Daniel Newman of BroadSuite, Josh Shanahan from Sportview Technologies (SVT) and Michael Shinn of IMS Technology Services joined AV Nation founder Tim Albright to talk about the importance of pushing service models and differentiating themselves from the ever-more-crowded field.
“The de facto differentiator is going to be trust,” says Newman. “In the future, how do we continue to build trust? We need to back up the (AV/IT convergence) story with expertise.”
SVT looked outside the AV industry to fill the obvious gap in IT at his company. That’s one approach that can work, but it’s not the only way to make it work.
“You’re training either way, but are we qualified to find those people and train them yet? Probably not,” says Shinn.
The trio also talked about why they were among of the 300 attendees at the 2014 NSCA Business and Leadership Conference in Dallas, with Shinn among the first-time attendees and Newman and Shanahan veterans of the event.
AV Nation & CI Live at NSCA BLC
Tim Albright, founder and president of AV Nation, worked hand-and-hand with CI’s editorial team to cover NSCA’s 2014 Business & Leadership Conference.
Find “Live at NSCA BLC” podcasts and all AV Nation content, including AV Week podcasts, at AV Nation.
Newman advocates getting “customer-focused,” saying he vehemently disagreed with one BLC speaker who urged the audience to separate customer service and sales.
“I’m going back motivated and pumped and ready to motivate others,” says Shinn of his BLC experience.
Shanahan’s biggest takeaway focused on creating a culture at his company that drives success.
“The customer is not always right, but the customer is always the customer,” says Newman. “When you create a culture with negative feelings toward a customer, that becomes so damaging.”
In other podcasts recorded at the BLC, attendees looked at the state of the industry from a business perspective and discussed the state of various vertical markets while NSCA leaders talked about the value of collaboration.
