Professional Design vs. Home Job: Bob with a Sweetwater Account
We get calls all the time from people who’ve purchased a piece of gear from an online store but can’t get it to work with their system. The thought process seems to include ideas like, the best gear prices are online, hiring an install company will be way more expensive, and YouTube can teach me to use any piece of equipment out there. The first two are definitely false, and while the last one might be true–and I recommend YouTube all the time–YouTube isn’t great at helping you understand how to integrate gear into an existing system, or which piece of gear to purchase.
Just to be clear, I love the guys at Sweetwater. We have acquired dealerships for most of the top brands in the audio, lighting, video and rigging world, but it’s nowhere near the breadth of equipment that places like Sweetwater can carry with their huge market. I have purchased equipment from them to complete designs when I don’t have and can’t justify getting a dealership. However, even with their buying power, they can’t sell directly off the website at a lower price than what we can do locally. In just about every case, we have been able to match or beat Sweetwater’s pricing for the same gear, and get it just as quickly.
On top of that, there is tremendous value in going with a local vendor for those products. If you purchase them from me, I will make every effort to make sure it will work for the purpose you intend before you buy it and I will go to great lengths to make sure you get it installed and configured correctly, including troubleshooting when it doesn’t work and lending or renting you a replacement piece of equipment if it has to go back for repairs. You won’t get that kind of support from an online store. In fact, when you call me to support something you purchased online, I’ll charge you by the hour to support it and you’ll pay the regular rate to rent a replacement. Suddenly, saving $20 by purchasing online doesn’t make as much sense.
Many of our clients are surprised by the amount of time it takes to unbox, rack, solder, find cables, configure and figure out the products they attempt to install themselves. If you have time for that, we’re still happy to sell you the products and support them but let you do all the work. If you want it done more quickly and efficiently, you can have us do it. That way it’s configured properly the first time and we can support it better because we’re not having to figure out and document what you’ve already done. Not that we get it right every time, but we will correct our mistakes (on our dime, not yours) so we leave you with a finished system, and we have support resources from the vendors that you don’t have access to.
Please don’t think for a moment that we have it all figured out. The technology in this industry changes faster than I can keep up with, and I work with it all the time! Bringing in a pro designer and installer for your project just means you’re more likely to have a complete and well thought out design, and that someone else is responsible for the headaches of making it all work. One other benefit of working with VIP is that we’re the only local production company that does installations. That means we’ve probably already done what you want to do multiple times, at a professional level and in different venues, so we have the real world experience that takes the guesswork out of your investment and avoids pitfalls.
By now you’re probably thinking, “This blog sounds more like a sales pitch than an informative article!” I can’t argue with that assessment. Our goal at VIP has always been to build good relationships with our clients. This article is more about working together on your project with people you know. Even if VIP is not your vendor of choice, I’d much rather see our clients get local, personal and relational support they can count on than to drown in the online isolation of trying to make equipment work. My favorite part of this job is helping my clients put the tools in place that they need to succeed and training them to use them well.
We’d love to help you, too. …ok, THAT was a sales pitch!
