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The integration industry is full of technically gifted people who find the business side of their work uncomfortable. Selling feels like a word that applies to someone else. Marketing means spending money they are not sure they have. Leading a team is something they will get to once things settle down.
Daniel Grozdan has spent most of his career watching that play out. After years in retail, national account management and a senior role at Samsung, he now manages marketing across 12 brands at Canohm and writes for Connected Magazine. His view, developed across a long time on the distribution side of the industry, is that the integrators who build good businesses are rarely the ones who know the most. They are the ones who have figured out how to talk to people.
This conversation covers the part of running an integration business that nobody trained you for. What AI is actually useful for, and where it gets in the way. How to think about sales when the word itself makes you uncomfortable. What a discovery conversation should do that most integrators skip. How to find your ideal customer when your instinct is to say it is anyone with a house. What marketing actually costs, and what it costs you not to do it. What metrics matter when going viral is not the point. And what the one thing an integrator could do this week to be more human in the way they run their business.
In this episode
• What Daniel means by the human element, and why he thinks AI makes it more important rather than less
• Whether sales can be taught, and what happens when you take the sales element out of a sales conversation
• The ideal customer profile, what it is, why most integrators think their customer is anyone, and how to find out who it actually is
• Finding common ground before you try to find common business, and why that order matters
• What marketing is, and why most integrators mistake it for advertising spend
• Where to start with social media if you are time poor and have never done it
• What metrics actually matter for a small integration business, and why going viral is not one of them
• What to do if you will not use social media and do not want to
• Whether old school marketing, print, letter drops, physical mail, still has a place in 2025
• Common mistakes Daniel sees in how integrators approach sales and marketing
• Reverse engineering a business goal, and why writing the number down changes how you think about everything else
• The one thing an integrator can do this week to be more human in how they run their business
Sponsors
ADI is one of Australia's largest distributors of security, audio visual, smart home and low voltage products. Its branch network, online ordering and technical support give integrators access to the brands and stock that keep jobs moving.
Bluesound delivers high resolution wireless audio across multi-room systems, home theatre and streaming components, built on the BluOS platform. Distributed in Australia by Amber Technology, the range is designed for integrators who need reliable network audio that scales from a single room to a whole home.
Somfy is a global manufacturer of motorisation and automation solutions for blinds, curtains, awnings, shutters and screens. With more than thirty years in Australia and New Zealand, Somfy supports integrators across residential and commercial projects with motors, controls and the TaHoma smart home hub.
Kolosseum provides design and documentation services built specifically for integrators. From system design through to as-built documentation, the team works as an extension of your business so the paperwork stops being the thing that holds a job up.
Connected Magazine is Australia's trade publication for the custom installation and smart home industry. It covers the products, projects and people shaping residential and commercial integration across the country.
