In late May 2021, Home Technology Specialists Nationwide (HTSN) launched a comprehensive survey of its members, which included questions related to their business, their choice in product, how they prefer to acquire product, marketing tactics, outreach efforts in the architect/builder/design community, and more. The results of that survey were compiled, analyzed and, in some instances, put up against related industry data to help produce the first-ever HTSN Member Report. Nationwide presented on the findings of the report during the HTSN Member Meeting at PrimeTime in Nashville.
“Conducting a report like this allows us to get more information about a broad range of topics that we can turn into actionable initiatives for our members,” says HTSN Director Hank Alexander. “We’re in constant contact with our dealers, talking to them about business, how things are going and where we can offer more support. This report takes those conversations and turns them into data points that we can track over time. Even in this first report, it was so interesting to uncover different aspects of how our members conduct business and ways we might be able to help support them along the way.”
One of the key motivators behind the idea of the HTSN Member Report was gauging how Nationwide’s custom integration dealers held up during the pandemic. What the report found is that, not only did HTSN dealers survive one of the most volatile economic periods of our time, but they thrived.
Nearly 57% of the HTSN membership said business was up during the past 18 months, and another 36% reported that business was on par with pre-pandemic times. Less than 7% of the membership said business shrank during that period. And looking ahead, those numbers only get better. When asked how they’re projecting their custom integration to perform for 2021, over 64% of HTSN dealers expect their business to be up with another 32% anticipating business will remain flat. Just 3% of dealers said they are expecting a decline in business in 2021.
“This report really creates a baseline for the HTSN membership,” says Alexander. “We know that they’re projecting their business way up again this year. What does that look like for 2022 and ’23? How do we take those trends and calculate where the business is going? And what are the new technologies that guys are looking at? There’s just so much data and opportunity that comes out of a report like this. And by no means is it a one-and-done kind of initiative. We’ll look to build off of this and find ways to refine it and improve it moving forward.”
The report is available to download on the Nationwide Marketing Group blog.
KEY FINDINGS
- Over the past year, in the face of some of the most challenging times in recent history, HTSN dealers saw their custom integration businesses grow. More than 93% of HTSN dealers said their CI business was either up or flat during the pandemic. Another 64% of dealers report that they expect that growth to continue into 2021.
- Most HTSN dealers complete 30 or more projects per year, and they average between $10,000-$30,000 per project.
- Roughly three-in-four HTSN dealers spend between 3% and 10% of their annual budget on marketing/advertising efforts. Customer referrals (cited by 80% of dealers) remain the most popular tactic to help drive new business.
- Over half of HTSN dealers said that developing contacts with architects, builders and designers is a priority for their business. However, only 10% of HTSN dealers are proactively reaching out to members of that community.
