About the Author
John Galante is president of AE Ventures, producers of the TecHome Builder Summits. Prior to founding AE Ventures, Galante headed EH Media’s events division and contributed to the development of its publications and online media. Read more...
Is Now the Time for Digital Finished Home Sales?
by John Galante I’ve just put the finishing touches on our Quarterly Housing Stat Pack a compilation of government and association market reports and forecasts. The numbers tell the story of the pandemic’s impact on the new home market. Starts are projected to be down about 10% in 2020, but up about the same...
How Outdoor Lighting Can Expand Your Space and Beautify Your Property
by Erin Chartier We are all looking for a little more space in our homes these days. Americans spend nearly 90% of their time indoors but with the current state of the world and everyone at home… things start to feel a little crowded! Homebuilders working with landscape designers and outdoor lighting professionals have...
Selling Tech via Lifestyle Personas – Compelling but Risky
Establishing stock personas is a common business planning and marketing technique. It helps businesses think deeply, personally and emotionally about buyers and their core values, priorities and typical activities. Personas can help builders ideate tech packages as part of their merchandising process and can be used to hook buyers on extensive home tech options...
Home AV Resurgence & The Builder’s Play
There’s been a pretty massive reordering of application priorities for new homes in the wake of the COVID pandemic. For the previous 3-5 years, there had been a decided shift from AV and Networking to Smart Home Security as top of the list. Now the tables are turned. Homeowners are stuck at home, sometimes...
Selling Tech Room-by-Room
Presenting home tech options room-by-room is one of the easiest and most intuitive ways of achieving great sell-through. Buyers evaluate homes room-by-room, thinking about what they are going to do and experience in specific rooms. With a little knowledge, builder sales staff can walk through the tech products and applications that go with common...
Leveraging the TecHome Product Taxonomy in Marketing & Sales Efforts
I’m ridiculed (on a regular basis by our team!) for using highfalutin vocabulary. I cannot help it! Sister Paulanne’s daily vocabulary tests during sixth grade English class at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Glenview, IL, drilled some of those words into me (my favorite may be “lagniappe”). Fancy words get the reader’s attention...
Leveraging the Seven Central Benefits of the TecHome in Marketing
“Features & Benefits” is an “old saw” in marketing and sales, a way of structuring messages to set the stage for a sales win. But thanks to the order of the words, we tend to have an unfortunate habit of going deep on features and shallow on benefits. This is particularly true with technology...
Change is the only Constant
On lucky 7/7 we announced the postponement of our TecHome Builder Summit Spring (originally scheduled for May 2020 in Orlando, then rescheduled for August 2020, then relocated to Kansas City) to May 4-6, 2021 in Louisville. We have been simultaneously monitoring the waxing and waning of COVID across the nation, gathering information on preventative measures...
Savant Acquires GE Lighting: A Big Deal for Builders!
I sat down with Savant president, JC Murphy, to discuss Hyannis, MA-based manufacturer Savant Systems’ pending acquisition of GE Lighting and its implications for builders and multifamily companies. Announced on May 27 and set to close June 30, the deal combines Savant’s smart home control and AV product expertise with GE Lighting’s product portfolio...
The Untapped Synergies of Home Tech + Builder Tech Solutions
When TecHome Builder launched in 2001, its dual mission was to help builders make strong progress on incorporating technology into their homes and applying technology to their business processes and operations. The latter we call the Solutions side of our business. TecHome Builder went on hiatus 2008-2013, but when we relaunched it in...