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Venuetech is a household name in the Dubai AV product market, but according to technical director Elie Khairallah, being a successful distributor is about more than just sales; it’s about offering clients a consultative service.
You’d struggle to find a firm with a bigger presence in the Middle East AV distribution market than Dubai-based Venuetech. With a history spanning seven years, not only does it represent some of the most respected global manufacturers, but it has sold into some of the most high-profile projects in the region. It’s an enviable position for any business to be in, but according to technical director Elie Khairallah, it’s not an easy one to attain.
“Sales is obviously a key element to our business, we always want to increase our market share as we are a distributor after all, but that has to be backed up with our technical knowledge,” he says.
“We work very hard to make sure that we can back up what we say we can do – in this industry, it’s not just about selling a product and that’s it.
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Venuetech, which covers the whole gamut of the AV sector including pro-audio, public address, DJ and club, lighting, conference and interpretations systems, and automation segments; distributes to rental firms, system integrators, contractors and other organisations involved in the live event market - but is becoming increasingly more focussed on the burgeoning installation market.
“The rental companies are somewhat of an over-supplied market, so more and more, we’re focussing on products for the install rather than necessarily the live market. The broadcast market is very big for us too,” explains Khairallah.
And this means concentrating on markets outside the UAE, the traditional commercial hub for distributors. “Now, the UAE market is quite saturated, so the big market for us in today’s climate is Qatar, Saudi and then UAE. Qatar and Saudi have definitely overtaken the UAE in terms of the number of projects and how big the projects are,” he says.
These projects – including major sporting stadiums, theatres and conference halls – require a level of consultation that goes beyond the role of just a ‘distributor’.
“We are distributors – we don’t go straight to any projects, we don’t work on them directly – but we always try to be as close as possible to the integrators and contractors to help and support them in their projects, so that they can provide the clients with the best solutions.
Integrators, when working on a project, will have a certain design and certain specifications, so we try to provide the solution that’s cost-effective, value for money but also the right match for the project,” explains Khairallah.
“People appreciate the support they get from us when it comes to things like the design of a system, for example – that’s really one of our strong points and what makes us different to other distributors.
We don’t just sell the products - when we sell our systems, we want to feel confident that it’s going to perform to the best of its ability and in the best possible environment, so we assist in system set up and installation, in the finally commissioning and setting of the system so that we’re 100 per cent confident that it will perform to its optimum ability.”
The key to this, he says, is Venuetech’s staff.
“We have a team of three sales engineers, that support our four sales people, as well as a team of eight engineers who look after maintenance and that type of thing,” says Khairallah.
“The sales engineer must first of all understand the project needs, be able to read the consultants design and be able to produce a system from one of the lines of product that we handle that provides a complete solution. They need to know from A to Z. We have some people handling audio, some handling video and some handling lighting – there are three separate segments.”
And finding these sales engineers is all part of the challenge. “They are even more difficult to recruit than technical engineers,” admits Khairallah.
“Finding people with the right knowledge, the understanding of sales and the technical side of things is very difficult. We often try to bring in people from other markets and train them up on this side of things. That’s why I think you see quite a few former Venuetech employees now with their own businesses!” he says with a laugh.
He uses a recent project as an example of the importance of the consultation that Venuetech’s team can provide.
“At the moment we are working on an extremely large project outside the UAE that we started in July when we took their initial design and converted it into a more simple, more powerful and very modern system. When it comes to large projects that have their own design – either you comply to these specifications or you try to improve them.
And we would always be inclined to offer suggestions on how to improve them, for the client’s sake as well as our and our manufacturers’ reputations.”
This, he says, is the reason Venuetech has what he estimates to be a 35 to 40 per cent market share.
“In some products however, it could be as high as 50 and perhaps is a bit lower in other products, but overall, 35 to 40 per cent share is a fair estimate,” says Khairallah.
He admits though, that some firms in the region looking to purchase equipment still look to do so internationally rather than locally, a reality that he struggles to explain.
“Some companies over here will try and source new products overseas but really, they lose the warranty and the service and support that goes hand in hand with purchases made with Venuetech, for example,” he says.
“We see this quite often, that firms try to look internationally for products because perhaps they think it’s cheaper to do so, when in fact that’s not really the case at all.
Our prices are quite competitive. I recall one project recently for instance, where the client purchased all the equipment from the UK, and when it came to do the installation, they had difficulties with the commissioning of it, so they called us for support. So perhaps they should have just purchased from us in the first place!
“It’s not necessary to look internationally – we have all the leading and recently released gear – we are here, based locally for service and support. Our aim always is to look for the newest thing – our strategy as a company is to be a leader, to educate clients on the latest products and technologies and to always be fresh and to keep up to date with the market as a whole.”
Khairallah concedes that while Venuetech may be making inroads to providing the technical expertise and service on par with other global markets, there is still a long way to go for the Middle East as a whole to reach the same standards.
“Unfortunately, some people still compare this market to Europe when in fact, the European market is completely different, its mature, while here, it’s still developing, it still needs a lot of education and care to get even close to these other markets. In Europe, it’s much more stable distribution-wise and is more educated,” he explains.
“It’s about time. And education. The market here needs a lot of knowledge – the knowledge is just not there yet. One of our aims is the address this and this is why, every year, we conduct four to five major seminars, to address the lack of knowledge in the region. As well as this, we always try to have a presence at exhibitions such as PALME and now, InfoComm.”
And he says the development needed is not just confined to one segment of the AV market. “Both lighting and acoustics are areas that still need to be developed in the region. Certainly audio is more complex, and throws up more challenges in general.
The whole AV market in general needs its quality levels raised and this is why we are seeing more and more manufacturers come out to the region on their own accord and set up offices out here I think. There have been a lot of improvements over the past two to three years, and that’s a positive sign – we just need to keep that momentum going.”
Khairallah stands by the level of technology being produced by Venuetechs manufacturing partners, but admits that new products in today’s market are more about refining existing innovations, rather than completely new ones.
“When you’ve witnessed major revolutions like LED in the past, it’s hard to be as impressed with the changes and developments in technology we’re seeing right now. We haven’t had any huge, major innovations in recent years really, but I would say that the new line from Sennheiser, the Evolution G3 is becoming more and more popular and is being requested more and more.
It has a lot of features – it’s a very high-quality and it’s priced very competitively too, compared to other similar products out there. From Electro-Voice too, their MI market and install market products are really streets ahead of competitors too,” he says.
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FEATURED COMMENT
Wow, that's a really cleevr way of thinking about it!