4 Ways to Jumpstart Service Revenue in 2019
12.14.8 – CI –
t’s the season for New Year’s Resolutions and Almo Professional A/V was certainly in that spirit during the recent Commercial Integrator webcast, “Jumpstart Service Revenue: How to Make Good on Your New Year’s Resolution.”
Panelists Jay Saret, Eric Olson and Rob Voorhees, each business development managers for Almo Pro A/V, suggested steps that integration firms can take that should add significant service revenue – all moves that don’t require reinventing their business model since each rely on programs and infrastructure already put in place by the distributor.
It’s well-documented that traditional AV integration firms rely on product- and project-based revenue, both of which are dwindling.
Meanwhile, Commercial Integrator’s 2019 State of the Industry Report (to appear in the January issue of Commercial Integrator), shows that the struggle continues:
- More than a quarter of the 137 integrators and consultants surveyed for the report, 26%, earned $0 via service in 2018.
- A small portion, one-third of surveyed integrators earned between 1% and 5% of their revenue from service in 2018.
- Only 4% say that over one-third of their revenue stems from service.
- A disappointing quarter of surveyed companies even have a goal to earn at least a third of their revenue stemming from service by 2025.
The biggest barriers to transitioning to service, according to the State of the Industry Report, are:
Support of services: In other words, “How the heck am I going to be able to provide this ongoing service?” was the biggest obstacle cited by respondents.
Overall Services: This comes down to not knowing what to package as a service and how to create it.
Sales Training: Selling service is a different animal and traditional integration firms have often had trouble tweaking their messages or changing the setup of their sales department.
Almo Pro A/V, for its part, is trying to help traditional integration firms overcome these challenges. The solutions that Saret, Olson and Voorhees propose include support for the services, suggestions for overall offerings and training.