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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...
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 where...
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 and...
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 of...
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 2014...
4 Cornerstones of Builder Digital Marketing & Sales Emerge Post COVID
With COVID constraining in-person marketing and sales, builders are upping their digital marketing and selling game. We studied the trends in our 2020 Re-Vision Survey earlier this year and have been in touch with some of the leading marketing and sales solution providers. In that process, we identified 4 cornerstone application areas: Lead Gen Web...
Get Going on Working & Learning from Home
You’d have had to be on another planet to not see that video conferencing is on fire as a top application. The market for video conferencing gear and services is projected to double to nearly $12 billion annually by 2027 by TechRepublic, and I think that underestimates attachment sales like mounts and large screen displays,...
Home Tech Merchandising & Luxury Custom Homes
Beating the drum just one more time (for now!) on home tech merchandising—this time focusing on the luxury custom market. The concept of merchandising for Luxury Home selling isn’t terribly intuitive, because most custom builders’ value proposition is “whatever you want or dream–we can deliver”. On its face, that’s the antithesis of merchandising, where tech...
Standard + Options: The Most Critical Merchandising Decision
Last week’s blog was titled Beating the Drum on Tech Merchandising. I’m continuing to bang that drum! This time on what may be the most critical of all merchandising decisions. The development of your tech standard and options scheme. When you think of merchandising and its origins in retail stores, standard offers don’t come to mind....
Beating the Drum on Home Tech Merchandising
One of the rules of business communications I’ve subscribed to 100% in the last few years is the need for repetition. My mind tends to fly from topic to topic and I often get bored with a message long before it’s starting to sink in with the audience. So I’m not going to make that...
The Delivery Play!
I’m a bit of a data hound. I like looking at big tables of numbers, applying formulas to them and identifying patterns and big picture changes. Maybe that’s the lure of the construction industry, economics and baseball for me. There are so many statistics to slice and dice and play with. Did you know Lou...