Page 56 - Lighting Magazine August 2018

Does size Matter?
utilities, DOT, etc. Beyond our Distributor division, our National Accounts division calls on chains in retail, restaurants, hospital- ity, and others that need the same type of lighting in multiple locations. We also have an Energy division that a acks the retro t and conversion business, going out and doing audits, presenting designs to the building owners that include a payback analysis of how much money they’ll save from an energy standpoint.
EM: Can a residential lighting rep easily adapt to the commercial sector?
TL: Training is the biggest thing. Salespeople on the commercial side require far more training; many of ours are Certi ed Lighting Consultants (CLC). The technical and code sides of the com- mercial business are far more complicated than what a typical decorative rep needs to know. In U.S. major markets, you’re not go- ing to be successful if you don’t have enough outside salespeople, but equally as important is the inside support sta . It’s really the price of admission to the commercial sector. We’ve got to have people inside who can do all of the things required by engineers and architects, such as photometrics, design, submi als, etc.
Among our sales team are former electrical contractors and engineers — people who got disillusioned or bored with what they were doing previously. Sales can be a very lucrative position and can increase their earning potential.
I would encourage people who may be on the decorative/ residential side of lighting and interested in a change to make that leap. It’s a very challenging business involving intense training, but from a long-term industry and job security standpoint, it’s much more stable. The larger agencies will give newcomers an education both book-wise and on the street.
EM: Has commercial lighting been as a ected by online sellers as much as the residential side?
TL: We certainly have some, but online sellers don’t really a ect us much. Commercial product websites carry a lot of basic
products online, but products sold by pure speci cation busi- nesses like SESCO are not commonly found online because they are so technical. They are just too complicated for most people to select online without professional help.
EM: What are major changes you’re seeing in the commercial market?
TL: I was coming into the commercial side at about the same time that LEDs were starting to appear. While the impact of LEDs has been signi cant on the decorative side, it had to be a complete sea change on the commercial side. Nomenclature changed, codes changed, and new tests had to be performed to determine xture e ciencies. The timing for me was a happy coincidence because everyone on the commercial side was going through the same learning curve at that time. Commercial businesses were used to small improvements with di erent lighting components, but this turned everything on its head. North of 90 percent of what we sell is LED, maybe 95 percent. There are still countless proper- ties, roadways, cities, and industrial sites that haven’t yet been converted, so it’s a wonderful time to be in commercial lighting. It’s going to take a tremendous amount of time — probably 10+ years — to fully convert everything both outdoors and inside.
The impact of LED on the commercial side will be staggering. Luminaires are now going to last between 5 and 20 years without needing to be changed. That means a massive slowdown in the number of xtures being sold. So what will lighting companies do as an alternative? Lighting xtures are becoming more than just devices to provide light. We’re hearing terms like “LAAS” (Lighting As A Service), which can function as a data collector, provide marketing statistics, o er instant store coupons, and indicate mapping for shoppers to products throughout a store, and more. Major advancements are also being made in controls on board, making intelligent xtures one of the biggest subjects in the lighting business. Everyone is watching to see what will be unveiled next — we’re entering a new frontier.
52 enLIGHTenment Magazine | august 2018
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it could be a full day’s drive to get to some of their accounts and they’re just not going to be able to see enough customers.
Our resources are deep, and we’re able to invest in tools that make us highly e cient — serious ana- lytical tools that help us determine the best course to take at each step. We also cover 100 percent of our employees’ healthcare because we don’t want them worrying about managing/a ording their ben- e ts, and we outsource all of our books and payroll to a third-party accounting rm. It’s all about keep- ing our people focused and selling our products.
EM: do you bELIEvE THAT MANufAcTurErs HAvE A prEfErENcE IN THE sIZE of A rEp AGENcy?
 Andy Burns: I believe they want to hire the agency that can generate the most sales for their brand. Is that a small agency that has ve lines and will focus 75 percent of their time on that line, or the larger rm that has 15 to 50 salespeople who are focused on 150 lines (which means you’d have to be one of the agency’s top priorities to get your share of time)? Some manufacturers have a mixture of all sizes of reps; they pick the ones they believe are the best choice in each market.