Re: Acceptable time from walk-thru to quotation delivery

["Roland Moore" <roland@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I would only like to say that being creative might yield a better long term
solution for you and the customer. If the customer you serve is residential
mostly, he or she might be happier buying a single mega pixel camera
http://www.arecontvision.com/ and using their own home computer as a DVR
(for a few bucks per seat license) rather than spend the same amount on
three cheap regular cameras and a DVR. I am sure they would understand the
difference when you showed them that they could not only see the car that
drives into the driveway, but the license plate and the face of the driver
in that car as well, in real time or on recorded video. Can't do that with
regular cameras and DVR, even with 540 line cameras and digital zoom.

"Jim" <alarminex@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1173155972.656157.266490@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> On Mar 3, 2:03 pm, Cam-man <n...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Roland, not every situation calls for a $6000 NVR software and switch,
>> $1500 IP cameras, and encoders.  I know your company specializes in
>> high-end industrial, but it is just that, a specialty.  Since
>> Everfocus, Speco, and Geovision came out with mid-range DVR's; and the
>> price of decent cameras is lower a whole new market has opened up. Mom
>> and Pop stores that couldn't afford video before are now able to get
>> into a decent system that does everything they need it to.-
>
> I'm gonna agree with you on this, but from a little bit of a different
> perspective.
>
> In the last year or so, I've began responding to the many request that
> I'm getting from residential customers about CCTV. It's not the same
> market as commercial ( I used to do commercial, years ago) and in
> spite of the fact that I agree with Roland in principal ..... in
> fact ..... that principal just can't be applied to the routine
> residental and small mom and pop installations. The price point is the
> issue. Sure, you can tell them all the things that they'll not be able
> to do and about how they'll be limited in the future, but they just
> don't have the money  .... or wish to spend the amount of money that
> it would take to do all the "right" things. You can tell anyone about
> the advantages, features and benefits of a Rolls Royce, but, in the
> mass market,  no one is going to pay all that money. They'd just as
> soon buy a Hundiae or maybe even a Chevy now, and they'll live with
> what ever the future brings. A few years of operation and then the
> expense for a service call, repair or parts replacement cost, is
> acceptable and tolerated a lot easier that double the money ....or
> more, up front. Of course, you don't want to be using $69.00 cameras
> and $400.00 DVR's either. So what I've done, is picked a couple of
> cameras and a DVR, set a price point per camera combined with degree
> of difficulty, that I base my installations on ..... and do my
> estimates based on that. If someone doesn't want to pay what I'm
> asking, then they'll have to go someplace else. For my area, so far,
> the price point I've chosen seems to be working and I'm making what
> seems to be a reasonable profit. Those that choose to go elsewhere
> because of price, will get what they want also, albeit likely lesser
> quality.  However, in all cases, none will know exactly what they're
> getting for the money, because none of them have anything to compare
> it with. I've seen some pretty bad systems installed by companies and
> by DIY'rs but amazingly, they all say they're satisfied with what they
> have, even though realizing some of the shortcomings of their
> systems.
>
> Yeah, it'd be nice to sell them "the works" but as long as you apprise
> them of the level that they'll be working in, the limitations and/or
> the cost of  higher options should they think they need or more
> technology  ..... they seem to accept the limitations and are willing
> to forego the bleeding edge equipment.
>
> I spent a good part of the last ISC show talking to CCTV mfg's and
> reps. Whether anyone here has made the connection or not, all of them
> ( not including those that sell direct to the public)  price their
> equipment based on marketing information obtained from the commercial
> market. Simply because there isn't any residential and small
> commercial market yet, to speak of. So they're loosing a good share of
> the market to the direct to end user CCTV houses. Even the dealers buy
> from them.  I tried to bring home the point to every one of authority
> I could get to speak to, that they had to consider that the
> residential market was going to become a major source of sales in the
> next few years and a highly competitive market, as it always is.  And
> that they'd best be looking to designate new products and set new
> price points that would reflect what that market was going to call
> for, if they wanted to retain an installer customer base .  They
> almost all agreed, but hadn't done so as of that time.  I hope I made
> some kind of impression on at least some of them.
>
> I have to admit, I'm buying my cameras from one of these "sell direct"
> companies, but at a dealer discount. The camera is good ( for my
> needs) . The factory warrantee is there, technical assistance, the
> price is good. My distributors can't beat it, so ...... why not?
>