One other thing. If Benq is really your first choice for projectors, then don't worry about the other high end stuff. The customer that buys a Benq projector isn't buying Genelec or Kef or Sonus, etc etc. And if you are looking at Benq, why not Infocus?

I agree... I'm not too sure I put a Benq out there either. A customer can buy a unit over the internet for less than you. I'd look to a company like Dwin if you are looking for a good mid-line projector that will give you a decent margin.

Stick with the brands that support independent retailers. I do this, and carry Integra, Marantz, B&K, Paradigm & Boston Acoustics. There will be others to choose from as well.

Check out Atlantic Tech. from A&%D, their amps and speakers have been pretty impressive for the price.

I read the whole post. I was saying that with the questions you were asking it didn't sound like you had much experience in the area of buying. I was a regional purchasing manager for CompUSA for 3 years, and a store purchaser before that. That experience taught me a lot about what I do now. It helped prepare me for the things I now do everyday. It also makes me laugh at some of my local competition and how their "buying" is handled. That is the kind of experience I am refering to. To say you have 15 years in CE doesn't mean much. Technically I have 36 years experience in construction, but I wouldn't dare build my own house.

I also agree with rlustig, somewhat. There are about 6 Crestron dealers in St. Louis. The market is saturated. Crestron is not looking for any more dealers here. I am not sure of the situation in Atlanta, but I bet it is pretty close.

You do realize this is an international forum? For me, in St. Louis, to answer a question about the market in Atlanta is rather difficult. A brand I would not use may be the hot one somewhere else. Atlanta may have better reps than St. Louis. You may have more local distribution. I would use OnQ/Legrand over Honeywell any day, but that is just my opinion. I could be wrong...

Thanks for the input on Crestron. As far as the other apparently I I said that I wanted to sell Genelec versus them having a great story to tell. I don't consider Vienna and Sonus until you get into their upper lines that high end. There isn't much that I haven't sold expect for more high end. I was looking for what your experiences with different lines had been. But that was partial my mistake because so much of that is up tot he rep firm. As far as the projector goes we were looking for something to fill the mid to low end but yes there are customer that prefer superior sound and the video is some what secondary.

Marc

Marc...
I would have to agree with the others re: Crestron... Maybe work out an agreement with a local Crestron guy for a finder's fee? Tell em, you want like a 3% spiff... or have them refer their smaller jobs to you in exchange for you sending Crestron jobs to them?The investment in training, learning curve, and maintaining a system like that... there's a lot of hidden stuff that can bite you in the A%#. Plus if you have a tech who gets really good with Crestron, you are at his mercy... If for some reason he leaves, you could be hosed!!!
BenQ? Why not Infocus, Epson or Plus for the lower end? The scary thing about the low end projector market, is there are a zillion $2000 & under projectors out there... so it might be a better marketing approach to go for a little more quality. Pretty soon you'll be able to buy projectors at your corner 7-11.

Seems like the speakers you've mentioned are mid to upper mid level... Why not consider mid - level projection systems as well???

JVC, Sanyo, Marantz, Sony, Sim2 projectors... all safe choices... I've worked around some B-Q's and wasn't all that impressed... plus each one I've seen was an off the 'Net sale. Customers were hard core "shoppers".
Genelec I'd totally support, Marantz or Yamaha great AVR's and they both have excellent projectors you can make money on... How about Totem Audio(speakers), TRIAD, Energy, JM Labs, Mordaunt Short, Mission.

Arcam, Rotel,Sunfire??? I was in mid to high end A/V retail for ages... it's all changed, and now a lot of retail stores are places for people to come in, stroke the salespeople, listen & see the equipment, then go home and order online, unless that retail store has a long history in the community they are located in with a long history of customer loyalty.

And getting back to Crestron... You'd proabably have more success, with like Elan or Russound (actually Elan has a great line of custom speakers with good margins too)! But I'm thinking you could struggle through one big Crestron job... and unless you really knew what you were doing, could lose your shirt, vs. over the course of a year... do a dozen Elan or Russound jobs, fewer headaches and make some $$$... Just my 2 bits.

I was thinking too, that a retail store geared to the DIY folks could work... Kind of an A*#D to the public deal... Sell Wire, Mud-Rings, Labor Saving Devices, Structured Wiring stuff... and "Packaged Systems"... All the stuff us CI guys buy from our distributors... Maybe have a nice Theater... and basically a sales counter / order desk --- low overhead looking place - nice, but not plush... There seems like there is a new wave of DIY customers out there, kind of like the early to mid 70's with speaker builders and Hi-Fi guys.

Bad idea, in my humble opinion. Where's the place in this plan for real revenue? You would certainly be doling out lots of advice and troubleshooting, but how much and at what margin would you really sell?

Very True! Good catch! The margins would be fairly steep, and you could use the "storefront" manned with a smart guy or two, as an inroad to providing installation assistance to the customers @ $65 hourly or whatever fits... in your market - area.
Plus there are a lot of DIY products that you could come up with that are fairly unknown or unshoppable for the mass public... High margin Acoustical Treatment stuff, Custom Wall Plates (Liberty Cable)... Maybe a House-Brand line of specialty Custom Speakers or two... and a large library of how - to articles would be inventoried...
Now, lets say Joe Butkiss buys a bunch of parts, takes them home, can't get them to work properly, he'd call the help-line, and that would generally lead to a house-visit @ $ ?? rate. There would be a signed sales receipt with a disclaimer of sorts whereas, once the product is out the door, any home visits or service calls or labor would be billed out and paid at the time of the visit... (except of course in the rare event of a defective component)... And... it would not cover any customer-terminated connections or cables! Or re-fishing of cables...
It might be a recipe for disaster... But back when I worked for a DIY speaker company, we had smart guys working there, good products, lots of printed info and how-to "whitepapers" and being it WAS a DIY thing, folks always paid the high prices--- and felt good about doing it themselves, even though if they did the math... weren't really saving any money... I guess the mindset of DIY's is just plain different... They liked doing this stuff (probably got them away from their nagging wife for a while?)... And for the pride thing... "Hey lets go take a look at MY Theater..." It would also circumnavigate a lot of the trunk slammers out there... Could hold Saturday Morning "How To" seminars, crap like that...

In my opinion, there are several major considerations to examine here...

1) Which brands provide you with: quality, value & reasonable profit margins.

2) Brands that you are comfortable installing, operating & troubleshooting (if necessary).

3) Brands that will cater to your clients, such as offering good/better/best price alternatives derived from fewer brands. You don't want to carry a dozen brands, if you plan on keeping inventory. Additionally, if you want to have a showroom, you will only have so much space to use to setup and display your offerings.

Sometimes less is more, when it comes to brands and models you offer. For CI shops, too many options can confuse customers and be more of a hinderance to you.

Good luck!



Thank you,
Damon DG
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http://www.ProRemotes.com - Authorized Dealer & Remote Programming Services

Hey Mr. Stanley....these guys seem to be doing what you suggest with one addition. They back up the retail store with a huge website.

[Link: hometech.com]