If you think the only competitor you need to worry about is another AV integration company, you couldn’t be more wrong. These days, your competitors come not only from the AV integration design world, but also IT, security, and even from other industries you’d never expect. [related]
“You’re competing with partners we’ve never seen before in ways we’ve never seen before,” says Ira Weinstein, senior analyst and partner at Wainhouse Research, in his PSNI Supersummit presentation, “How to Survive and Thrive in the NextGen Channel.”
These days, there’s no customization and no stickiness for an AV integration company, says Weinstein, and customer expectations are way down, where all they want is a solution that’s “good enough.” Many AV solutions today are becoming too DIY-friendly, he says.
“We’ve lost the opportunity to sell the high value we bring to the table,” says Weinstein. “You should be paranoid. You should be losing sleep, but recognizing what’s happening is a big win.”
It’s a unique time in the AV integration world, with the world in the tail end of what Weinstein calls “the largest AV refresh in history,” a phenomenon that’s a function of troubles with workflow, not issues with the technology itself.
“This isn’t about surviving the change,” says Weinstein.
“It’s about embracing it and thriving. We’re AV therapists. Our job is to get [customers] to talk to us and for us to listen to them. If you do that, the things they’ll tell you will blow your mind. Their questions tell you their problems, but we’re not listening.”
Weinstein echoed what’s become an all-too-familiar refrain that far too many integrators still don’t follow: focus on people, not technology.
“Teach your clients how to meet, how they can do business better,” says Weinstein. There’s a shift from installing a single all-inclusive room to a variety of simpler specialized rooms, he says.
Weinstein expects there will be AV added to about six million huddle rooms this year, so the AV integration company which isn’t holding out for the big score could benefit by racking up several smaller jobs that are easy to turn around.
He also stressed the importance and proliferation of global standards in design, installation, support and upgrades.
Weinstein says integrators should never sell licenses, but steer the conversation toward integrating unified communications into the rest of the communication ecosystem.
“We shouldn’t care what’s in the room as long as we can provide an experience that meets or beats their expectations,” says Weinstein.
