AV Manufacturers Reps are a vital part of Crimson AV’s workforce. They are our “boots on the ground”, and an important extension of our sales force. They help us by identifying potential customers and opportunities. They attend tradeshows and conferences and network regularly to grow our reach in the marketplace.
Crimson would like to take this opportunity to shine a light on our manufacturers reps in a spot we like to call Crimson’s AV REPertoire Review. These articles aim to highlight the focus on Audio Visual Manufacturers Representatives while capturing the essence of their work and contributions to the industry.
In this edition of our REPertoire Review, we had a chance to interview Jeff Craig and Wayne Childs from Pro Sales Agents (PSA). Find out more about Crimsons’ Southeast rep as they elaborate on why they fell in love with AV, and their project “sweet spots.”
Interview with Jeff Craig/President & Wayne Childs/ProAV Account & Product Manager of PSA https://prosalesagents.com/
Rep name & Territories covered:
PSA (Pro Sales Agents) covers AL, MS, GA, TN, NC, and SC.
History of partnership w/ Crimson AV (Jeff)
PSA is rather new to Crimson AV, we’ve grown the ProAV side of our business substantially since January 2023.
Why do you LOVE Crimson AV? (Jeff)
The team at Crimson AV comprises genuine industry experts with extensive experience. Our collaborative efforts with both current and potential resellers begin with the exceptional individuals who form the core of our partnership. These relationships are key to why we love Crimson AV. We’re also very glad to have a line with a catalog of so many different products. Crimson AV is becoming our Swiss army knife to offer integrators looking for so many different solutions. Crimson delivers on that.
Besides Crimson, who’s your biggest brand crush in AV? (Wayne)
We’re pleased to have Mersive onboard with PSA. Mersive is a great company to work with, from the manufacturing side to the integration channel, and finally to the end user side – we’re big fans! Another big hit with the resellers is PureLink, they have so many high-quality AV distribution switchers, extenders along with the best AV over IP products, and unmatched service and support.
What’s are some emerging trends you’re most interested in? (Jeff)
We’re seeing large project opportunities pairing up Crimson into the interactive display applications and are glad to be able to utilize Crimson in large format video applications along with the hybrid classroom spaces and huddle rooms. The hybrid classroom spaces, and huddle rooms have been a growing part of our business.
What is your group’s biggest strength? (Jeff)
We have relationship focused territory reps that have been at collectively for decades. We’re involved with some of the highest profile projects in the southern US. In 2023, we’ve freshened up our mix of ProAV lines and offer an entire package of complete integrated systems along with system design help as well.
What’s your favorite part of a project? Or most challenging? (Wayne)
Our latest high profile entertainment project was completed at the Tin Cup Grill in Georgia. It included the need for control capabilities, video and audio distribution and DSP in a restaurant bar scenario. We found a specialized control system designed for sports bars and integrated it into the project to become the icing on the cake for that project. The sound was completed with Atlas Atmosphere. The video switching and routing were all done with PureLink, and the control was with a company out of FL called GameView. We’re becoming more involved with projects where we can offer our customers completely integrated systems from “soup to nuts”
What is one way you always prepare for a project? (Wayne)
We start with a formal system design, and BOM, sometimes we’re more involved with that part of the project and other times the integrator has that portion covered already. We do frequent Team, Zoom and conference calls and site visits along with in-person conference room meetings. Our goal is to keep everyone involved, updated and on the same page. We also follow through as acting project managers throughout our projects that we’re being brought into. All PSA personnel are proud to be teammates, and we’re also proud to represent our manufacturers. We are completely committed to offering a great customer experience, full circle.
What would be your dream project? (Jeff)
We obviously love multi-site projects where we can take tried and true systems and integrated technology and bring it into the next locations. As part of the Mersive manufacturing rep US team, we’ve enjoyed the higher ed and corporate projects that come along with offering premier wireless collaboration products.
What’s your favorite project that you’ve worked on? (Wayne)
Speaking for myself as PSA’s ProAV Product and Account manager, experienced with switching manufacturers. I like the AV switching and distribution projects, specifically AV over IP, and specifically PureLink projects. We represent PureLink from the Carolinas to Texas, it has been a refreshing change to be a part of their growth, they care about the customer and their manufacturer’s Rep.
Why do you love AV? (Wayne)
AV for me has been something that I not only love as a profession, but also it has been a big part of my personal life as well, with music production related hobbies and grown children now that are true AV nerds like me. We are also ancient video systems and game collectors.
What advice would you give to those new to the AV industry? (Wayne)
Don’t sweat the degrees and the expense of colleges and universities, if that part lines up for you, then so be it. Just get out there, get certifications and get started. Our industry currently needs young talented smart people to fill all kinds of jobs.
