Team Panasonic Available to Help YOU Close Deals!

Panasonic has expanded its relationship to target AV resellers with existing and new Panaboard products.  Panaboards are revolutionary whiteboards that improve the efficiency of all types of meetings and presentations.  Standard Panaboards, Interactive Whiteboards and Standard Panaboards are all great solutions for your education or corporate sales.  When you quote projectors and related AV products for schools... or conference rooms... make sure you add whiteboards to the solution!  This is when the Team from Panasonic and Stampede will come to help!  Panasonic will do a site survey with you and will participate with you to close the sale!  It's a proven formula... when you invite Panasonic to work with you on the ned user opportunity....  you get more sales!  Typically, Panaboards are added to orders... and help expand budgets!  Talk to your sales representative about using Team Panasonic to close your next deal!

Whatever industries you look at accessory sales are the current key to success and thriving in tough economic times. Today, every consumer based industry has recognized the need for accessory sales to boost the sagging profit margins of commoditized products from cell phones to automobiles. The question is what are you doing to ensure profitability?

Here are some industry facts that may be alarming. According to CEA 50% of all accessories are sold within 30 days of the initial purchase. Less than 15% are made at the point of sale. Combine that with the fact that dealers are only capturing about 17% of accessory purchases and it is pretty clear that if you do not close the accessory sale up front your profit opportunity is going elsewhere.

Stampede introduced the Mustang line of accessories to its dealer base over five years ago. Every year since the introduction we have seen record increases in Mustang sales. Even in a tough economic environment 2008 is not going to be an exception, once again our sales have grown year over year. Still, we could do better, and so could our dealers. Examining attachment rate data shows that our dealers are not far from the national averages quoted above. 

The Mustang line was developed with one driving factor in mind, we want our dealers to have a unique branded product that delivers a higher margin prospect for every installation accessory. Mounts, cables, screens, cases, remotes, warranties the entire Mustang line will provide you with high quality and higher value than any other national brand. This allows our customers to sell a quality product that earns them much higher margins than any other brand of accessory.

However, this concept only works when you capture every available opportunity. Every quote you produce should include all of the needed accessories. Remember, these are products that your customer will need for every flat panel or projector you sell. The question is whether your customer will buy these high margin products from you, or someone else.

Paul Rehac
Product Manager

Jeff O’Heir


During a business strategy session at the CEDIA Management Conference about four years back, Ken Smith asked the roomful of custom installers how many of them called back past customers to see how their home theater and control systems were working, if they needed anything or if they were interested in seeing some new products or solutions. Out of a dozen people, only about two hands went up. One installer even asked, “You guys really call back your customers?”

Smith, president of Custom Electronics and past president of CEDIA, urged the audience to make customer call backs part of their regular business operations. It worked for his company. Earlier that year, Smith combed his database, compiled a list of past customers and set aside some time each day to call them. All of them were glad to hear from him and 90 percent said they’d love to see him regarding some type of product or service. Most of those turned into sales.

So it came as somewhat of a surprise when I met up with Speakercraft president Jeremy Burkhardt at the CEDIA Expo and asked what the most pressing topic he had on his mind. “Customer call backs,” he said, with no hesitation. A few years back, when the housing and credit crises were still on the horizon, many installers figured the business would keep coming in. Obviously, that’s no longer the case. A wealth of untapped business can be found in a Rolodex or database for dealers who take the time to organize a simple callback strategy. Broad-line CE retailers building up their own installation divisions also have to establish a callback process.

Calling back past customers would seem to be one of the most basic elements of conducting a business. But too often those basics are left until tomorrow when small business owners struggle to keep up with day-to-day operations. That’s understandable. But too many installers, dealers and specialty retailers have also come to understand that tomorrow just might be too late.

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Introduce the man who is responsible for putting the Stampede blogs up... James Cole! Though not a Stampede employee, Jim works for Viewpoints as a graphic designer. James, along with the rest of the Viewpoints team, are the designers behind the Big Book of AV, the Big Book website, the new Mustang AV website, and this year's Stampede western town trade show booth at Infocomm 08. Besides being a full-time graphic designer Jim is also a part-time monster maker.

Jim uses his computer, digital camera, and pencils to create monsters as a freelance horror illustrator. His work has appeared in illustration annuals, horror magazines, zombie anthologies, role-playing games, and even Halloween greeting cards. "I don't create just monsters but I must admit I do enjoy making scary imagery the most" Jim also admits that he has always loved Halloween and once had a 3 year as a child where he had a 3 year run dressing as a vampire. Halloween is a time when we can all appreciate a good scare or monster.

Jim's take on Halloween and the appeal of horror movies is, "I personally think people liked to be scared by things they know are not real, that's the fun of a scary movie or haunted house. Some obvious monster or menace makes us jump or cringe and when its over we laugh it off. Unlike the scary things in real life that don't wear a scary mask like the economy, crime or even the up coming election, which are not so easy to laugh about but are no less scary."



©2008 James S. Cole Illustration

New challenges call for new ideas. The economy, industry-wide margin erosion, and increasing energy costs have AV Integrators and Installers scrambling for new business opportunities and new ways to save costs. Stampede is constantly searching for new value-add products to help our customers not only survive, but thrive in today’s market. Enter the Vision Tech-Connect line of install accessories designed to save installation time, trips to the job-site, and increase margin opportunities.

Tech-Connect wall plates are a modular system of AV connections made to simplify installation and reduce callbacks or worse, costly on the job specification changes. When you trace the average AV installation from on-site inspection through quotation, order entry, processing, receipt from multiple vendors, to pre-staging and installation there are too many opportunities for something to go awry. Tech-Connect eliminates the guesswork and makes in field changes and upgrades a profitable breeze. By putting all of the connections into a modular package changes are a mere minutes of installation time. Save more by incorporating the optional cable package that is hard wired at the termination end and raw wire at the wall plate. This allows your installer complete flexibility to cut wires to length and terminate with no soldering involved.

Currently, Tech-Connect is offered in a ProAV format with optional plates for typical Home Theater installations available. There are several products coming soon, including a 20amp stereo amplifier that fits inside a dual slot modular package, a Home Theater format with digital and analog AV connections, and a table mounted modular plate that folds flush with the conference room table.

You can find more information on this product in the Big Book of AV!Better yet, contact your Stampede representative to find out about our exclusive dealer demo program 800-398-5652.

-Paul Rehac
Product Manager

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE

Port Washington, N.Y. — Market research firm The NPD Group said retail consumer electronics sales slipped 2 percent in September, allaying fears of significant declines for the electronics industry.

In comparison, CE revenue fell 1 percent in September 2007.

Last month’s dip in dollar volume followed a 2 percent gain in August, when back-to-school shopping and federal rebate checks helped stir sales.

Flat-panel TVs were the biggest gainers in September, up 10 percent in dollars and 20 percent in units. D-SLR cameras were a close second in revenue growth, up 9.5 percent, followed by notebook computers, which increased 9 percent in dollars and 12 percent in units.

“The industry struggled a little this month, it’s to be expected when the economy is slowing, but the consumers who can spend will continue to,” said Stephen Baker, NPD’s industry analysis VP. “These key categories are continuing to perform, and tellingly, these growth segments are delivering faster unit growth than dollar growth while still maintaining average selling prices of $800 to $900. Growth is slowing, but in a year with few new products to drive excitement, these high-priced staples of the technology industry continue to be in demand.”