Top Integrators Launch HAUS, a Smart Home Training and Support Program
Founders of the high-end integration firm Xssentials are launching HAUS, a franchise-like smart-home training and support program to help integrators run high-volume security and home automation businesses.
Most importantly, key performance indicators (KPI) will be gleaned from sales, installation, revenues and other metrics based on businesses that install similar products.
“The way to be successful, to offer a great customer experience, is to work in a narrow sandbox where you can wash, rinse, repeat and raise the bar on customer satisfaction,” Daniels says. “I think if you stay focused, you can learn to perfect the process.”
Even though the product portfolio will figure largely in the HAUS model, Daniels says the group does not require members to patronize any given vendor, and HAUS itself does not
sell products.
“Getting a dealer certified on a brand is between them and the vendors,” Daniels says. “We don’t do discounts or negotiate pricing. This is not a buying group.”
Kind of Like a Franchise, but Not
In many ways, HAUS is like a franchise organization, providing the fundamental training and ongoing support typically provided by franchisors. Like HAUS, most franchisors profit from these services.
But most franchisors also profit from selling proprietary products/supplies to franchisees. In the case of Subway, for example, that might be tables, chairs, cash registers, ovens, bread-making ingredients, bags of lettuce and slices of American cheese.
HAUS might sell literature, Websites and signage but at this time the organization is not selling system “ingredients.”
Likewise, HAUS won’t be collecting royalties from members – a source of income for most franchise organizations.
One of the main benefits offered by franchisors is benchmarking. With participants all using the same or similar products and systems (e.g., ERP and CRM), the franchisor can establish and share key metrics with all members. Such benchmarking will be a hallmark of HAUS.
SPOTLIGHT: Home Automation and Control
For example, based on the aggregate data from all HAUS members, integrators should know how long it takes to install a four-zone system, and how much profit they should make. They might compare their prices with other HAUS members to determine if they’re too high or too low, given the average income in the target market.
And, here’s the key: They should be able to use the KPIs of other member companies to establish with some degree of certainty the ROI of any given investment in a HAUS-driven business.
Imagine how much easier it would be to receive financing or to sell your business if ROI becomes predictable.
It might seem the next logical move for HAUS would be to propagate its brand nationwide, creating hundreds or thousands of related businesses that could be merged or sold fairly easily – a foreign concept to the traditional custom-electronics industry. But that’s not exactly the plan.
Daniels stops short of suggesting that HAUS is a vehicle for a national dealer roll-up. Even so, he and his colleagues do want a “HAUS-certified” business to mean something.
“Over time,” he says, “we want the HAUS brand to be something that consumers equate to quality.”
RMR and The Market for HAUS
For all the momentum in mainstream home automation, few home-technology integrators have made a real business of it.
Most of the success stories come from the security industry, where integrated alarm systems, surveillance cameras, lighting and thermostat controls, automated door locks and other smart devices are sold and installed by the hundreds of thousands every year. Individual security dealers often log thousands or tens of thousands of installs per year.
But they don’t include entertainment (audio and video) in their mass-market offerings.
In the home-technology integration sector, many dealers offer affordable automation and A/V systems, but not in large volumes. Relatively few integrators install more than 1,000 systems per year, and typically those volumes come from deals with new-home builders.
Also evading the traditional home-technology channel is recurring monthly revenue (RMR), which not only feeds an installation business with cash flow, but also ups the valuation of the business.
Integrators don’t “do” RMR because 1) they don’t do monitored security systems, the most common category for RMR and 2) they don’t have enough clients to make RMR really matter.
HAUS addresses those challenges head-on, with security training (HAUS co-founder Mike Thul started out in the security business with Thul Alarm), as well as the overarching principle of scalable, high-volume installations in the broad market.
“Ebode has many security accounts today and growing fast,” Daniels says. “Security will be a major part of the program—lots and lots and lots of security.”
HAUS intends to go further with RMR opportunities, however. For example, Ebode promotes “reliable managed networks starting at $29.95 per month,” and the operation is testing other potential offerings.
“RMR is one of the cornerstones of success,” says Daniels, “and we are raising the bar.”
With this novel approach to the home-tech business, HAUS should have a bountiful market of prospects—not just from the security and home technology channels, but also from the entrepreneurial ranks, given the end-to-end support available.
HAUS Benefits
Exclusive Product & Software Access
Become a Savant Authorized Dealer
HAUS service provider solutions
HAUS business systems access
Savant in house app – auto discovery component
HAUS custom “30” minute Quote to Close” sales system licenses
HAUSlync learning systems and content management software licenses
Additional HAUSlync licenses
Learning Management Systems licenses included
Modern home automation specialist website templates
Integrated CRM/Sales/Service Software suite 2016
Business Growth & Optimization Plans
Process maps, systems and analytics for growth
Quarterly KPI metrics for performance benchmarking
Small group 2 and 3 day labs in all disciplines (Sales, Marketing, Leadership, Operations)
Advanced 2 day training session on Creating a Self-Sustaining Business
The KPI Club: market analysis, business performance analysis, operations efficiency
Marketing, Sales & Operations Playbooks
Marketing
Lead generation from HAUS participating manufacturers
Customer & employee satisfaction survey templates
Marketing roadmap and process guide
Marketing playbook, with annual updates
Customizable marketing collateral
Modern home automation website templates
Personalized brand identity and positioning guidelines
Re-targeting and re-marketing campaigns
Pre-built advertising campaigns
Showroom Design assistant
Marketing lab with advanced marketing skills development
inHAUS Marketing – your advanced outsourced marketing team
inHAUS online marketing campaign management
Sales
Sales roadmap & process guide
Integrated products and services solutions
Sales playbook with annual update
Complete customer profiles
Product/service suite pre-built
Customer experience development & methods
Quosal the “quote-to-close” discovery and proposal software tools
Sales Lab – advanced sales training
Competitive analysis and advantage toolset
Operations
Installation efficiency metrics
White glove service solutions
HR guidelines
Employlee DISC profile training
Employee Recruiting, Training & Onboarding
HAUS turnkey technician and onboarding system
HAUS turnkey sales person training and onboarding system
HAUS turnkey marketing person and onboarding system
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About the Author
Julie Jacobson
Julie Jacobson, recipient of the 2014 CEA TechHome Leadership Award, is co-founder of EH Publishing, producer of CE Pro, Electronic House, Commercial Integrator, Security Sales and other leading technology publications. She currently spends most of her time writing for CE Pro in the areas of home automation, security, networked A/V and the business of home systems integration.
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