FOR EUROPE’S PRO AV SYSTEMS INTEGRATORS IN A NETWORKED WORLD

“Yes, We Can.”

CATEGORIES OF INTEREST
• Projection & Screens
• Displays
• Audio
• Rich Media
RAVE EUROPE - Vol 5 No 1 - www.ProAVbiz-europe.com

• Conferencing
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European AV Integrator’s
Pocket Survival Guide
Kayye’s Krystal Ball 2009
 The right solution
for the right application
 Welcome 2009

M
ost of you know us from our weekly e-newsletter, rAVe
Europe. This print publication is a special promotion for
2009. We’ve included in these pages Gary Kayye’s Krystal
Ball 2009 to help AV system integrators to look at the wider panorama
of product trends.
Then, given the unusual nature of the general economy, we wanted
to step away from product knowledge (although briefly) and focus on
some of the business issues. We believe sales and marketing will be a
top priority in 2009 and we hope our editorial will stimulate your
thoughts. By definition, we are in a technical business and we histori-
cally pay less attention to commercialization. That is a luxury we can’t
afford any more.
You’ll spend more time this year training your sales staff, challeng-
ing your marketing people, and re-examining business operations. We
call this a Pocket Survival Guide. “Pocket” because we wanted a
small format you wouldn’t mind picking up at a trade show. “Survival
Guide” because we wanted to highlight the importance of re-examin-
ing your sales and marketing skills.
Tools for sales and marketing gain value in your arsenal when busi-
ness becomes a battle over territory, a struggle for clients. We’ve added
an introduction to D-Tools System Integrator 5.5 as a way to high-
light the need to win with proposals and streamline operations.

MAGAZINE FOR europe’s pro av installers

Vol. 5 No. 1 rAVe EUROPE magazine is pub-

EDITORIAL SPONSORSHIPS & SALES lished on special occasions in conjunction with
the weekly e-newsletter of the same name. Our
Bob Snyder, Editor-in-Chief Europe: Tony Glover target audience is the more than 15,000 system
TDC.EMEA@gmail.com integrators, installers, OEMs, distributors, and
Cristiano Cameroni, Associate Editor other channel players in the markets of Western
Klaus Herrero, Assistant Editor USA: Etienne Finet Europe, Central & Eastern Europe and the larger
efinet@gmail.com markets within Middle East/Africa. You can quali-
Nero Bassum, Assistant Editor fy for your FREE subscription by filling out a profile
DESIGN & ART Japan: Yuki Sato at: www.proAVbiz-europe.com.
Ernesto Angiolini ysato@coresgroup.com rAVe Europe e-newsletter is published in a joint
venture with: Kayye Consulting, a company dedi-
PRODUCTION PUBLISHER cated to the interests and success of dealers,
Hans van Belkum manufacturers, and other companies in the pro-
The Distribution Channel Ltd. fessional audiovisual industry. Gary Kayye, found-
ADMINISTRATION Rue D’Argens, 3A er of Kayye Consulting, is one of the most promi-
Betty van de Maele Msida, MALTA MSD 1368 nent personalities in the audiovisual industry.
Known as an accurate and candid visionary, he
CIRCULATION www.proAVbiz-europe.com called upon often to deliver seminars and speech-
June Borg es and to write feature articles and editorials that
www.custominstaller.eu help AV manufacturers and systems integrators
I.T. & NETWORK understand the future of their businesses.
Joseph Glover www.digitalsignagenews.eu All material Copyright 2009.

rAVe Europe | 1
 Contents 2009

FEATURES
4 Kayye’s Krystal Ball 2009
Gary’s 10th Annual “Look Ahead” for Our Industry
10 O’Kayye!
How Did Gary’s Projections Do in 2008?
18 Converting the “Screen-Less”
Selling Screens to SMEs Needs Some Thought

European AV Integrator’s
POCKET SURVIVAL GUIDE
SELLING
20 How to Create Messages That Sell
30 Selling Technology Value Versus Price
32 10 Common Sales Mistakes
36 Five Rules for Closing the Sale
40 No, You Can’t Get A Better Deal Online

MARKETING
42 Recession Survival: Market Segmentation

OPERATIONS
44 Stop Blaming The Economy
46 Should You Run Your Own Show?
48 Software That Sets You Free

If you find this issue HELPFUL TO YOUR BUSINESS,

rAVe EUROPE publishes an industry e-newsletter weekly.
TO READ OUR E-NEWSLETTER, FREE SUBSCRIPTION at
www.proAVbiz-europe.com
www.DigitalSignageNews.eu
www.CustomInstaller.eu
www.ConsumerIT.eu
www.On-CE.net

2 | rAVe Europe
rAVe Europe | 3
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball

Kayye’s Krystal
Ball, V.09

by
Gary Kayye, cts

Welcome
to my 10th annual
Krystal Ball predicting
the upcoming year for
commercial AV (and even
some home AV) technology,
trends and products.
Now, What About
2009?

4 | rAVe Europe
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
P
rojectors will become smaller: The
so-called pico-projector is coming in
2009. We’ve been seeing prototypes of
pocket-sized projectors for years, and now it’s
close to reality with 2009 looming...and bat-
tery-operated, too!
Although this is not going to be a boom for
the commercial AV segment, it has a lot of ap-
plication options to offer with portable projec-
tors that are palm-sized. Promised to be two-
to four-hour battery life capable, the size of an
Apple iPhone and resolutions around that old
standard VGA port, these pico-projectors will
bring the AV market a lot of press.
Laser projectors will debut in 2009: Finally,
we will see the debut of the laser-based projector.
Promised for years, laser projectors are supposed
to bring us an option of UHP (ultra high per-
formance) lamps, and are said to bring us much
better colorimetry. Currently, UHP lamps only
deliver about 40% of the color gamut that we
(as humans) can see. Everyone from the laser
industry claims that using laser as a light source
will bring us up to 90% of the color gamut.
If this happens, we will see even better color
from rear- and front-screen projectors. Whereas
now, using metal-halide lamps, we have images
that are on the blue side of the color gamut, we
will have a white-point that is closer to white than
red (like halogen), green or blue colorimetry.
The first of these likely will come from a Jap-
anese manufacturer (and probably in the form
of a consumer rear-screen TV), with everyone
watching to see if they are successful. If it works,
expect to see laser become a big deal and prob-
ably the most talked about new projection tech-
nology since TI’s 1990s debut of DLP.
Flatter-flat screens: 2009 will bring us super-
flat flat-screen TVs. Mirroring more like what
you see with a laptop’s LCD screen, you will
see flat-screen LCDs that will be in the one-
inch-thin range. This will be big for commer-
cial AV.
One of the inhibiting factors to LCDs actu-
ally competing with front-screen projectors is
the weight. Take away the thickness and you
will take away a lot of plastic and electronics
that will eliminate a lot of the weight. One pio-
neer here is Sharp. Sharp has actually shown a
52-inch LCD screen that’s only 0.6-inch thick,
Sony has announced a consumer-version LCD
monitor that is 0.5-inch thick, and Samsung
introduced a 40-inch 1080p LCD that’s 0.39-
inch thick. We will see super-thin LCDs by the
end of 2009, and they will completely overtake
the flat-screen market by 2010. This is one rea-
son that plasma will die by 2011 (a prediction I
made back in 2007).
Green: Going green will be the trend of
2009, from consumer AV to commercial AV.
Although many of you are tired of this hack-
neyed cry of the environmentalists, the time
finally has come to make this a mantra of your
company. Mark my words, you will see every
commercial AV manufacturer make a commit-
ment to some power-saving standard (certainly
ENERGY STAR is the leading one) that will
make it a marketing tool for sales departments
everywhere. And, rightfully so, to be honest.
Have you ever taken the temperature of an AV
rack with gear full of cooling fans? It’s stagger-
ing. Then, throw in a few cable TV DVRs and
you don’t need a coffee maker or microwave
during installation.
Going green will be a big theme of the next
few years, especially under a Sierra Club-en-
dorsed President Obama. (I’ll bet it would have
been that way for McCain, too.)
rAVe Europe | 5
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
3M MPro 110
No matter who you are, the gas pricing scam
of 2008 forced us all to wake up to the energy is-
sue. Saving energy will be something that every-
one will harness. You will see LCDs go green,
projectors redesigned to deliver standby modes
that sap up less than 1 watt of power and federal
entities buying AV that is green when given the
option.
Cloud AV: If you’ve heard of cloud com-
puting, you’ll understand this (according to
Wikipedia: cloud computing is internet-based
(“cloud”) development and use of computer
technology (“computing”). If not, this may be
a leap. But, 2009 will bring us the debut of the
cloud-based AV systems. What are they? Well,
right now, we pack meeting rooms and lecture
halls with AV gear that runs itself. Imagine if the
projector had a network device (like a browser)
that could navigate any network (like a typical
browser navigates websites), to find any file or
video and play it right there in the room or in
any room on campus. Or, maybe all rooms on
campus, simultaneously.
This will require some sort of netbook-like
projection system or display: a display with a
tiny embedded computer that is nothing unless
6 | rAVe Europe
connected to the network. Then, when con-
nected, it becomes a web browsing media player
capable of playing whatever content is sent to it,
and capable of fetching content on its own.
Cloud AV systems will take their first steps,
albeit maybe baby ones, in 2009. What eventu-
ally will happen is like what is happening in the
digital signage world now: In digital signage, ei-
ther the display has an integrated media player
in it now (like a mini-netbook), or it has one
behind it. Take a look; all of them have them! In
any case, that “computer” is being controlled,
managed and fed content from a head-end
across the network. So, that content can be a
presentation, weather, stock information, news,
video and even live TV, all across the network.
Imagine this being the meeting room hub in
the future. That is what we will see and how
we will get to this cloud AV systems future. All
you will have, one day, is a projector in a room
that is networked and pulling content, being
managed and controlled via the network from
anywhere across the internet.
But, to get there, we need embedded projec-
tors, we need network devices in every
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 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
product category and we need AV integrators
with the vision to build it. If you’re doing digital
signage now, you’re in a great position to get
there; if not, you have to be.
For example, consider a university. It has
projectors in every classroom on campus with
various content from visiting lecturers using
laptops to network-based content driven to the
display from professors. All of a sudden, there’s
a campus-wide emergency. That emergency in-
formation is sent to every display across campus,
instantaneously, all via the network.
Control systems will be dumbed-down:
Many control systems today are just too darn
complicated. I am sure AMX and Crestron
would disagree, but they are fulfilling their own
prophecy. Actually, even they might agree be-
cause they, along with Extron, which pioneered
simple control with MediaLink, are starting to
build simple control systems that don’t take an
engineer to program, and can be configured on
the fly.
2009 will bring us even simpler control sys-
tems. The success of these simpler systems, and
their ability to be networked and managed via
one head-end, will drive their acceptance. If you
aren’t already looking at ways to put in a sophis-
ticated touchpanel-less control system that is sim-
ple to program and operate, you will in 2009.
This trend of dumbing down control systems
will continue and there will be plenty of inex-
pensive touchpanels out there so you won’t have
to build everything around a $3000 color LCD
that’s mostly used for lowering the screen and
turning a projector on and off. For example,
what about the iPhone?
iPhone/Android Control: Speaking of the
iPhone, Google has launched its own iPhone-
8 | rAVe Europe
ish phone operating system called Android.
These two products make touchscreen phones
fully functional $300 control interfaces. Couple
them with a CPU or a plethora of network-en-
abled AV gear, and you have a whole new way
of controlling AV.
Watch for 2009 to be the year a few totally
new control system companies enter the market
with their own iPhone- and Android-like inter-
faces that will allow you to build fully functional
rooms and control them seamlessly with iPod
Touches, iPhones and other inexpensive multi-
touch color screens.
HD-VTC Year 2009: I predict that 2009 will
be a boom for videoconferencing, but not for
the reason you may think. Saying that video-
conferencing systems finally work—almost per-
fectly on almost every type of network—is pow-
erful, and the fact they are cheaper than flying
around the world for a meeting makes a strong
argument, but there is another reason: fixed
costs versus variable costs. It’s not the cost of
the flight that will boost VTC technology; it’s
the cost of the meeting in general. The flight is
one thing, but the golf, the dinner, the lunches
and snacks, the hotel rooms, the meeting fees,
the setup and breakdown costs... that’s why.
So, if you are in the VTC market, you will
have a great 2009. This will be one of the lead-
ing AV products to get you into a facility to talk
about the rest of the AV systems world. And,
again, this leverages the network: an inexpen-
sive way to connect to anyone anywhere, way
cheaper than flying around.
Case in point: I was supposed to go to Hong
Kong in November. I had to cancel the trip at
the last minute, but I connected via my Polycom
HDX 9004 system (an HD VTC system)
rAVe Europe | 9
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
to InfoComm Asia in Hong Kong from my of-
fice in Chapel Hill NC. I delivered a two-hour
seminar called AV-2001 (it’s one of the keynote
speeches I regularly deliver at dealer shows and
industry events).
The cost of the connection was about $300.
I saved $3500 in airfare, $1500 in hotel bills,
$600 in food and four days minimum of my
life. InfoComm was happy, the attendees were
happy and, heck, we used the technology
we’ve all been touting for years as the future
of AV.
Finally, the Microsoft Rumor: There’s a ru-
mor that Microsoft is trying to buy a manufac-
turer in the commercial AV market. Of course,
because Microsoft is a public company, represen-
tatives will not confirm anything, but I believe
it makes sense for Microsoft and 2009 could be
the year the company enters commercial AV.
Microsoft is in a perfect position to come
into our market, but I would also think that the
home AV market might be its first target. The
movies-on-demand segment is growing by leaps
and bounds with Netflix, Apple and cable TV
providers dominating that segment right now.
So, no totally bold predictions, but watch
Microsoft carefully as the company could play
its cards for us and become a big commercial
AV player by year’s end.
Last Year’s Predictions:
How Did Gary Do?
O’Kayye!
I
f you’re a regular reader, you know that,
each year, I like to review my own predic-
tions from last year. See my predictions from last
year here:
10 | rAVe Europe
http://www.ravepro.com/issues/ 2008/01/
rpvol6iss1/index.html#edit
Why do I do it this way? Well, when I was a
kid, I loved TV and always watched those TV
psychics sell their predictions to viewers who
called in with their credit card numbers. Every
year, they would reappear on TV selling the next
year’s predictions, but I could never remember
what they predicted to see if they were right. I
always wanted them to remind me of their previ-
ous predictions so I could see if it was worth the
price. (I knew my dad’s credit card number.)
In this case, my predictions are free. You’re
probably not paying to read this, so keep this in
perspective. But, if I may say so myself, over the
past nine years, I’ve actually done a pretty good
job... or been real lucky.
So, onto the review of my predictions for
2008…
IP-IP-IP: I started my predictions for 2008 by
saying we’d see a proliferation of IP-enabled AV
devices. I specifically named the digital signage
market as being the driver of this.
Well, the home AV market has jumped in on
this ahead of commercial AV—a trend I’ve not-
ed in recent years (home AV integrators and us-
ers adopting new technology long before com-
mercial AV integrators and users). Most home
AV integrators are installing streaming video (or
video-on-demand) servers in almost every home
they do now. AppleTV, Roku and Kaleidescape
are a few of the leading boxes being installed.
The commercial AV market is behind in this
trend, but I see a big upswing in this segment
since Summer 2008, especially in the digital sig-
nage niche.
In fact, control, management and con-
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
tent are nearly 100% delivered via IP-enabled
AV networks. This has allowed some fairly new
players to become market leaders quickly, such
as Visix, Roku and Ronin, to name a few.
I would highly recommend that you get
into the digital signage market. Why? Well, al-
though the market’s far from mature and still
using cutting-edge technology to send and re-
ceive content, it’s the identical way you will be
integrating standard commercial AV systems
(via the network) in the not-too-distant future;
this will give you a good understanding of how
networked-based AV systems should and will
work.
Control is KEY: I predicted that the control
market was close to an evolutionary revolution.
There are just too many things lining up in fa-
vor of it.
Here was my point: The control system is the
user interface to the entire AV-enabled room.
You walk in a room full of thousands of dollars
of AV gear and, to turn it on, the first thing you
have to do is use the control system. Whether
it is a keypad, a touchscreen or a handheld re-
mote, you must use something that simplifies
the use of the AV room.
But, as technology has allowed for sleek soft-
ware features, nice aesthetic designs and the
use of Windows-enabled drivers, many clients
are wondering, “Why can’t I use a $1500 tab-
let PC to control all this stuff in the room and
save myself $5000 on the price of a traditional
touchpanel?”
The answer is simple: The key to a successful
control system isn’t in the hardware; it’s in the
software. Actually, you can use a tablet PC and,
by doing that, you will save $4000 to $5000, but
who’s going to manage all the control protocols
for each of the devices when they’re installed...
12 | rAVe Europe
much less a year later when the customer wants
to add a new source to the system?
Ah, but what about this revolution? Well, for
2008, I predicted that more and more prod-
ucts would become IP-enabled (meaning they
can be controlled via an Ethernet network port
and without custom protocols or stupid RS232
ports); there is standardization of control func-
tions in devices. As that occurs, you will see
more control options that are completely net-
work-based.
But, this transition is not going to be com-
plete in one year. Over the next three years, you
will see every AV system built go from being
primarily RS232, I/O and IR-based control to
exclusively IP-based control.
Well, I was only partially right. The control
market has clearly gone toward simplification:
Look at what Extron has done in the past 12
months, for example. But, that revolutionary
change hasn’t occurred...yet. It may be because
the cloud AV-based control system companies
haven’t finished engineering their software, yet,
or it may be that Crestron, Extron and AMX
haven’t decided to go totally-network based.
But, I stand behind this prediction and believe
it will fully transform in 2009. (For informa-
tion about the cloud AV future and my opinion
about where I think this is all going, read about
it in my 2009 technology forecast.)
Gaming projectors drive prices (and profits)
down even further: There has been a plethora of
sub-$1000 projectors that have driven sales in
places like Best Buy, Office Depot and the in-
ternet. At first glance, they seem comparable to
higher-end, specification-based projectors, but
they are far from ruggedized: Many have weak
lamps and just don’t hang with what is needed
in a classroom or meeting room.
rAVe Europe | 13
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
But, some do. This trend of sub-$1000 pro-
jectors has destroyed margin opportunities on
the entire entry-level and mid-level systems
market (at least where projectors are concerned),
and will hit the higher end of the market with
sub-$2000 projectors in 2009 that are in the 4K
light output level!
Digital Signage Boom: 2008 will be remem-
bered as the year that the digital signage market
finally exploded.
Well, this one was dead-on. In fact, there
are four digital signage shows now! And, now
we’re seeing specialized digital signage integra-
tion firms. This is great for the commercial AV
market because this, as I mentioned before, is
the same network we will use eventually to send
content and control integrated systems.
As mentioned earlier, I recommend that you
enter the digital signage market sooner rather
than later because this is more than a trend: It’s
an emerging market!
LED WOW: I predicted you’d see the first
flat-panel LEDs aimed squarely at the flat-panel
LCD display market in 2008. Incredible ad-
vancements in technology—down to 4mm full-
color LEDs—have made indoor small-form-fac-
tor LED flat-panel displays the answer to bright
ambient light environments. Companies such
as Lighthouse and Barco have jumped on that
opportunity and, in fact, have worked not only
to displace LCDs, but also rear-screen projec-
tors that used to have to be hung in giant cabi-
nets from the ceiling. These LEDs are still price
prohibitive (and in most cases way too bright)
for your average meeting room application, but
you’ll see more advancement in 2009 and, by
2010, expect real competition in the small form
factors where super-bright, long-lasting images
14 | rAVe Europe
are a must—and LED power consumption gives
it a big advantage to those going “green.”
Plasma Comeback or Death?: I predicted
that 2008 would start the decline of plasma sales
that eventually would spell its death by 2011.
The first half of 2008 saw the rapid increase
of LCD and a decline of plasma sales.
But, as the recession took hold in the latter
half of 2008, most sales tracking firms cite plas-
ma sales increasing because people want bigger
for less...and plasma costs as much as 50% less
than LCD in same-size configurations. But, this
is truly driven by the recession and eventually
will come to an end. However, because 2009
will see a full year of a recession, we likely will
see plasma sales increasing all year long.
3D: I predicted that 2008 would be the year
we saw 3D again. Well, the very first Info-
Comm booth I toured, Da-Lite Screen’s, was
all about 3D. Then, I saw 3D displays at Sony,
Philips, Samsung, Electrograph, NEC, JVC,
Texas Instrument’s DLP division and a dozen
other manufacturers featured 3D-based sections
there. Some of this is being driven by Holly-
wood, with more than 30 movies scheduled for
2009 using 3D glasses and technology.
This will spill over into the home for sure
and, believe it or not, into the commercial AV
space, too. In fact, Da-Lite’s demonstration
at InfoComm of the 3D Virtual Black screen
material had a number of corporate and educa-
tional demos using 3D applications.
Verticalization: I predicted that 2008 would
see a movement of the commercial AV integra-
tor back to an organization based on vertical-
ization. What the heck is verticalization? Well,
companies that target specific vertical markets
with specific vertical market experts have done
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball
quite well. In other words, instead of having
salespeople who sell by territory or region, have
them sell by vertical market expertise (i.e., edu-
cation, worship, hospital, gove rnment, etc.). In
2008, you saw more and more verticalization
than ever before.
The days of selling stuff based on a technical
expertise are here. Now, we must become appli-
cation experts and sell stuff (systems) based on
understanding the workflow of the client and
how you can add AV technology to improve
that workflow outcome. This is a tried and true
successful model and makes a lot more sense
than breaking out a sales region by ZIP code.
Distribution: I noted how big and strong
Electrograph had grown in 2007 and predicted
that it, and the other distributors, would get
more of the commercial AV business in 2008.
This, in fact, has happened. More and more
dealers are relying on distributors to help them
manage inventory needs and cash flow—not di-
rectly, but indirectly. Using distributors means
that a dealer doesn’t have to make large com-
mitments to manufacturers and can get dis-
count pricing on just about anything.I see 2009
being a good year for distributors. More and
more manufacturers are making their products
available via distributors and, as manufacturers
crack down on the sell-to-anyone-that-breathes
mentality, you will see more dealers turning to
distributors. Also, it works both ways: As manu-
facturers have old inventory to dump to
rAVe Europe | 15
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball

InfoComm 2008

make way for new products, using distributors although we would have growth, it would be
to blow through inventories is a great idea. less than 10%. More people went to church to
The Killer InfoComm: I predicted that, with pray about the economy.
the NSCA Expo gone, you would see the ulti-
mate AV trade show in InfoComm 2008. And,
it was! Almost 35,000 people—the most ever to
attend any audiovisual trade show in history—
attended the show in Las Vegas in June. It was a
great event that probably requires another day,
though. Three days are not enough to navigate
a show this size! I hope the InfoComm Execu-
tive Committee will look seriously at making it
a four-day show, adding a dealer-only day. We
need a true industry-insider show, and making This one was dead-on, too. The economy
one day only for those of us inside the commer- sucks as I write this in mid-November, and still
cial AV market would be a great start! will by the time this is published.
Finally, the Economy: I predicted that the 2009 will see a recovery, but not until the sec-
economy in 2008 didn’t look good and that, ond half of the year. But, don’t give up! Watch

16 | rAVe Europe
 10th Annual Kayye’s Krystal Ball

expenses carefully, but don’t disappear. Cutting
marketing is not the way to wade through a re-
cession: Spend money better and smarter, and
cut out the fat and the (I hate to say this as blunt
as this, but it has to be said) people who should
have been cut a long time ago. Work smarter
and manage your past relationships better.
There will be a trend toward bigger govern-
ment in 2009, with the new president, and why
not leverage this? We all know and remember
what happened in the last recession: Government
increased AV spending for itself and education.
And, if you will recall, houses of worship spent
more, too: They had more as more people went
to church to pray about the nervous economy.
Don’t believe me? Here’s proof: During last
Sunday’s service, my church’s minister actually
announced that financial pledges for 2009 are
up more than 10% over 2008, and that is with-
out some 20% of the congregation left to make
their pledges.
Our increased taxes will increase spending.
Our increased spending will drive more AV
sales. Sure, we may not see as much military
spending in an Obama presidency, but a lot of
money previously spent on wars may just go
into spending on education, infrastructure and
meeting rooms!
My last prediction for 2008 was that the Uni-
versity of North Carolina would win the 2008
USA Men’s College Basketball: Wrong: Kansas
won! •

It’s a jungle out there.

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rAVe Europe | 17
 Projection
Converting the
“Screen-Less””
by Marco Adriaans
W hy would a business that invests a small
fortune in beamers and laptops (and on
people who spend days to create a PowerPoint or
video presentation) then project their images onto
a surface that would blur and distort viewing?
The answer is that, today, almost every corpo-
rate on the FT 500 list owns multiple screens,
while many SMEs are still learning…and may
(out of ignorance or because they think they are
saving money) be trapped in that space known
as “Screen-less.”
The “Screen-less” don’t know, don’t recognize
that any chain is only as good as its weakest link
and-- in an AV chain--a blank wall used as a pro-
jection surface easily qualifies as the weakest link.
18 | rAVe Europe
Screens
A wall is simply not intended for projection.
Installers of screens must still spend time try-
ing to educate the SME business customers to
the fact that a good screen improves communi-
cation and enhances presentations. Maybe to-
day, we should call the screen a “high definition
fabric display.”
If SMEs weren’t enough of an educational
challenge, now comes along a new version of an
old problem: the emerging home theater market.
Here’s where installers have to ask their custom-
ers in Socratic fashion, “Why would you com-
pile a fantastic film collection, buy an expensive
high def DVD player-- only to break the chain
of quality by adding a dumb wall where a qual-
 Projection
ity fabric component should be?”
More and more people only discover how
much more pleasant it is to watch something
on a large screen when they visit a sports bar,
pub or auditorium where the result of a com-
pleted quality chain is so apparent. Exposure to
professional solutions is a driving force in the
home market where the consumer can inspire
to emulate (to his own budget limitation) the
video quality that impresses him/her the most.
(In this same manner, (i.e., by exposure to
quality systems in pro AV environments), more
and more SMEs now also understand that a top-
notch presentation calls for a top quality chain
of projection components including a screen at
least equal to the weakest component.)
The projection screen is an indispensable
component of any presentation or Home Cin-
ema set-up, just as important as the source me-
dia, player and beamer. A quick look at a screen
might be deceptive but the factors that go into
a good screen are numerous. The quality of the
fabric (which is not a single quality but a multi-
plicity of qualities to achieve the right formula to
build into the screen fabric the many character-
istics it needs to display an image), the quality of
the black border (which should be there to add
to the perceived clarity), the control mechanism
(to raise and lower the screen whether manu-
2009 Technology Partner for RAVE EUROPE Virtual Studio
Visit www.darim.com
Broadcast • Surveillance • E-Learning
• Encoder • Capture
Screens
ally of electronically), the ease and durability of
a mounting mechanism, and even the way to
transport the screen to the installer and to the
installer’s customers (without tearing or degrad-
ing of the screen).
In the home, an image must be projected so
several people can see it all at the same time.
Each situation is unique and for the best pos-
sible projection quality (clarity of the image),
the customers need to understand that light
output of the projector, size of the projection
screen and the reflection value of the screen fab-
ric should be attuned to one another.
Projecta screens use a special black border (or
frame) to improve the perceived clarity of the
projected image. With certain Home Cinema
models, there is even an extra high black border
on the top and/or bottom of the screen, allowing
the user to choose the ideal viewing height. That
makes a difference when placement will be in
high rooms and in home cinema viewing rooms.
Dealers, distributors and installers who want
to look at the difference a good screen makes
can look at web site or contact us.
But any way you look at it… you’re better off
looking at it with a good screen! •
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Marco Adriaans is Marketing
& Communications Manager for PROJECTA BV.
www.ProjectaScreens.com
rAVe Europe | 19
 Selling

How to Create Messages

That Sell
M
ost business people don’t understand “Concrete.” Obviously, abstract is conceptual
what makes a message persuasive. They whereas concrete is detailed in the physical,
tend to create messages that reflect the temporal and mental elements.
dull monologue of a product brochure (or worse
yet, the blah-blah, rah-rah of a press release.) ABSTRACT: We should seek shelter.
Unfortunately, many sales professionals (yes, CONCRETE: Let’s run to the car now
even most marketing professionals who are The most persuasive messages are emotional
up in their elbows in white whiter or crossing and concrete. The most unpersuasive (and even
chams) don’t understand how to build messages boring) messages are always rationale and ab-
that actually motivate the customer to buy. stract (you sound like HAL the computer in Ar-
And failing their ability to mass-market a sales thur C. Clarke’s 2001: The Space Odyssey.)
message, they disavow advertising in general and
lean almost totally on the sales person. (Except
for an occasional foray into sponsorship when
the CEO wants the company name on a Motor
Rally, local football team, or—yes, this is true as
we’ve seen it—horse jumping!
Now you, the sales person, carry the company
on your back—or more correctly, in your typ-
ing fingers. Your ability to sell depends on your
ability to communicate sales messages. And
we’re going to show you how to create compel-
ling messages.
Let’s start by placing the vectors of commu-
nication in a quadrant. The first scale measures
“Rational” and the other “Emotional.” The
right way to think about the difference is to
compare these communication samples:
RATIONAL: The temperature is 18 degrees be- For example, here are two messages that com-
low zero. municate the same information. Which is more
EMOTIONAL: Minus 18? It’s freezing! persuasive?
Both convey the same information, but one RATIONAL & ABSTRACT: The temperature is
expresses more than data. minus 18 degrees. People would be advised to
The second scale measures “Abstract” and seek shelter.
20 | rAVe Europe
 Selling
EMOTIONAL & CONCRETE: You’ll all freeze to
death if you don’t run to the car now.
When you refer to a specific individual, a
specific thing and a specific action (all of which
must be representative of your key sales point),
that concrete communication scores points by
triggering a response in the buyer.
When you use a verb with emergency over-
tones (”run”) and is phased in the imperative
mood (now!), which adds dramatic urgency.
Engineers are prone to intellectual and con-
crete (and overuse of tech terms and acronyms)
and most marketers are inflated with emo-
tional and abstract (with trendy business jargon
thrown in).
Here’s an example from an email we recently
received from a vendor:
The VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch screen panel
PC, a full featured, entirely fanless panel PC
suitable for intelligent display applications in
demanding environments. Rugged, stable and
flexible, the VIA VIPRO is the first in a series of
advanced display technologies from VIA.
The resilient VIA VIPRO is highly suited for
human-machine interface (HMI) industrial
applications such as factory automation and
control, supporting the addition of a second in-
dependently configured screen for dual-display
applications.
As an experiment, let’s rewrite the first state-
ment to make it persuasive.
Original: “The VIA VIPRO VP7710 touch
screen panel PC, a full featured, entirely fanless
panel PC suitable for intelligent display appli-
cations in demanding environments.”
(Abstract, Rational)
Rewrite: “With our VP7710 panel PC, your
factory will work faster, produce more with our
touch screen while your workers will save their
ears as fanless means less noise.”
(Emotional, Concrete)
While that works well in writing, the EC Rule
(remember it as sounds like “EASY”) works in
spoken presentations, too.
Here are three excerpts from three possible
pitches on the same subject.Which do you think
is the most persuasive?
Pitch #1: “We installed our state-of-the-art
projector solution at the Antwerp Museum in
three weeks and included a 5–year lamp guaran-
tee. We improved the efficiency by an average
of 37% and we won a Supplier of Year Award
from their top management.”
Pitch #2: “Our solution will save you 37% of
costs through our 3-week installation and our
elimination of your lamp replacements. We re-
cently had an installation comparable to what
you need. At that Antwerp Museum we achieved
a 37% savings or roughly $150,000, as you can
see in their annual report I brought.”
Pitch #3: “Did I tell you when I met the Chair-
man of the Antwerp Musuem? When he smiled
and said we did a good job, I never felt more
proud. And with good reason, because we saved
them $250,000 a year, according to their an-
nual report!”
Which sales message is most
persuasive?
Pitch #1 is informative, but less persuasive. It
quotes some facts and figures, but the prospect
must draw his/her own relevance to his own
needs and wants. It’s all about the seller’s per-
spective, almost an arrogance by its exclusion
of buyer point-of-view. (Count how many
“we” and “us.”)
Pitch #3 is emotional, yet not persuasive. It con-
tains an anecdote, but it generates less emotion
because it’s about the sales professional’s
rAVe Europe | 21
 Selling
feelings-- not the prospects. It’s not clear how
the experience maps into the solution that’s be-
ing proposed to this particular client. (Count
how many “I”s.)
Pitch #2 is the most persuasive as a verifiable
argument why the prospect should buy the so-
lution. Yes, it contains as much information as
Pitch #1, but the emotional content is carried
by tangible proof an annual report (satisfies the
emotional desire for risk avoidance and fulfills
NLP’s kinesthetic definition.) (Count how
many “you” and “yours” and “our”s.)
You can build better sales messages (propos-
als, emails, presentations, Power Points, and
22 | rAVe Europe
even videos) by remembering our EC lesson.
Beware being the Order Taker, someone pos-
ing as a salesperson who thinks selling is simply
shoving forward the prices and answering prod-
uct questions. Selling is the skill of developing
many creative ways to communicate with a wide
range of human mentalities who each accept in-
formation in their own way.
Better communication skills got Barack
Obama elected despite many obstacles, and
his messages captured global attention. Can
we communicate as well as Obama? In his own
words, “Yes, We Can.” •
 Selling

Sales Proposals
Working on a sales proposal? Examine the
current draft of your sales proposal carefully.
Then answer the following questions as
honestly as you can:
• Does the customer know who we are?
• Is the customer expecting us to bid on this?
• Does the executive summary address customer needs?
• Is the executive summary one page or less?
• Have we replaced all the jargon that’s meaningful only to us?
• Are we sure that another vendor doesn’t have the inside track?
• Does the proposal follow the customer’s specified format and
outline?
• Have we removed all the meaningless marketing fluff
(e.g. “state-of-the-art”)?
• Has someone edited out other customer names from boilerplate
material?
• Is the writing clear and forceful rather than flat and technical?
• Has the proposal been edited so that it contains no glaring
grammatical errors?
• Can the proposal convince the customer that we can actually
deliver?
• Does the proposal define how we’ll measure customer
satisfaction?
• Is the proposal being submitted on time and to the right people?

If the answer to ANY of these question is “NO” then you’ll lose

the sale. It’s as simple as that.
rAVe Europe | 23
24 | rAVe Europe
rAVe Europe | 25
 Spinning Wheel, Got to Go ‘Round
If you’re at ISE, you’ll find an eye-
catcher in Hall 10 Stand L149: the I2F
MediaWheel that spins when it has
an audience. The spinning content, made
by a film director, and the integration of
the hardware (done by ourselves) is de-
signed to attract you to our stand. The main message we
want to convey: this is what you can accomplish with our I2F
Media Products.
Maybe it’s because we started as a show-control specialist
in the early 90’s, but we wanted to demonstrate our two-fold
mission:
Efficient communication: We think you should send
out your message only when it is relevant. We dislike random
noise pollution and flat screens that become wallpaper, play-
ing content loop after loop. We employ sensors on a large
scale to display content only when and where somebody can
listen and watch.
An ecological and responsible use of costly
apparatus and energy: Using sensors, you can leave
your displays, servers, projectors etc. in sleep mode until they
need to do their job.
At Inter2Face, we develop software for 32bits Microsoft
OS: I2F Media Products.
Our core software, I2F MediaBrick is a high definition
Inter2Face bvba Pelgrimstraat 9/4 B-3000 Leuven - Belgium
www.inter2face.com
Tel +32-(0)16/205543 Fax +32-(0)16/205541
media server that handles standard
formats of still or moving images and
sound, including URL, live camera im-
ages, applications (Google Earth, Flash
etc) and any executable provided it can
run on the chosen hardware.
This package controls all kinds of peripheral devices. And
that is where we distinguish ourselves from many other pro-
viders of software solutions.
We use our thorough knowledge of hardware to squeeze
out of a standard motherboard all it has to offer and to control
lights, sound, camera’s, projectors, motors, doors... and to
create interactive applications.
We use the information we take from the content to syn-
chronize a frame or sound fragment on the one hand and an
action or event (e.g., lights) on the other.
Like our I2F Media Wheel, it is all a matter of finding
the right load balance between the hardware chosen and the
desired content, as well using industrial protocols creatively
and effectively. We can make a totally unmanned set-up from
just one box and an affordable software licence.
Don’t spin your creative wheels with more complicated,
more expensive solutions, when we can spin the wheels of
communication for you. Visit our stand at ISE (Hall 10 Stand
L149) or contact us at the address below.
rAVe Europe | 29
 Selling
Selling Technology Value
Versus Price
By Tessa Stowe
D
o your prospects focus on the price
of your technology products and ser-
vices and pressure you for discounts?
You’ve explained all about the great value they
will receive but they just don’t get it.
#1: Forget about “selling” and try to get your
prospect to buy your technology products and
services. You don’t want to start selling your
technology products and services from the very
first conversation with your prospect. Instead,
you want to get your prospect to decide to buy
your technology products and services. Just
have a conversation and ask the right questions
to understand their problem and determine, if
in fact, you can help them.
#2: Have your prospect tell you the value
(instead of you tell them).
If you tell your prospect about the value you
offer, they may or may not see this as relevant.
But if you ask the right questions so your pros-
pect tells you the value of solving their problem,
they will see this value as relevant.
#3: Have valuable conversations. The con-
versations with your prospect should include so
much value they actually thank you for speaking
with them—and look forward to having more
conversations with you. How do you have such
conversations? It’s easy really. Probably no one
30 | rAVe Europe
has ever asked your prospect powerful questions
which provoke clarity around their problem and
how much it costs them. This sort of clarity and
information is of great value to your prospect.
#4: Add your value to their value. Once your
prospect tells you the value they will receive
from solving their problem, they will be recep-
tive to how you can add even more value. Not
only will they be receptive to listening to how
you can add more value but they will also be
appreciative of the additional value you can
add. This is because, at this stage, they will have
effectively sold themselves on taking action to
solve the problem.
When you don’t sell, but ask the right ques-
tions, your prospect will see the value in solv-
ing their problem-- plus they will see the value
in establishing a business relationship. You can
help them justify a buying decision by adding
more value to what they have told themselves.
This all leads to a decision based on the value,
and not the price, of your technology products
and services. •
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tessa Stowe helps technology companies
grow their sales revenue with less effort.
www.salesconversation.com.
EUROPE’s LEADING NEWSLETTER for CE
Years of experience make our editorial team the best source for Con-
sumer Electronics news on the EMEA market. We successfully cover the
wide range of product that makes CE vibrant. You’ll find us at a confer-
ence for PND in Holland, the 3GSM in Barcelona, the CEDIA UK, and
CeBIT in Germany—as well as the main CE shows like IFA and CES. We
also have been the only consistent Media Sponsor of RETAILVISION for
the past years (and the exclusive official Media Sponsor of last year’s
RETAILVISION Middle East.)
Our 20,000+ readers are the retailers, distributors, OEMs and ven-
dors interested in the type of news that transcends borders. They also
www.On-CE.net
hop on planes to visit CES, IFA, Hong Kong Electronics, CEDIA…and
even ISE. They have informational needs that go beyond the “kitchen
talk” of local print publications. By the time the product is mentioned in
their own country, it would already be too late for them to benefit.
Interested Readers can find out more at our web site below.
Companies who want to sell across EMEA should contact us about our
cost-effective Sponsorships that include value-added services that add
impact and create channel sales.
Frequency, impact and click-through accountability…and reach
that is truly pan-European and pan-MEA.
rAVe Europe | 31
 Selling
10 Common Sales
Mistakes
H
ere are the ten common mistakes that
most sales professionals make, with some
quick advice for fixing them:
Not keeping your prospect
pipeline primed
Fix: Selling is first and foremost a numbers game
with the Key Performance Indicators locked on
how many prospects you can find, how many you
can approach and what percentage you can close
in a given time period. Sometimes this is referred
to as a “sales funnel,” as prospects are hopefully
“funneled” into your sales process.
At the bottom of the sales “funnel,” you have
your customers placing their orders. In the middle,
you have different prospects moving up the funnel
as they are engaged at different phases. And at the
peak, you need to keep a flow of prospects coming
into the funnel.
Some companies provide leads to sales via mar-
keting. Many vendors pass on sales leads. Some-
times you are left to build your own prospect list.
No matter where they come from, you need to
monitor that flow just as a power meter tells you
what is coming into an amplifier. Then you need to
schedule quality time for contacting prospects and
engaging them. Like any funnel, if there’s nothing
coming in…they’ll be nothing coming out.
Calling on contacts that have
no budget
Fix: Qualify your prospects in every conversa-
tion with them. For every engagement, you want
to know what, why, and when the customer might
buy…and how much they’re willing to pay. Easy
to say, hard to do…but there are lots of “tells” that
indicate how a company or organization is doing:
32 | rAVe Europe
staff levels, financial reports, credit agencies, staff
discourse, historical data…and—try this—inter-
rogation. Not the bright lights, rubber truncheon
kind of questioning, but many times asking the
question and getting an answer is the simplest re-
search.
Insufficient knowledge of your
customer’s business
Fix: Yes, some companies rely only on prod-
uct knowledge as sales training. But it matters
whether you are selling the same AV product to
a hotel, church or enterprise. In today’s competi-
tive world, you are selling solutions and need to
match those solutions as specifically as possible to
the customer’s needs.
It now matters even which type of enterprise.
Research your target industry and its basic busi-
ness models before you start calling on customers.
Know who their customers are and how they ap-
proach their own customers. When selling ROI
solutions, you need to command a full under-
standing of their sales process to conclude your
own.
Ignorance of how the customer
buys
Fix: Find out how the customer’s purchasing
process works and who is involved in the decision.
Most professional AV sales fall under “complex”
sales where you are selling more than one decision-
maker (and sometimes across different depart-
ments.) You may need to working on different lev-
els simultaneously to speed along the sales process.
Worse yet, you could be spending time calling on
someone who has the ability to say, “No” but not
the ability to say “Yes.”
HOME CINEMA - HOME NETWORKING - HOME AUTOMATION
WE’RE BRINGING IT TOGETHER UNDER ONE ROOF…
For installers in Europe and Middle East, we’re pulling together
the key products and industry trends from Home Cinema, Home
Networking, and Home Automation, to create a timely email
newsletter that targets their business interests.
Our audience extends from CEDIA installers, to multi-room
audio installers, to high end retail shops with installation (like
EON in Dubai), to home automation franchises (like Adapt), to
home automation etailers, to the building/security installers that
start with the garage or your thermostat. We don’t try to overlap
and provide editorial for the general public: we are a business
publication for in-
stallers only.
We cover not
only the hifi, TV
and video prod-
ucts but also the
technology and
standards that will
ultimately unite the home. Powerline, Zigbee, HDMI, Home RAID,
KNX, Z-Wave, UWB, DLNA and more acronyms that you can shake
a universal remote control at. We like to think we have the “widest”
vision in the business and that our ability to watch computer, com-
www.ECInews.eu
SYSTEMS INTEGRATION FOR THE CONNECTED HOME.
munications, and consumer electronics markets as well as Audio
Video gives us the edge (and therefore, our readers.)
Today each market segment in residential installation is small
but growing. Tomorrow they will have grown together into a big-
ger market that unites everyone with an interest in residential
technology.
Today CEDIA’s installers tackle the high end rooms that bring
in the best of home theatre; tomorrow they will install whole home
systems as video moves from movie time to lifestyle ubiquity. We
all follow the customer.
An ABI Research study on residential gateways forecasts home
networking consumer premises equipment and aggregation de-
vices will deliver at least $1.8 billion in annual revenues by the
end of 2013. A separate, second ABI study says shipments of four
classes of wireless audio and video connectivity products for the
home (150 million this year) will increase to nearly 700 million
units worldwide by the end of 2013. Bluetooth, WiFi, UWB and
60GHz (for in-home wireless distribution of HD video.) will co-
exist and become closely integrated according to their strengths
and specialties.
So naturally connectivity is an important part of ECI. We’re
bringing it all together, under one roof. And we’d like you to think
of us as your doorway to any technology that has be installed in
a home.
 Selling
Not seeking truth
Fix: Seek the truth, not what makes you or your
manager feel good. When you want know what
the customer is thinking, ask. You can deal with
the truth, but “imagining” the answers will cost
you time, money, and, ultimately, the sale.
Insufficient planning
Fix: On a sales call, every word, every phrase,
and every sentence should be there for a reason—
even the “small talk.” You need to know what you
are going to say, how you are going to say it, and
how you might respond to their response.
The sales proposal, bless it, should be done in-
telligently and fashionably (take a D-Tools soft-
ware, if you want to make this into a real process),
but in the end you have to bring the document to
life. Your job is to sell which means you have to
move the buyer to an action, and that generally
involves getting an emotional response (data can
get the buyer to think, to reason but it’s emotion
that gets the buyer to act, to take decision.)
To get to that emotion, you will need informa-
tion about your client, your products, your offer
and a PLAN on how to weave the best sales fabric
that will dress your sales approach.
Presenting in a non-stop sales
pitch
Fix: The number one rule in selling: don’t be
boring. And a non-stop sales pitch is boring. Think
of a non-stop sales pitch as a long-winded “info-
mercial” on TV and then you’ll understand why
the client looks as if he wants to change channels.
Selling is meant to be a creative profession and
in AV we are blessed with creative folks. First, ask
questions that draw out wants, needs and oppor-
tunities; then address them. Creativity is not frivo-
lous; it should be pointed and sharp to the point.
Failure to adjust your
approach
Fix: Before, during and after presenting, listen
to the customer. Focus on everything about the
customer: words, gestures, tonality and context.
34 | rAVe Europe
You need to “read” the customer to shape your
presentation.
NLP sales training is famous for explaining how
different buyers relate to different methods of pre-
sentation. In NLP, you need only three behaviour
patterns to create successful communication in
therapy, business and sales:
1. To know what outcome you want
2. To be flexible in your behaviour to generate
different kinds of behaviour (to find out what re-
sponse you get)
3. To have enough experience (sensory) to notice
when you get the responses that you want
NLP assumes internal mental processes
(problem solving, memory, language) consist of
sensory representations (visual, auditory, kin-
esthetic, olfactory, and gustatory) that engage
when people think about problems, proposals,
or activities.
You can achieve great sales results without NLP
training but it’s important to understand some
people accept visual information better while
others respond to speech (and still others need to
“touch” a model.) Maybe you’ve even experienced
some buyers will react only on a mobile phone,
others via e-mail, and some insist upon physical
presence for nearly all significant communica-
tion. Different strokes for different folks and great
salespeople constantly shift gears to communicate
better.
Continuing to sell after you’ve
closed
Fix: When you get a “yes,” stop talking, smile,
and take the order. It’s that simple.
Ignoring your own selling
skills weaknesses
Fix: Notice what you don’t do so well and get
training to fill the gaps. Few are born great in
sales; most excellent sales people train (train them-
selves and training by others) constantly. Why-- if
Olympic athletes with all their born ability still
need coaches--do you think sales should be any
different? •
Custom Install

rAVe Europe | 35
 Selling
Five Rules for
Closing the Sale
Tips based on the guru of Closing Sales,
Linda Richardson
L
inda Richardson is the Founder and
Chairman of Richardson, a global sales
training business. She is identified by
Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20
Most Influential Training Professionals.” Linda is
credited with the movement to Consultative Sell-
ing, and the author of ten books on selling and
sales management. She teaches sales and manage-
ment courses at the Wharton Graduate School.
“Closing” a sale sounds so…so...so “retail.”
And it can sound manipulative, as if you were
tricking someone into signing up for business.
But, in fact, closing techniques are important
in a world filled with competitors, weak middle
managers, and tech-shy buyers.
Closing Rule #1:
Think Like a Closer
According to Richardson, the great “closers”
are prompt and incredibly persistent. Once they
get a lead, they’re on that lead immediately.
Paris Hilton with a party invitation could not
be more determined. The closer looks first to
see if the time is right, and they close the deal
right then, right there. After they’ve closed, they
always follow up immediately. To be a better
closer, you’ve got to increase your own resolu-
tion and get dogged in your attention to the
deal on the table.
But on top of being willing to be vigilant and
36 | rAVe Europe
inexhaustible in your focus. Great closers never
fail to try to improve their ability to understand
customer needs.
You’ll never be a great closer if you aren’t will-
ing to constantly improve your skills at dialog
and questioning. You’ll never be a great closer,
if you aren’t willing to do the extra mental work
to build confidence in your own ability. Hey,
just think, reading this already puts you in the
category of sales people that want to improve
their skill sets!
That’s the foundation.
Closing Rule #2:
Set Objectives
It’s a myth to think every sale has a single, all-
important point where the deal closes. Truth:
Some simple sales have a defined close point,
but complex sales processes (almost all B2B sales
like we have in the AV industry) have a series
of points where the prospect makes a decision,
even if it’s just the decision to let you pitch. Sales
closing guru Linda Richardson says all sales go
through four phases, each with its own “close”
that permits the sale to move forward.
Initial Phase. You need to “close” from a cold-
call into a sales call.
Developmental Phase. You need to “close”
by successfully eliciting information about the
client’s business, information that only the cli-
 Selling
ent has, in order to define the solution you will
propose.
Culmination Phase. You need to “close” by
asking for the next step or for the business.
Follow-up Phase. You need to “close” by en-
suring the relationship goes forward and set the
pattern for a viable
Part of Rule #2 is that you should set an ob-
jective for each meeting. At every point in the
sales process, you should always have a closing
objective that is specific, measurable and appro-
priately aggressive. Not vague notions like “get
closer to the customer” or “learn about custom-
er needs.” These are good thoughts, but those
are processes, not goals.
Goals must be specific and measurable:
I will get a list of the key decision-makers.
I will get a copy of the competitor’s proposal.
I will describe the customer’s problem.
I will get access to my customer boss.
And, of course, eventually: I will ask for the
business.
When you treat the sales cycle as a series of
closes, it makes it easier and more natural to ask
for the business when it’s time to achieve your
ultimate objective.
And what is your ultimate objective? You may
say “a sale” but that falls short of the mark you
really want: “a satisfied customer.”
A satisfied customer knows what he bought,
why he bought it, who he bought it from, and is
convinced that the value is there.
Closing Rule #3:
Overcome Your Fear
Closing is simple. What’s difficult is dealing
with the negative emotions that you’re having
about closing. Those emotions include.
Fear of failure. If I lose this sale, it means that
I’m a failure as a sales professional.
Fear of rejection. If I lose this sale, it means
that the customer doesn’t like me.
Fear of financial loss. If I lose this sale, I won’t
make the commission and my kids won’t eat.
Fear of management disapproval. If I don’t
make quota, my boss will be unhappy.
Fear of lost anticipation. If I don’t make the
sale, I’ll lose the pleasant fantasy of winning.
Fear of social blundering. If I ask at the wrong
time, the customer will think I’m pushy.
The unifying factor in all these emotions, of
course, is fear. The specific quality of that fear
differs from person to person. Some folk don’t
care that much about social rejection for exam-
ple, but hate, hate, hate to lose a commission.
Other folk are happy to take a financial loss as
long as they don’t have look like a fool in front
of a customer. However, regardless of the par-
ticular size and shape of your fears, the solution
is the same:
Regardless of how uncomfortable you are or
how terrible you might feel if your close doesn’t
result in a sale, the truth is that YOU HAVE
TO CLOSE. It’s part of the job, no matter how
much it’s scaring you. So just do it.
Closing is like standing on the edge of a cold
swimming pool. Slowly lowering yourself in the
water is slow torture; better to just take a deep
breath and jump.
Or, to use another analogy, closing is like
walking with Tony Robbins across a bed of hot
coals. If you walk quickly you’ll be fine, but if
you dawdle you’ll end up with nasty blisters.
How do you overcome a
fear?
Familiarity. The more you close, the easier it
is to close. That’s why it’s recommended you
treat the sales cycle as a series of small closes.
That way closing on the big deal isn’t a big deal
in and of itself.
Rehearsal. When it comes to emotions, your
brain can’t differentiate between what it imag-
ines and what’s actually happened in the
rAVe Europe | 37
 Selling
real world. If you repeatedly rehearse closing in
your mind, and while rehearsing force yourself
to feel confident, your behavior in the real world
will imitate your imagination.
Reframing. This entails creating a compari-
son that makes the original fear seem trivial. Ex-
ample: There are millions of Iraqi citizens who
have to worry about being shot simply if they go
to the store to buy some food, so what have you
got to be afraid of?
Association. Ever been to an amusement
park? If so, you probably paid $30 to $50 to be
frightened. The “fear” part of selling is like go-
ing on a rollercoaster — except that you get to
some steering, so you’re more in control. So the
“fear” is the exciting part of selling, right?
Redefinition. Fear is actually just a signal that
you need to do something. If you’re afraid to
ask for the business, it’s just your subconscious
mind telling you that it’s getting close to the
point where you need to ask for the business.
Closing Rule #4:
Always Be Checking
When it comes to closing, timing is every-
thing. Classic American sales training, and you
may have heard this, promoted “ABC” as a way
to remember “Always Be Closing.”
Today closing guru Linda Richardson rec-
ommends the old ABC changes to “Always
Be Checking.” Her idea is to constantly get
feedback from the prospect about whether it’s
time to close. That way, when you do close, it
becomes less of a “moment of truth” and more
like a natural extension of the conversation that
you’re having with the prospect.
At convenient points during the sales call (af-
ter you have positioned your message, respond-
ed to an objection, answered a question, etc.)
ask a question that draws out more information
and which reveals the prospects state of mind
relative to the progress of the sale. Nothing elab-
38 | rAVe Europe
orate, just normal conversational stuff like:
How does that sound?
How would that work?
What do you think about…?
Asking for feedback not only give you critical
information about the prospect’s problems and
potential to accept your solution, but also in-
creases your confidence when it comes to asking
for the business or the next step.
When you’re checking, avoid leading ques-
tions like “Does that make sense to you?” or
“Do you agree?” while nodding your head.
Prospects will almost always respond to such
questions by nodding along with you, without
really agreeing. Instead, ask questions that en-
courage the prospect to provide you with vital
information. Example:
INEFFECTIVE:
Rep (nodding): “We have the best HDMI
Splitter in the business. Do you agree?”
Prospect (nodding back): “Uh huh.” (Think-
ing: “Yeah, I hear you.”)
EFFECTIVE:
Rep: “Do you think our service program
could satisfy your needs?
Prospect: “We need a global deployment for
service.”
Rep: “I can see why that’s important. We have
international partners who deliver our services.
How would that meet your concern?”
According to Richardson, the best part about
“always be checking” is that much of the time
the client will preemptively close the sale for you,
saying something like “So, when do we start?”
Closing Rule #5:
Close with Confidence
The old “Always Be Closing” philosophy is
often misinterpreted to mean harassing the cus-
tomer until the customer buys. That’s too bad,
because that interpretation of the ABC strategy
 Selling
creates a sense of overwhelming pressure. And
that inevitably creates resistance to the sale be-
cause the prospect doesn’t want to feel that he
or she is being manipulated.
Most of the time high pressure tactics back-
fire, even when they “work.” Almost all B2B
sales involve a long-term relationship between
two firms, so if you make a high pressure sale,
chances are you’ve made your customer contact
feel like a fool, and you’ll be persona non grata
next time you need some business.
If you’ve been following the rules from this
article, you’ve used checking to get feedback
and to position your offerings. If so, you should
be able to sense the rhythm of the conversation
and whether the customer is ready to make a
decision.
That’s when you close. Closing guru Linda
Richardson describes this as a five step process:
• Summarize. Make a concise, powerful sum-
mary that reiterates the benefits of your offer-
ings and its appropriateness for the prospect.
Speak with confidence, but don’t let your voice
slip into “sales pitch” babble. Keep it real and
conversational.
• Final Check. Once you’ve summarized, do
one final check - not for understanding but for
agreement. Example: “I think we’ve pretty much
concluded that our solution will solve your
problem and save you money; how does that
meet your objective?” Don’t be pushy and don’t
ask a leading question like: “Do you agree?”
• Ask for the Business. If the final check
doesn’t surface a new objection, be direct and
ask for the business — confidently and clearly.
Example: “Shall we go ahead and sign the neces-
sary documents?”
• Conclude with Confidence. Chances are
you just made a sale, in which case it should be
easy to conclude the meeting with confidence,
energy, and rapport. But even if you didn’t get
the sale, you want to leave the (almost) customer
with the sense that you are a person with whom
they want to do business.
• Follow up Immediately. Many reps stum-
ble because they’re so elated at getting the busi-
ness. They think the job is done and don’t take
the necessary steps to make sure their executed
deal begins properly (someone else’s depart-
ment now) and the customer starts off happy.
Do what you have to do to make sure your
company appreciates your sale by a pain-less en-
trance into your accounting, technical support,
logistics and other departments.
The most elegant thing about the above se-
quence is that it builds on the previous four
rules.
Summary of the Five Rules That Close Sales
Now it’s time for us to close this article. Do
you think the above article will satisfy your
needs to learn more about closing a sale?
Yes…. ok, shall we turn the page and see what
else RAVE EUROPE has to offer? •
rAVe Europe | 39
 Selling
No, You Can’t Get a Better
Deal Online
This AV dealer didn’t call the customer’s bluff…he dialed it!
E
specially if you sell residential AV, you’ve
heard this from your customers before:
“We can get better prices online.” But
don’t take it as a fact. CEDIA member David
Ault (Audio Video Planners in USA) made his
client listen while Ault called not one but three
etailers who all claimed “the best prices.”
ETAILER#1
AVP: Do you have this 65-inch plasma TV in
stock?
Etailer 1: Back-ordered
AVP: What should I do?
Etailer 1: Call back daily until we have one.
AVP: How much would shipping cost for the TV?
Etailer 1: $325 for “basic shipping” once we
can get one.
AVP: What is “basic shipping?”
Etailer 1: A semi truck, not a lift gate truck.
AVP: So, I have to get a 65” plasma off of a semi trailer?
Etailer 1: Yes, sir. Residential trucks are more
than $325...
AVP: What if there is a problem or the TV is
broken? Or, worse yet, what if there are pixels
out on the TV? Panasonic claims up to 4 pixels
can be burned out in their warranty info. Who
will check this for me?
Etailer 1: You must do that while the driver is
still on site.
AVP: What! In my driveway?
Etailer 1: Yes sir. The driver will wait.
AVP: So, what if I don’t test the TV until I can
get it into my house?
Vendor 1: Then you repackage the TV and pay
the shipping back if a problem is found.
AVP: What about a replacement TV?
40 | rAVe Europe
Etailer 1: Sir, you pay ALL shipping expenses as
our terms state.
AVP: Even for a replacement?
Etailer 1: Yes sir. We might be able to give you
a $100 discount if you need a replacement.
AVP: So…I would pay to ship the TV here, ship
the TV back, and then pay to ship the replace-
ment TV here – all with lift gate trucks? I may
be looking at as much as $1,500 in shipping
fees?
Etailer 1: That is a possibility. It is a heavy and
large TV.
ETAILER# 2
We phoned another etailer to ask if the plasma
TV was in stock. We were put on hold. After
15 minutes, the etailer came back, “We’re out.”
And he hung up on us.
ETAILER# 3
AVP: Do you have this TV in stock?
Etailer 3: We shipped one yesterday!
AVP: Do you have another in stock?
Etailer 3: I’m not sure. Give me your credit
card number and we will only charge your card
if we can get you the TV.
AVP: Do you stock the Sony Blu-ray player?
Etailer 3: No problem!
AVP: Great! Have you done the latest firmware
update?
Etailer 3: Huh?
AVP: You know, the Sony download required to
play one third of the newest Blu-ray discs?
Etailer 3: I don’t know.
AVP: Do you know in every Sony Blu-ray player
box it says you need to do this firmware update
for any player to operate correctly? •
 Marketing
Survival Strategy:
Market Segmentation
S
till trying to sell everybody? Market
segmentation can improve profit mar-
gins and win market share. And when
markets are in turmoil, then differentiation is at
a premium, and segmentation strategy can mean
the difference between survival and road-kill.
Market segmentation will leverage whatever
differentiates you from competitors to target
a distinct market segment with common cus-
tomer attributes. If successful, the benefits are
higher profit margins and, in some cases, mar-
ket share and revenue growth.
Segmentation lets David slay Goliath. Geof-
frey Moore (Crossing the Chasm fame) calls
it niche marketing, but it’s essentially the same
thing: “Trying to cross the chasm without tak-
ing a niche market approach is like trying to
start a fire without kindling.”
Try this 3-step process to develop your mar-
ket segmentation strategy:
1. Develop an objective picture of your market-
place with an internal (executives, key employ-
ees) and external (customers, analysts) audit.
Do a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportu-
nities, Threats) analysis based on this audit.
Where is your organization strongest in skills?
What AV product ranges do well for you?
2. Get your smartest people in a room and
brainstorm market opportunities that match
your company’s unique DNA. If your prod-
ucts or services have a value proposition and
there’s a market segment that needs them,
they’ll find each other in that room.
3. Then build the key strategies for targeting,
selling, and even dominating the segment. De-
velop specific strategies and tactics for spe-
cific customer or application niches.
42 | rAVe Europe
The history of AV sales is that we tend to
broadcast our general services, instead of build-
ing our marketing messages to specific commu-
nities. The last position you want to be in today:
random sales following random marketing.
Build your case for segmentation by estab-
lishing standard metrics to quantify the AV in-
vestment return. Help your customers establish
their own “key performance indicators” (KPIs)
for AV in their segment. Position AV systems as
productive, revenue-generating (or cost-saving,
depends upon application) and as communica-
tion tools that streamline and enervate business
processes. What are possible KPIs to match to
your particular products, applications and seg-
ments like hospitality, education, retail signage,
rental and others?
• Increased sales (or sales traffic)
• Cost-savings
• Utilization (%)
• Transactions per day
• Equipment tracking
• Inventory control
• Total # of classes served
• Cancelled classes (due to non-working AV
systems)
• Number of AV facilities supported
• Successful trouble ticket resolution (%)
• Time to resolve AV trouble ticket
• Number of events covered (projection/sound
systems deployed, etc.)
• Number of videoconference sessions
When there’s a chasm to cross, you’ll need to
build a bridge. Using ROI measures like these
will help you build investments and your seg-
mentation strategies.•
 www.ConsumerIT.eu

Audience: 37,000+ dealers, distributors and resellers across

EMEA. If you want to find new distributors or to sell more at
RETAIL, please ask us for our cost-effective rates.
TDC.EMEA@gmail.com
 Operations
Stop Blaming The
Economy
There is no question the global economy has
been completely mismanaged. Many companies
suffer and others will follow.
B
ut…inside all the Quarterly Reports
that put the blame on the economy,
there are companies (vendors and inte-
grators) trying to hide their business sins. Com-
panies that are using the excuse of the economy
to cover up their mismanagement, to distract
from their poor returns, and to create an excuse
for actions they would prefer to disguise from
staff, customers and shareholders.
They can run but they can’t hide. This market
will grind down those who imposter real busi-
ness managers. Succeeding in a down economy
calls on your skill sets as an operations manager.
Here’s what we think it will take to succeed in
2009-2010…
Go on the offensive. This isn’t the time to go
into a bunker. If you get on the defensive you’re
dead. Get aggressive, set aggressive goals.
Select better sales targets. Improve your
methodology so that you don’t waste time on
customers who aren’t going to buy.
Don’t lower prices. Find new and innovative
ways to lower the risk of purchase. Make do-
ing business easier and create a better customer
experience.
Focus on the customer. If you make your own
sales people nervous, they’ll choke. Don’t go
into high-pressure mode. Ask: how can we help
YOU to win? (And then do whatever it takes.)
Improve everything. You can’t operate the way
44 | rAVe Europe
you did last year. You need to improve people,
process, and technology.
Get creative. It pains me to say this, but we
need more creativity in this industry. We need
more creative folks that can take our AV mes-
sage out to customers that are pinched by other
industries.
Return to basics. Marketing need to focus on
the only one metric that really matters: revenue.
Advertising might cause an immediate revenue
impact, or it may have a delayed impact, but if it
does not drive revenue, it was not successful.
Drive transactions: The web is the best plat-
form for getting consumers from awareness to
transaction the world has ever seen, yet few AV
advertisers leverage the web as a transaction
platform. We’re still stuck in print pages and a
CPM world. This narrow focus ignores the op-
portunities in leveraging the targeting informa-
tion we have to help customers find products
and complete meaningful transactions.
Ask the CEO into the market. If your CEO
hasn’t spoken with customers this week, he
hasn’t yet changed his job to match what this
economy needs.
Stop blaming the economy. There are still
plenty of customers out there. And you’ll watch
the worst of your competitors float away like
jetsam as the tide goes out…leaving more busi-
ness for you when the tide comes back. •
 SIGN UP FOR
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• In 2008, 90% of all DS networking connections were Ethernet.
• In 2008, 169,000 newly-installed digital displays had Bluetooth,
RFID, Wi-Fi or SMS capabilities or some combo.
• HDMI may comprise 70% of connections to newly installed digital displays by 2012.
• 40% of new network digital display platform installations will useSMS for interactivity by 2012
• Europe is becoming more significant in the digital signage market.

Welcome to Digital Signage News EMEA. We wel-
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Digital signage is exciting as it straddles both
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Our intention is to concentrate on the hardware,
software, connectivity, and content-delivery issues
as opposed to the media networks aspect. We’ve
elected to stay with “digital signage: instead of the
acronym DOOH, (not only because, duh, that’s not
a handsome name for a growing sector that wants
to attract support from customers) to highlight the
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not only to the IP platform, but the connectivity that
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One of our highlights will be RETAIL because
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 Operations

Should You Run Your Own

Show?

F
or the answer to the
above question, we turn
to the first-ever AWE
EXPO, hosted by UK distribu-
tor AWE. They had more than
180 installers attending a 3-day
event at the company’s head of-
fice.
AWE provided extensive train-
ing on its Philips Pronto and
Xantech products with delegates
attending more that 300 educa-
tion sessions. Visitors could also take a close-up
look at the latest innovation from brands han-
dled by AWE. These included the launch of the
new Pronto TSU-9800 touchscreen controller,
new video, magnetic, audio, light and voltage
sensors from Xantech, the ultra- slim Pioneer
KRP-600M 60” Kuro monitor and KRP-500A
Kuro TV with media box and Onkyo’s new
flagship TX-NR906 AV Receiver and Europe’s
first showing of their AV processor.
Daily Xantech training sessions covered an
overview of the products now available from
AWE and an insight into future products, as
well as training on Dragon programming for
multiroom systems. Bite size Pronto sessions
proved extremely popular and focussed on the
new Pronto TSU-9800, new PEP2 software
(Pronto Edit Professional) and an introduction
to Pronto for those new to this quality, whole
house control solution.
“The AWE EXPO surpassed expectations
and proved a highly popular format for install-
AWE Expo, Good Example of a Show
ers keen to see the latest products, take advan-
tage of training and network with their industry
peers” explains Stuart Tickle, AWE’s Managing
Director.
A fun element to the AWE Expo was a pool
table competition where delegates had to “pot”
all the striped balls in the fastest time without
“potting” any other balls.
Potting balls may not underline the success,
but the verdict is in. Any time distributors or
integrators can pull in a sizeable number of their
customers for education, training, and informa-
tion—this helps all of us. Manufacturers should
support these initiatives-- but only if the event
is well-planned as an interactive forum-- instead
of a way to tap into vendor’s marketing funds.
It’s just the sort of initiative we need to go out
and get business in this economy. •
http://www.awe-europe.com/news.
asp?newsarticleID=76

46 | rAVe Europe
rAVe Europe | 47

Software That Sets You Free
The Three Commandments: Sell the job, design
the job, deliver the job
By Bob Snyder
S
ystem integrators
should be looking to
streamline business
processes, increase revenues,
and reduce associated time
and costs. There are three
commandments:
Sell the Job
You need to create fast yet
accurate sales proposals, pull-
ing together all pricing and
product info in one place. You
want to react to customer re-
quests more quickly and more
professionally, so you have the
best chance to land the busi-
ness.
Design the Job
You need to create data-
driven designs in Visio or Au-
toCAD (or both). You’ll want
to leverage industry standard
drawing tools to easily gener-
ate data-driven plan and eleva-
tion views, line diagrams and
schematics.
Deliver the Job
You need project scheduling
and resource management so
you can schedule, assign, and
track all product, labor and
costs. This market demands
you deliver the job on time
48 | rAVe Europe
Operations
and on budget. Remote acces-
sibility and integration with
Microsoft Outlook would be
nice so your team learns about
project changes, letting them
react quickly to the customer’s
changing needs.
So if software came along
that brought together inte-
grated system design, estima-
tion, and project management
into a single application, you’d
probably have to take a look at
it, right?
We did. We took a look
at D-Tools System Integrator
5.5.
It’s the type of can’t-live-
without software that makes
an integrator’s job easier—
and more professional. We
think most integrators could
benefit immediately from this
modest (compared to value
given) software investment:
you reduce the time and cost
of designing, estimating, man-
aging, and deploying system
integration projects. It seems
affordable (unlike a lot of
software that fills a business
niche.)
This may just be the edge
you need to compete in 2009,
the software that helps you
focus on customers instead of
the paperwork.
D-Tools says, in a survey,
at least 88% of users say they
were able to create a proposal
in 1/2 the time or better than
their previous methods. Above
90% say they are closing more
sales as a result of using D-
Tools software. More than
94% swear their average job
size has gone up since using
D-Tools.
Now we could go on and
on here… but the fact that we
think SI 5.5 will help you man-
age your business in three crit-
ical areas (sell the job, design
the job, deliver the job) is less
important than this: D-Tools
offers you a 30-day trial so you
can see for yourself (How do
you think we journalists could
afford to take a look?)
www.D-tools.com
Hey, don’t forget the hypen
(-) between D and Tools or
you’ll end up on a page sell-
ing thousands of pocket tools
instead of the site of a software
that holds a manufacturer da-
tabase with details on 50,000
AV products. •
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