Today, I traveled with the White Rodgers rep introducing their new Sensi thermostat. It was an exciting day and here are some things we learned:
The main selling points that
contractors found today was:
1 – no common wire so that
install is easier than others
2 – customizable literature that
allows us to put a price on a sale sheet to make it very easy for service guys
to talk about this new product
3 – the app is pretty
cool. I mean, it turns red and blue when the system is heating and
cooling.
4 – its not at the box store so
the contractor wont be accused of overcharging the homeowner for installing it.
(this was from the contractors mouths, not ours)
5 – the hot price.
Normally $130 each would mean 6 is $780 under normal purchase. We are
giving a hot price of $600 for that same 6 lot, its almost like getting 2
completely free stats.
So, where does this leave the
Honeywell Wifi, Honeywell Redlink, and Ecobee product?
In my opinion, it leaves us in a
very nice spot. I had a contractor ask me straight, you just talked up
the Redlink and I put one in my own house this weekend, why are you bringing
this to me?
So, my thoughts:
The Honeywell Wifi product with
a 6000 series ($110), an 8000 ($150), and a 9000 ($210) fits in our offering
for those guys that are Honeywell loyalists. There are not many of them,
but this offering is for them. The difference between the Honeywell Wifi
and the Sensi is that we need a common wire with the Honeywell Wifi offering and
we have tiered offering, meaning we can give them a “pretty” thermostat.
Honeywell is developing a t87 style Wifi stat to round out this offering (get
it, round out).
The Ecobee Smart Si and the
Ecobee Smart Stat are still unique as they are offering some indoor air quality
control and advanced energy savings that are not available through the
competitions Wifi platforms. And then there is the reporting that is
available on the website as well the contractor portal that allows for some
advanced communication from the contractor to the homeowner. The
reporting feature has been critical in finding problems within system
performance in the past. There have been multiple times this has informed
the contractor and myself to what is happening and we were able to provide a
solution to the homeowner at that point. As it has always been, Ecobee
will be the hardest sell in this bunch, but we have started to create some
loyalty with this line as people have experienced its easy of use.
The Honeywell Redlink systems
are my favorite systems as of right now. Forget about the gateway that
gives us internet access, the Redlink system is our wireless solution to all
sorts of problems. We can zone wirelessly, have a dual fuel system
wirelessly (because of the wireless outdoor sensor), and my favorite of all,
add wireless indoor sensors and average them together so that all the important
rooms in a house can be factored into the equipment operation. I am
selling this system as a way to solve problems. After we have solved the
system problem…hey, we can add internet access to this if you would like for
only a small bit more.
But there is still the nest
thermostat, now owned by google, that is selling about a half a million stats a
year. And here our industry is affected by it, but we get no slice of
that pie. It goes to the homeowner for a cool $250. We have not had
a good answer for this…Until today. Seriously, that is my opinion.
The Sensi allows our industry to compete against the nest on the price strategy
alone. While White Rodgers has been sitting back, they have not been
idle. They did a lot of research of where they needed to be. They
knew about Ecobee, they knew about Honeywell (Wifi and Redlink), and they knew
about nest. And today, they are here, ready to keep our market our
market.
Nest caught us off guard and we
will need to fight back to regain our ground, but it is possible. We
offer an awesome lineup that covers everywhere from simple and sensible to
prestigious. I believe when we take this message to our customers, the
message of the complete offering we have available to them, and were each one
fits, we can help our contractors win. And when they win, we win.
It is good to win.
