Commercial Integrator April 2021 - 10

AV BRAINS & BRAWN

Seeking Opportunities in 2021
Without fear of contradiction, we can state that 2020 was a year like no other in the last century.
With hopeful optimism I see opportunity in 2021. by Alan C. Brawn
BEFORE MOVING on to the topic at hand,
please permit me one moment of philosophizing. Historically as a nation we tend to
feel impervious to most external influences
and even most (but not all) internal issues
that might negatively affect most of us. Just
look at the tragedy of 9/11 and then the
" Great Recession " of 2008. These events
seemed to come out of the blue, and we
were ill prepared to address them.
Of course, the biggest issue facing us
right now is the pandemic. It came as a
shock to all of us, and suffice to say, we were
also ill prepared to handle something of this
magnitude. It has shaken us to the core in
terms of our health, our economics, and our
mental wellbeing. What is unique about the
pandemic is that it has affected each of us in
some way. There is no way to sugarcoat this
situation and I will not even try, but there is a
light at the end of this tunnel.
The good news is that there is some good
news. On a global level the most obvious
thing to be thankful for is vaccines being
created in less than a year, when historically
they have taken ten years or more to perfect. This will ultimately lead us out of this
dark period of severe adversity. Adversity is
not something that I would wish on anyone,
but out of adversity can come strength and
it can foster a preparedness for what comes
next. For the commercial AV and digital
signage industries, what comes next are
opportunities. Our job now is to recognize
the opportunities that will confront us and
learn how to approach them.
In order to recognize the new opportunities (that are already coming into focus as
we speak) we need to understand that some
things were beginning to change even
before the pandemic. The pandemic has
accelerated those trends and added a few
of its own. For decades, a typical AV system
was stand alone, and intended primarily
for onsite participants. This consisted of a
display, mount, audio system, input sources,
and remote control. These technologies
addressed traditional meeting, conference
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and training rooms as well as big auditoriums and houses of worship. Over the last 20
years the convergence of AV and IT added
a new dimension to what we did, and how
we did it. Added to this we now have many
new paths to acquire and share information.
So what has changed and what are the new
opportunities? Most importantly how do
we address them?
What has changed is an acceleration of
how opportunities are created. One of my
favorite personal axioms is that when technology, application, and price converge
an opportunity is created. It is a corollary
to the famous axiom of good, cheap, fast
- pick two. Most of the opportunities that
we are seeing fall under the umbrella of the
dissemination of information, anywhere,
anytime, and on any device. We increasingly demand the ability to receive information
and " share as appropriate " and we want to
be the ones to decide what is appropriate.
Also under the umbrella of new opportunities is the control of systems, again
anywhere, any time, and on any device.
Think of IoT and UCC being fed by the
availability of big data. If we plug this into
my axiom above, we increasingly have
new technologies, applications are waiting
in line to be fulfilled, and the prices are
dropping to the point of affordability. Voila,
opportunities are created. The challenge

for each of us is how to grab the brass ring
of these opportunities.
To the first order we must each learn about
the elements (and the need) for unified communication, the dissemination of information,
collaboration, and how big data, analytics,
and cybersecurity are parts of this mix. As a
point of fact, I and many of my colleagues
have written on these topics extensively in
Commercial Integrator and Tech Decisions
magazines. Once we have obtained a level
of familiarity and comfort with the topics, we
are ready to approach our customers and
explore new opportunities.
This is where the " World's Fastest Sales
Training " program comes into the picture.
While I highly recommend taking a more
advanced sales training course for a more
detailed and a nuanced approach, this
Cliff's Notes approach to the topic will
help get you where you need to go in short
order. It lays out the three fundamental
ways to insure making an AV, IT, or digital
signage system sale today.

1. Solve a problem.
The sales approach should begin with
understanding a problem (or set of problems)
and only after that solving the problem for
the customer. Their additional job is to ensure
that the customer understands the full scale
and scope as well. We often assume that the
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Commercial Integrator April 2021

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