• Type:
  • Genre:
  • Duration:
  • Average Rating:

Josh Christian

Integrators, Trust, and the Trades, Pt. 2

Logo
Integrators, Trust & the Trades, Pt. 2

Integrators, Trust, and the Trades, Pt. 2

related articles

“We want the other trades to see HTA Design Partner integrators as designer/consultants and not as just another contractor”

Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on Cineluxe

The HTA has introduced two programs meant to dramatically change the working relationship between integrators and architects, builders, and designers

by Josh Christian
March 29, 2023

The Home Technology Association (HTA) has recently taken a big step in bridging the gap between custom integrators and architects, designers, and builders by introducing two different designations—the HTA Design Partner and the complementary HTA Technology Partner. The Design Partner is the next evolution in how the association is helping integrators get invited to projects earlier. 

We interviewed architects, designers, and builders to find out what keeps them from bringing integrators onto their projects at the earliest stage—what in architectural speak is called the schematic design phase. One of the biggest reasons is that they didn’t know there are integrators that can be hired as a technology consultant. Trade partners need consultants and designers for certain aspects of the home, so they’re happy to learn that there are design-centric integrators who create drawings that can be made part of the spec for the project. And they appreciate the fact that design-centric integrators will seek out their opinion on the visible technology items. Knowing that qualified integrators offer this encourages the trade partners to see the integrator as a consultant/designer instead of as just another contractor, which is a big distinction in their eyes. It took me years to grasp this, and only fully set in when I was a pure technology consultant and designer with Axiom Design for 18 months.

Almost every HTA Certified integrator does design and engineering, though their trade partners are often not aware of this because most integrators don’t bring it to the forefront in their marketing. So we encourage them to get the word out. Architects and designers love this because it’s easier to get a client to say yes to a small initial design fee than to an $800,000 proposal. And it gives the integrator a chance to use the discovery phase to get to know the client, understand how they live, and educate them about their options and show they aren’t just there to push products.

We’re encouraging integrators to get paid for their design work, which too many of them give away for free. Architects and designers know that other professionals they may bring to their projects, such as lighting designers, MEP, civil engineers, and electrical engineers, charge for their design work. So should integrators! If they give their design work away for free, how will these professionals value what they’re providing? They’re cheapening their value in the mistaken belief that they must do free design work. Anyone leery of doing this can offer to credit back all or a part of their design and consultation fees if the client hires them for the rest of the job. The great news is that the close ratio on these projects is typically 90% or greater, as the integrator will have created a relationship with the client at this point. And if they’re good at what they do, the client will see that the integrator has their best interests in mind.

One of the big goals of the HTA Design Partner designation is to change the perception that all integrators are just there to push an agenda. Architects, builders, and designers tend to think of integrators as being pushy, trying to sell the client on things they don’t necessarily need. So we asked them what they would need to see from an integrator before they could recommend them, and then we came up with what we call our Rules of Engagement or Code of Conduct—11 things members of the Design Partner program need to follow when interacting with clients and the trades. Some of it is common sense—things like telling them how to work with the trades collaboratively and showing the kinds of drawings they should provide. And we tell them that instead of assuming what the finish is going to be or what keypad style someone might like, they should make sure to show these things to the architect or designer or whoever is referring them to the project and get their input.

Nearly 60% of our members have opted into the Design Partner program since we rolled it out mid January. But the program also has a flip side—the HTA Technology Partner designation—because there are things architects, designers, and builders do that can make it difficult for integrators to do their job. The Technology Partner designation teaches them how to work with integrators in the most productive way possible. We show them that bringing an integrator into a project early can help avoid things like change orders, project delays, wall acne, and other potentially costly problems and aesthetic compromises. And we explain how an integrator can benefit each of the trades, because of course each has different needs and they might not understand what an integrator can do to help them.

We want the other trades to see HTA Design Partner integrators as designer/consultants and not as just another contractor. We tell the trades that if we bring them integrators who can perform at this higher level, those integrators need to be treated on par with their own trade. For instance, an integrator needs to be able to present their proposal directly to the client, not through the other trades, and payments need to be above-board, not under the table. In other words, the partners need to address the things integrators have told us the other trades do that can make their job more difficult. We’ve told the trade partners that if they’re willing to work this way with integrators, we will provide them with integrators who are qualified to collaborate effectively with them.

The HTA Technology Partner is a free program any architect, designer, or builder can choose to opt into once they’ve reviewed and agreed to the five points. Participating in it shows their clients and the other trades that these partners are in a position to help address all of the client’s technology needs instead of just burying their heads as if technology doesn’t exist. Architects, designers, and builders get shopped just like integrators do, and seeing that someone is a HTA Technology Partner can be the thing that gets a client to go with them instead of someone else.

We’re really proud of having created this framework for building a properly respectful collaborative relationship between all the trades, which will help our members get hired in the earliest phases of a project. And we’re looking to establish ourselves as the leader in helping up-and-coming integrators learn how to portray themselves to architects, designers, and builders, which will go a long way toward changing the perception of the industry in general and help integrators be seen as professionals on par with the other major trades.

A technology enthusiast since he was a child, Josh Christian entered the home technology industry in 1995, soon joining a firm that he helped grow into one of the largest custom integration companies in the industry. In 2017, co-founded the Home Technology Association and became its CEO, bringing his years of experience as an integrator, marketer, and consultant to fulfilling the Association’s goals of identifying the top home technology installation firms and bringing them the recognition they deserve.

“One of the big goals of the HTA Design Partner designation is to change the perception that all integrators are just there to push an agenda”

Integrators, Trust & the Trades, Pt. 2
Integrators, Trust & the Trades, Pt. 2
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

© 2023 Cineluxe LLC

Integrators, Trust, and the Trades

Integrators, Trust & the Trades

Integrators, Trust, and the Trades, Pt. 1

related articles

“Once a client learns there’s a standard for whatever it is they’re purchasing, they tend to seek out that standard if they care about quality”

Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on Cineluxe

On how HTA Certification encourages architects, designers, and builders to make qualified integrators part of the design team from a project’s inception

by Josh Christian
March 27, 2023

One of the biggest goals for the Home Technology Association (HTA) since its founding in 2017 has been to bridge the gap between integrators and architects, interior designers, and builders. The first way we did this was to build the HTA certification standard so integrators who meet it have a legitimate way to differentiate and elevate themselves from ones who shouldn’t even be allowed to bid on bigger projects because they don’t have the experience or are just all about the quick buck.

HTA certification has already served as a great way for an integrator to quickly establish a trust relationship with trade partners like designers, architects, and builders. When I began my career as an integrator in the late 1990s, the trade partners tended to bring integrators into a project at the very last minute, so it took me a long time to create enough trust for them to refer me on a project. I would sometimes have to be at it for two, three, even four years. Now, with HTA certification, an integrator can point to the certification standard on our website and it builds credibility.

I didn’t realize back then that the trade partners’ mistrust was often well-founded. In my naivety, I thought a decent number of integrators were good—maybe 50 percent good and 50 percent not so good. And I was shocked later in my career to discover that it’s more like 10 percent are top-performers and 90 percent so-so or worse. It took a while for architects, designers, and builders to hire my firm because they were lumping me in with all the bad integrators by default. Their assumption of integrators often was “guilty until proven innocent.” I worked hard to earn their trust. So when my company would win awards or was published in a magazine, I’d show off our work and build trust that way.

The HTA certification standard helps the best integrators build that trust and credibility much quicker. Since only about 10 percent of integration firms will meet the HTA standard, our members can leverage the fact that they’ve been certified to tell their trade partners, “Hey, you don’t have to trust me that we’re a good firm—we’re HTA Certified.” The integrator will then share the HTA Certification standard with them, and this has proven to build trust and credibility. We help our dealers with a powerful elevator pitch that works. Some of them have even been able to convince their architect, builder, and designer partners to require HTA Certified integrators on their projects.

All integrators have experienced this situation: The client seems to be OK with their price, and everything is going really well. But at the 11th hour, the client goes out and gets another proposal that’s significantly cheaper because they went to someone who’s not qualified for the project. Of course the low-ball proposal is a different scope, it’s inferior product—all the usual suspects. The integrator is left defending their legitimate proposal against one that shouldn’t even be considered, which creates a terrible situation because the builder/architect/designer doesn’t know what to say to the client except, “I know this industry’s got some problems, but please trust me and use my guy.” But they typically defend their integrator of choice up to a point and then relent to the client. If the integrator leads with the fact that they’re HTA Certified, shares the elevator pitch, and points the client to the HTA standard, though, clients tend to shop around much less, especially when the integrator uses the HTA technology budget estimator to share realistic installed costs first. The chance of losing a deal to a low-baller goes down drastically. And if they do lose that client, it’s one they don’t want anyway. It’s better to spend time with clients who appreciate quality workmanship and customer service, not ones who are pennywise and pound foolish. Those clients always turn out to be nightmares.

HTA certification gives the architect, designer, and builder ammunition to hold firm and say, “Hey, I only work with HTA Certified integrators.” They can send the client to the HTA website to learn what certification means—which then makes the client wonder, “If this other company is so good, why aren’t they certified?” Educating trade partners about the HTA certification standard really works. The smart integrators understand this and use it to their advantage.

Think about how standards affect us in our everyday lives. We expect to have a great dining experience if we select a Michelin star-rated restaurant. We expect our vehicle to be safe if it receives a five-star safety rating. And we expect a mechanic to be competent if they’re ASE certified. We pay more for GIA or EGL-rated diamonds as their value has been determined by a defined standard and rated by professionals. That is what HTA certification is doing for the CI industry.

Some integrators believe the Home Technology Association and the HTA certification standard need to be household names for them to have any value, which is absolutely not true. Once a client learns there’s a standard for whatever it is they’re purchasing, they tend to seek out that standard if they care about quality. Don’t believe me? For those of you who don’t know what the GIA or EGL diamond rating standard is (in my estimation, about 40% of men don’t know), stop by a jeweler and tell them you’re looking for a quality diamond for your wife or girlfriend. Very early in the jeweler’s qualifying questions, you’ll be told about GIA or EGL, or both. Once you hear the pitch, I’m about 99% sure you’ll be sold on it and will most likely choose the rated diamond, even though it costs more. Clients will do the same for HTA Certified dealers. Let that sink in for a moment . . .

In Part Two, Josh discusses the HTA Design Partner and Technology Partner programs, which are meant to make integrators more credible for clients and help strengthen the relationships between integrators and their trade partners.

A technology enthusiast since he was a child, Josh Christian entered the home technology industry in 1995, soon joining a firm that he helped grow into one of the largest custom integration companies in the industry. In 2017, co-founded the Home Technology Association and became its CEO, bringing his years of experience as an integrator, marketer, and consultant to fulfilling the Association’s goals of identifying the top home technology installation firms and bringing them the recognition they deserve.

The Home Technology Association website

“It’s better to spend time with clients who appreciate quality workmanship and customer service, not ones who are pennywise and pound foolish. Those clients always turn out to be nightmares.”

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

© 2023 Cineluxe LLC

The Guys Who Get Design

The Guys Who Get Design

The Guys Who Get Design

related articles

“since everyone is more reliant on technology than ever, clients, architects, designers, and builders don’t fight that conversation as much anymore”

SAV Digital Environments, Bozeman, MT

Sign up for our monthly newsletter to stay up to date on Cineluxe

The HTA’s Josh Christian talks about his efforts to make integrators more design savvy and to get architects & interior designers to bring integrators into the design fold

by Michael Gaughn
February 28, 2023

As technology becomes more and more deeply woven into the fabric of the home environment, the need increases for professionals who can integrate it not just seamlessly but with some flair. But while architects and interior designers will turn to custom integrators to supply the required wire and gear, they tend to cast a wary eye in their direction when it comes to anything involving design, seeing the integrator’s efforts as more a necessary evil than a desired complement to their work. The upshot is that integrators tend to find their involvement in the overall creation of a home minimized, and postponed in the process for as long as possible, which often leads to major changes and delays that can bring construction to a frustrating and expensive halt.

Josh Christian is working to change all that, using his organization, the Home Technology Association (HTA)—which was created to separate the custom integration wheat from the chaff—to not just help integrators become more design savvy but to urge architects, designers, and builders to engage those HTA integrators who have their design act together from the very beginning of the planning of a home. Below, Josh talks about how this effort arose from his own early years as an integrator in the LA market and how he and his organization have made some headway but still have a ways to go.

Is it fair to say that integrators are often left out of the design loop until it’s too late to have any meaningful impact?

Typically speaking, yes, that’s a big problem for integrators. Bringing them in too late leads to all sorts of problems. It means a lot of the client’s technology wishes will be compromised, which often leads to having to do a change order or an expensive retrofit and other delays with the project.

Is there a subset of integrators who have figured out how to ensure they’re in there early, and do they have any strategies that are the equivalent of waving their arms and saying, “You’d be crazy to start without us.”

My guesstimate of all the integrators out there, less than 3% have figured this out in any meaningful way, where it’s a serious goal of theirs to improve their working relationships with architects, designers, and builders. The successful ones are just doing really great marketing business practices. They’ll join the associations for those trades and use them to meet up with the builders, designers, and architects in their community. They’ll also reach out and connect on social media.

That’s what I did when I got into the luxury end of custom integration back in 1998 working with DSI Entertainment Systems. I did a lot of research to find out who were the top architects, designers, and builders—I’m just going to call them “trade partners,” to make it easy—and see if any of them were in magazines like Architectural Digest. I’d pick up the phone and call and and even literally drive by—good old door knocking—and introduce myself as an integrator that understands them.

Where many integrators fail is that they talk all about “me, me, me”—O, we’re the best integrator in town; we do this, we do that; we do home theater, we do home automation—but they don’t talk about their process so much and show that they respect what their trade partners do. Because it’s really important for an integrator to be able to think like the people they work with. Those other people typically aren’t interested in audio, video, or controls, and because of that they think their clients don’t care either. So integrators shouldn’t talk about those techie things when they introduce themselves but should instead present themselves as a solution to their client’s technology needs, because the truth is that there’s going to be technology in every single home their trade partners are working on, even if a client’s not a techie person.

At a minimum, a home needs to be prewired; it’s probably going to have a network and the client is probably going to want robust wi-fi, and they probably want a security system or a surveillance system. So it’s best for an integrator to say, “Hey, I’m a solution provider. No matter how simple or how complex, I’ll help design the client’s technology needs into your plans and make sure everything gets installed in the best, most aesthetically pleasing way possible. And if any of our products will be visible on the structure or in the interior, I’ll get your input so you’re OK with the way they look.” The trade partners love that, because they’re been included in the process.

That’s how it started back in the late ‘90s, just showing empathy. Today, the better integrators have learned to pique the interest of their trade partners by first talking about things most likely to be on the client’s mind—things like wellness, energy management, and motorized shading and lighting. If integrators can position themselves as system designers who know how to integrate these priorities into their trade partners’ plans, they’re seen as a valuable designer and consultant and not just a contractor or sub-contractor who’s only there to install something and leave.

Do you find that there are many integrators who have a strong grasp of design?

The awareness still needs to come up with that quite a bit. When I started with the Home Technology Association, I expected to find that many more integrators are doing this than they are, so we’re providing guidelines to help the ones that aren’t yet performing at that level to show what the architects, designers, and builders want out of them. It’s slowly getting better but it has to happen a lot quicker.

Interior designers used to want nothing to do with technology because they saw it as just gumming up what they were trying to do, which frequently led to tension between them and the integrator. Younger designers and architects seem much more comfortable with the technology and are more willing to accommodate the integrator. But what’s your recent experience been like? Is it still a battle to get designers to accept the tech?

It is a bit of a battle but it is getting better. It’s important to remember that back when I got my start in this, the technology tended to be a lot more obvious, a lot less flexible, a lot more expensive, and wasn’t as central to people’s lives. But now everybody is effected by technology, and since everyone, including the architects, designers, and builders themselves, are more reliant on it than ever, the clients and trade partners don’t fight that conversation as much anymore.

Are you aware of many integrators who have interior designers on staff?

I know very few. I think there are maybe two integrators out there who have one on staff. And I think the reason it’s uncommon is that, if an interior designer knew an integrator had someone who does what they do, they’d be less apt to refer that integrator, thinking the integrator might take that client’s interior design business in the future and create a conflict of interest. Plus, it’s such a different field.

Could you cite any integrators that are particularly good at getting in there early on projects, at bringing the design elements together, and at creating a strong bond with the other trades?

There are a few in our industry that do a really great job of that. But SAV Digital Environments in Montana stands out because they do a phenomenal job of marketing. They do a lot of lunch ’n’ learns for architects and designers, they get their CEU credits, and they do quite a few events at their showroom. There’s also Joe Calise at Sights N Sounds in Seaford, New York. He’s the chapter president of the interior design society chapter there so he’s well known in the interior designer circle in New York, which is phenomenal.

Another one to call out is Jamie Briesemeister from Integration Controls in Missouri. She’s working on a showroom remodel that’s going to be a great place for hosting events for architects, designers, and builders. I’m seeing more integrators instead of moving away from showrooms, building new ones, and they’re building them to be interior designer and architect resources.

That’s a great trend, and I hope it continues, because you can talk about human-centric lighting but when you see it, it really has an impact. That’s especially true with something that’s near and dear to this industry’s heart—a high-performance home theater. Home theater has become such a diluted term. A client sometimes thinks it’s a three-hundred-dollar soundbar system they can find at a big-box store because it says “home theater.” So they think that if that’s three hundred dollars, if they spend five thousand dollars they must be getting something just ridiculously, phenomenally top of the line. But, as you and I know, you can spend multi hundreds of thousands of dollars on a home theater, if not millions. But it has to be done right. It’s not just the components—it’s the design, it’s the acoustics, it’s the space. So I like that high-performance theater is being focused on again, where there are truly wow experiences that can convince even a jaded client. Clients will spend the money when they know what experience is they’re going to get.

The Guys Who Get Design

Josh Christian

“the better integrators have learned to pique the interest of architects, designers, and builders by first talking about things most likely to be on the client’s mind—things like wellness, energy management, and motorized shading and lighting”

Sights N Sounds, Seaford, NY

Integration Controls, Rock Hill, MO

Michael Gaughn—The Absolute Sound, The Perfect Vision, Wideband, Stereo Review, Sound & Vision, The Rayva Roundtablemarketing, product design, some theater designs, a couple TV shows, some commercials, and now this.

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors

© 2023 Cineluxe LLC

Scroll to top

sign up for our newsletter

receive a monthly recap of everything that’s new on Cineluxe