IoT Sales

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How many companies are focusing on IoT? Are you marketing for it? Is it plastered on your Vehicles that you are a IoT specialist with a short list of devices? I don't see many electrical contractors around here market it, and it makes me wonder If we are missing out on something. There are so many things that can be connected to the internet these days, and I think many electrical contractors are missing out on this opportunity. I would like to get some feed back how you market this if you do or if its even a part of your business. Forgive me if this has been beat to death.
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kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
How many companies are focusing on IoT? Are you marketing for it? Is it plastered on your Vehicles that you are a IoT specialist with a short list of devices? I don't see many electrical contractors around here market it, and it makes me wonder If we are missing out on something. There are so many things that can be connected to the internet these days, and I think many electrical contractors are missing out on this opportunity. I would like to get some feed back how you market this if you do or if its even a part of your business. Forgive me if this has been beat to death.
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Some specialty items maybe would be worthwhile pursuing, most of them however people are buying rather cheap on Amazon and they are plug and play type items and don't need an electrician to help with installation.
 

mopowr steve

Senior Member
Location
NW Ohio
Occupation
Electrical contractor
With all these “toys” how does one keep up or truely endorse these products. I mean do you really want to chase any problems with this stuff?
 

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
With all these “toys” how does one keep up or truely endorse these products. I mean do you really want to chase any problems with this stuff?
That also. Many problems are going to be with user settings, or if it is equipment failure, not much will be serviceable it will just be replaced. If you are selling it, clients will expect you to solve problems, and won't expect to pay most of the time either. If you are not taking a big markup on initial sale it will kill your business, if you do take a huge markup many will just buy cheap stuff on Amazon, which is better anyway - you may still have to do some wiring from time to time but you don't have to cover the warranty on the cheap device they purchased.
 

hbiss

EC, Westchester, New York NEC: 2014
Location
Hawthorne, New York NEC: 2014
Occupation
EC
Forgive me if this has been beat to death.

Yeah, we beat it to death for about one second. There is a reason you don't see anybody marketing it. IoT is what I like to call "fascinating to the ignorant" Just another techie toy. If someone feels the need to be notified on their phone when someone flushes their toilet when they are not home, I guess you're the man to call. :happyyes:

In short, it just hasn't risen or evolved to where a professional would make any money selling it.

-Hal
 

brantmacga

Señor Member
Location
Georgia
Occupation
Former Child
IoT Sales

I think there is some opportunity there, but in my opinion you’d really have to focus in on the setup and integration side of it. The problem for me is that there isn’t a pro channel that I’m aware of for sales & support.

The only thing I’m selling are Legrand home control, IP cameras, networking, & audio systems, and while they integrate with other brands, I’m not selling or supporting any accessories. I’ll let the customer purchase them and set them up with my system, but if anything stops working with them, I’m not offering tech support on them. They’ll have to pay for a truck-roll to get me out there if it has to be reprogrammed to work with the Legrand system. This would be things like door locks, t-stats, security, etc...

My phone rings enough as it is on the items I’m selling; any time there’s an issue with a scene not working correctly or a switch suddenly drops out of the system, they’re calling me. Or if the wireless AP’s are acting funny. For most things I can remotely login and fix them. Usually it’s just a remote reboot of the system, or they’ve somehow managed to delete a scene I’ve programmed. The thing I like about the Legrand stuff is that they offer tech support directly to the homeowner, so the customer can call Legrand directly and have them deal with it instead of me taking time to do so. And I have a sales rep for my region I can call on if I need help with something.


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gadfly56

Senior Member
Location
New Jersey
Occupation
Professional Engineer, Fire & Life Safety
Yeah, we beat it to death for about one second. There is a reason you don't see anybody marketing it. IoT is what I like to call "fascinating to the ignorant" Just another techie toy. If someone feels the need to be notified on their phone when someone flushes their toilet when they are not home, I guess you're the man to call. :happyyes:

In short, it just hasn't risen or evolved to where a professional would make any money selling it.

-Hal

There's a blog I follow, and the grizzled IT fellow who runs it calls IoT the "Idiocy of Things". His belief is that it is about the fastest way invented to allow folks to hack into your home network.
 
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