CE Pro September 2022 - 55

SPONSORED CONTENT
Why PowerhouseAV Clients Provide
Perfect Testimonials
Stealth Acoustics dealer gets end users and trade partners onboard with benefits of
invisible loudspeakers by visiting happy customers.
Tell us a little about PowerhouseAV.
We founded Powerhouse AV in 2015. I used
to work for a big-box retailer; I was really
good at my job and never got the chance
to be promoted. I took some seed capital
from two of my clients and opened up my
own firm. We've grown ever since; I bought
out the two investors and now fully own
PowerhouseAV.
We do everything from smart home to
motorized shades and lighting, and do some
light construction as well. We're in the DC
metro area and strictly focus on high-end residential
and hospitality, restaurants.
How did you get started selling invisible
speakers?
I like everything to look really nice. One
day I went into the Louis Vuitton store to
buy my wife an overly expensive purse and I
noticed they had sound coming from everywhere
and I couldn't see anything. I went to
one of my client's homes that day, and they
were working with a high-end architect and
interior designer. I pitched them invisible
speakers.
I had hung out with Chris [Pruet, sales and
social media management, Stealth Acoustics]
at CEDIA Expo in Denver, he told me how
invisibles were going to take over the market
- and he was 100% right, it seems like everybody's
using them now. They've increased our
overall customer satisfaction by so much.
Once we pitched the architect, the architect
started pitching for us. Usually the wives
are just so happy. You get the best of both
worlds, you get to make your spouse happy
and you get high quality, premium audio. For
us, it's an increase in margin, it's an increase in
revenue because we're doing more labor, it's
the total package. I'd say 80% of our work is
retrofit, so we have to cut, patch, paint ... the
good thing is we handle everything in-house.
You're working on getting a showroom
in place; how do you pitch
invisible speakers currently?
My favorite thing to
do ... I just did a theater
room for an NBA
player up in McLean,
Va., and he was asking
if it was finished.
I said, 'Let's go check
it out.' I asked him
what he thought of the
speakers and he said,
'Are you crazy? There's
no speakers in here.'
I fired up the Control4
system, played
a movie for him and
he was mind-blown.
It was a 9.2 LRX-85
setup with B30G subwoofers,
AudioControl
amps and preamp ...
it sounded like a damn
IMAX. We always start
with the LRX-85 and
sell from the top down.
I put an Avengers movie
on for him, and he
couldn't believe it.
You're the top Stealth
LRX-85 dealer in the country,
but you say you don't
truly demo the product?
When I have a really big potential client, I
always use another house and have another
client advocate for me. We've done such a
wonderful job and have such good relationships
that they allow us to use their home as
a showroom. That's the best thing, because
anybody can have a space where people can
come and listen, but having it in a real home
where people actually live in, where there's
carpet, there's furniture and you have a real
person giving them a testimonial. Once you
show the product and they hear the client,
they're doing all the sales for you.
I always show them this house in Georgetown
- the home used to belong to Thomas
stealthacoustics.com
Jefferson - it was like a $3
million renovation and the
whole home has LRX-85s
(eight zones) and LRX-83s
(three zones) and some surround
applications. I go in there, I first demo
the 85s and the 83s, and the client says it's
always worth the extra money to get the 85s.
Is a showroom in the works?
We actually acquired a building in DC, a row
house in Georgetown, so my plan is to make
that into a showroom. There's some zoning
things we have to get through because it's
going to be mixed-use commercial. I'm going
to make it like an IKEA where you have a
kitchen, living room ... and I'm going to have
each room designed by a different architect,
and each room will have different equipment
based on the design.
Aomed Najafie,
PowerhouseAV,
Arlington, Va., is the
top seller of LRX-85
speakers.
http://www.stealthacoustics.com
CE Pro September 2022

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