Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM NOVEMBER 2017 50 Hank Alexander Consumer Electronic Trends Hank Alexander Director HTSN - Home Technology Specialists Nationwide Nationwide Marketing Group F or many vendors and members in the custom integration industry, all this talk about the connected home is a bit surreal. For many, myself included, we've been in the connected home for years and now we find ourselves saying "Welcome to the party"! However, for many consumer electronics dealers, the connected home is a new market with new opportunities and new concerns. So, here are some basics for those entering the connected home business. It's all about the experience, not the specs. As we've said before (and will say again) as sales data from vendors and members suggest, this isn't a one and done market. Showing the experience as an entire solution is critical to the success of the connected home. People aren't just coming in to buy a single product any more, but are looking to buy a complete solution. It's important to create an in-store experience that includes interactive product demos and a consultative sales approach, along with the connected kiosk and connected home displays that drive that approach. Showing the complete package drives the margin and installation prices up, and shows the customer what can really happen when it all comes together. DIY VS. DIFM Success in the connected Home is not about the DIY'er, it's about the DIFM (Do It for Me) market place. Do It for Me gives you the chance to be in customers' homes, installing Wi-Fi, voice assistance, thermostats, and all the other connected home products. Not only that, it gives you the power to help direct the next steps in the decision process regarding "what's next? ". How about a new refrigerator, or washer and dryer that talks to the thermostat? What if the device could know when you're home and when to perform a particular task, such as not over-drying the clothes or running when you're not even home? KNOWLEDGE IS EVERYTHING! Educate your staff on selling connected-home gear, train your installation team, and most importantly, inform the customer about the benefits of the technology. Research from Parks and Associates shows that, on average, people spend more time researching the technology and where to buy than they do becoming knowledgeable about the product they intend to buy. That means that it's in everyone's best interest to give the customer plenty of information on the product and its features along with how it might integrate with other devices. This training can lead to more opportunities with the customer. Launching the connected home can be as easy as placing Google Home (voice control) units around your store and having them interact with your existing displays, or extending that idea to connected home displays or kiosks and showing all the brands and devices functioning in one place. Either way, we make getting into the business and staying competitive, easy. As you can see, getting into the connected home business is easier than it ever has been. Profitability isn't as challenging as some would like to think, and the timing couldn't be better thanks to a growing market and boundless opportunities. As legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said, "Failure itself is not fatal, but failure to change might be." Never has such a statement been truer than in today's connected home market, and we should ALL take his wisdom to heart! PUTTING YOUR BUSINESS IN THE CONNECTED HOME BUSINESS RO

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