Commission is an incentive to sell the right products, to the right customers, and profitably. We hope it will encourage our sales team to find new business too. Because we ask so much of commission, it makes sense to have multiple components. We will look at revenue, gross profit, and quotas.
Tag: AV
Tags: audio visual, audiovisual, AV, business, commission, gross margin, gross profit, margin, profit, reduce costs, rental and staging, sales management
This will always be the InfoComm I remember the best – not for the obvious reason that this is my year as President of the association – but because the show got its mojo back. › Continue reading…
Which things can we fix and which are here to stay?
By Tom Stimson CTS
Shrinking margins, unfair competition, price shopping customers, disloyal suppliers, greedy bankers, and a general lack of appreciation for the value of your services…does this about sum it up? Ten or fifteen years ago the industry starting mumbling about AV becoming a commodity. At that time 40-50% equipment margins and an exclusive lock on professional gear made AV dealers quite happy and the AV Industry very attractive to investors. Value-added services like design, programming, and project management were considered overhead costs and what little revenue they represented was just gravy on an already profitable transaction. › Continue reading…
I was thinking the other day about companies that I admire and enjoy working with the most. What do they have in common? At first I thought it was that they are friendly and open, but that knocked a couple of favorites out of the running. I also know some very nice companies that are not that fun to work with. They are stuck in a pattern that cannot be broken without extreme intervention. When you are in a role like mine that is designed to help people, and they won’t let themselves be helped – it’s frustrating. Still, it doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy being with them. › Continue reading…
2008-09 has been a study in business defense. Adjusting staffing levels, hedging operating budgets, and rethinking strategies has consumed most small businesses – and it is getting kinda old. We all seem to be waiting for some sort of sign that will trigger us back into business offense. If defense is characterized by control and saving, then offense has to be the willingness to take some risks and bet that there is more available upside than downside. The past couple of months have proven to a lot of folks that recent upticks of activity have been just bursts and not trends. What will be the your true indicator to switch gears? › Continue reading…
The Dow Jones index is hovering around 9900, October has been a busy month, and the pipeline for 2010 has new activity. It’s time to celebrate because the economy is coming back…right? As much as I want to be excited about the spurt in business so many of us are seeing, I want to caution against resuming “business as usual”. When we get busy we start to miss the people, suppliers, and perks we still had before the Recession. The natural tendency is to reward the team for their sacrifice by hiring up, suspending those furlough days, and reinstating full salaries. I don’t think it is time yet to do this – for most of us. › Continue reading…
Once upon a time, AV integrators made good money from equipment and labor with a healthy premium for engineering expertise. Today, equipment and labor have become commodities and engineering is the value-added service we don’t get to charge for anymore. The burden of profit is now placed upon project management and operations, which is still pretty much based on the 1990′s model. There have been vast improvements in making project management more professional and educating installers. These changes alone are not enough. We need to discover the service, product, or convenience that we can charge for today, above the commoditized time and materials we are so familiar with. › Continue reading…
If you still struggle daily with low price competitors, here are a couple of mantras for your wall:
1. At any given time, SOMEONE can do it for less.
This means that despite your best efforts, another bidder or rival for the project at hand could easily trump your low price. › Continue reading…
Is one bad month a trend? Compared to what? The month before? The same month a year ago?
Ask any manager “How’s business?” and you will likely get a response like, “Well, we are down for the year, but we just had a great month,” or “We’re having a great year, but next month looks really bad.” Why not use a week or a day? Our Wednesdays are way up this year… › Continue reading…
Imagine 100 AV Industry geeks talking about the future of technology without mentioning a single product. It was tough, but somehow we managed to stay on task. The InfoComm 100 was an think-tank of AV and related professionals from around the world that examined the 3-5 year future of the AV Industry. Let’s examine the list of primary assumptions about the 3-5 year future of technology influences on our industry and ponder their implications: › Continue reading…
