ProSource Seeks to Get Lighting Initiative Back on Track After COVID-19 Pause

Lighting was identified as a major focus at the group's spring summit in Las Vegas last March, but after a March-May window closed when fallout from the coronavirus hit full force, “it was very hard to get people to take on an online curriculum because they had a lot of work out there to do,” Orozco said. That period of uncertainty quickly transitioned to “gangbusters” for integrators as consumers plowed discretionary income into their homes, for entertainment systems, home office setups and home control.

A year later, dealers still have a “full plate” and are being pulled in different directions, “not just by the group or clients, but by every vendor in the industry,” Orozco said. “We’re all fighting for their time.” The good news "is that dealers are very busy,” he said, but some initiatives ProSource planned last spring are still in the starting gate.

That includes the ProSource Lighting Technology and Learning Center, a 2,000-square-foot space in the Dallas Market Center that has a delayed opening date of April 1. The recent stretch of bad weather in Texas added another crimp in the schedule because contractors are scarce. Finding a plumber in the Dallas area now “is next to impossible,” said David Warfel, founding designer of Light Can Help You, who's heading the lighting center and ProSource lighting initiative.

ProSource’s goal is to bring groups of 50 dealers to the center quarterly, where they will complete the final stage of lighting certification in a hands-on setting, after completing online training modules. “It can be frustrating because we want it to happen now because we made the investment,” said Orozco. “But we’re not on the same timeline,” he said of the group and dealers, noting integrators are limited by “human resources.” Dealers in the custom installation channel are “always capped by labor resources. Time is the biggest obstacle,” he said.

ProSource’s goal is to develop a “fast-track” to help dealers specify and sell lighting fixtures. The curriculum isn’t intended to turn dealers into lighting designers and remains a “work in progress,” said Orozco. The ProSource board identified education as an umbrella area of concentration for 2021, and lighting is a key part of it. The group sees lighting eventually being on par with audio and video as a major category for the group, he said.

Orozco wouldn’t disclose ProSource’s investment in the Dallas lighting center. Six lighting fixture brands are also sponsors: American Lighting’s Proluxe, Aspire by Wac Lighting, Colorbeam, DMF Lighting, Vantage Controls and Savant. The group is keeping the number of lighting center sponsor vendors to the six that helped fund the project who are “betting on the come,” said Orozco. “Their investments are not offset entirely by sales yet; they’re overinvested at this point.” Though a niche opportunity could exist for another vendor down the road, “that’s not something that’s near term,” he said.

Once dealers feel comfortable traveling again, they will be able to bring clients to the lighting center, said Warfel, though that’s not the primary purpose of the center. Clients spending six figures on lighting in their home want to see the lighting “in action,” he said. The space's primary purpose is to offer dealers training and marketing collateral even if they never visit, he said. The center will be the source of virtual tours with object lessons.

The pandemic pushed Warfel and his crew in more of an online direction. The center was meant to be “entirely live,” so Warfel redesigned the space to accommodate cameras and video equipment “so we can film seamlessly and make the videos better.” That includes a camera gimbal for live video walkthroughs to present a professional feel “rather than someone carrying their phone around.” Warfel is also creating content for dealers they can show potential clients to demonstrate the “benefits of great lighting.”

Warfel uses a case study to show dealers how a $33,000 lighting sale turned into a $235,000 project after adding lighting design and fixtures to a control system. “Once people understand what’s available to them and see the value in it, they are willing to spend,” he said. "Lighting is something that affects every homeowner every day.” It can bring in customers who might not be interested in integrators’ traditional offerings of TVs or distributed audio. “There will be jobs out there that are primarily lighting and controls," he said, which ProSource is banking on.

Margins tend to be lower in lighting, Warfel said, but ProSource is working on proprietary lines. “Our manufacturer partners have been working with us to develop lines just for this channel, which helps us get the higher technology devices in homes, and that strengthens the margin capabilities,” he said. “The trajectory is in the right direction whereas the trajectory for much of the lighting industry has been in the opposite direction.”

Commenting on the challenges dealers face in selling upscale lighting fixtures, Warfel said lighting has a steep learning curve: It is “a huge science and technology and not something most of them have dipped their toes into beyond controls.” The first couple of projects can be a “little painful as they learn.” As dealers gain knowledge through ProSource training, they will be able to expand sales quotas across their teams. “Growth is going to be astronomical," he said.

On what gives him the confidence ProSource dealers can be successful in lighting, Warfel referenced Savant’s purchase of GE Lighting last year (see 2005270047). “When you have a company like GE -- Thomas Edison’s company that brought us the modern light bulb -- being purchased by Savant, a company in this market, that should tell you that lighting is moving and shifting,” he said. Lighting is becoming “less of a commodity and more of a technology,” he said.

The work-from-home trend could help further the market for ProSource dealers, Warfel said. “As we start to understand how our bodies react to light, you can’t get that without intelligent lighting,” he said of the nascent wellness lighting category. As science further supports a connection between lighting and health, “we’ll see somebody like Savant be able to take [lighting] and actually make it usable and accessible to the consumer.” That science has been available for a decade,” he said, “but we haven’t had the controls to put it together and make it work for people.” That puts ProSource dealers in the right place at the right time, he said: “They know how to control things.”