When best-selling author and architect Sarah Susanka talks about adequate home technology, she speaks in terms of environment. When builder Vern Haugen plans home-tech options for his luxury projects, he considers personal interaction. When home technology integrator Greg Simmons discusses successful sales strategies, he thinks in terms of lifestyle choices. And when home-theater retailer Michael Nelson discusses sensible home-tech investments, he stresses the family unity factor. Welcome to the new ways to package, market and sell home technology—lifestyles and relationships.
Based on exhibits, panels, roundtable discussions and educational seminars, one thing was clear at this year's International Builders' Show (IBS): Builders have discovered that home technology needs to be tied intimately to the lifestyle and work style of the homeowner.
That is good news. But it also requires builders to learn more about their customers. It means mastering relationships. More precisely, it means forming relationships between architect, builder, integrator and homebuyer. With home-tech products changing faster than architects, builders or even consumers can keep up with, there's no other way to fully understand what products and packages make the most sense for the homebuyer.
Of course, none of us are entirely comfortable forming relationships with others. Even as schoolchildren we are taught to do our work individually. Rarely does teamwork or collaboration enter into the picture. But partnerships, teamwork and relationships hold the promise of giving tech builders dramatic profit increases and definite competitive advantages.
Take the example of builder Kenny Kuykendall and integrator Greg Simmons, who are profiled in the show coverage from the IBS. Kuykendall builds upscale custom homes in the Las Vegas market. Simmons handles his hometechnology planning, marketing and installations. Because the two have formed a relationship that has extended a few years together, Kuykendall has learned a lot about home-technology products and features from his own integrator.
Kuykendall is better able to discuss home technology with his customers and architects from a knowledgeable perspective. He is able to suggest other options and packages to homeowners, based on his knowledge. And he presents himself as a builder who is more aware, more customer-focused and more flexible than his competitors. In the effort to succeed as a home-tech builder, that is what it is all about.