Andy Douglas, MD of Timeguard, advises electricians as to the reasons why upselling is about better, not bigger.
There’s more to upselling than just making a bigger sale. It’s also about making a better sale – giving the customer a superior end result. In turn, that leads to winning their trust and repeat business, and generating the recommendations and good online reviews that are increasingly important in this business.
So far so obvious. Now your challenge is to be one step ahead of your customers’ needs, and to be ready with winning ideas.
As we enter the warmer months, the outside of buildings, security and courtesy lighting will stay in demand. You’ll probably come across a mix of customers who are after installations for the first time and those that have, shall we say, been disappointed with the basic installations they may have had and are ready to upgrade.
Customers who’ve been disappointed with reliability and performance in the past may well have been given standalone lights without any real attention to specification. Is the light too bright/too dim? Does the detection field cover the right area? Maybe they needed a floodlight that provided better illumination of a more accurate dretto zone? Would it make sense to add on slave lights so that neglected side alleys are safely lit up as well?
Mix and match
With the Timeguard LEDPRO Range you can mix and match floodlights of different powers with plug-in PIRs, or photocell or RF switches and use ready wired terminals to loop out slave lights. Now, you can also add security camera functionality with no extra wiring or installation time. Our LEDPROCAM unit pioneered that as an affordable combination by combining the PIR switch with a Wi-Fi controlled camera in ONE single unit that plugs into a floodlight.
If looks are the issue, choose products with better appearance – there really is no need to compromise as you can get pretty and tough in the same package. Why would you stick an old glass-fronted floodlight on someone’s wall when you can have low profile, windowless designs? Pure white versions, where available, will be almost completely camouflaged against a white soffit board.
In damp areas or coastal regions with harsher sea air, you can choose anti-rust-free designs to help avoid early corrosion or those tell-tale wall stains.
Never forget the popularity of low-profile bulkhead lighting either. It’s probably more popular in commercial settings but that doesn’t mean customers have to settle for utilitarian looks. With design options in round and oval die-cast cases, with and without protective cross bezels, and polycarbonate lens designs, the potential for retrofitting to replace older models or installing from scratch is massive. You can also add automatic switching with outdoor PIRs.
Of course, not everyone wants floodlights, especially if their main priority is decorative and courtesy lighting. So for ‘front of house’, you might want to suggest carriage lanterns with the added value of automated PIR switching, and maybe choose half lanterns for flush fitting. Or you can recommend stylish black or stainless steel up/downlighters, with or without PIRs.
Just be sure to look for good quality black metallic or stainless-steel designs that will look good for years and make sure they’re adjustable so people can direct light where it is wanted. Looking ahead to summer, you could also offer an easy way of lighting decks and steps with no messy wall-channelling, as step lighting is another nice option.
Browse Timeguard’s 2023 product catalogue online here
