CE Pro October 2021 - 30

CE PROFILE
Global Wave Integration
Steele was entrusted to build the business,
which he helped grow - thanks in part to
" We know
how to
structure our
teams and they
work very well
together because
we know their
personality types,
and I think that
alone goes a
long way. "
-Kyle Steele
getting the integrator to adopt Crestron
- while he also split a big house with a
half-dozen roommates in upscale Manhattan
Beach at the time. One time, an elderly woman
neighbor asked Steele to sit in for a meeting
she had at home with a security company
that was making an alarm system pitch. Steele
remembers Security Alarm Specialist owner
Scott Sand delivering an impressive walkthrough
and when his neighbor asked for his
thoughts, Steele asked Sand if he was hiring.
Getting Global Wave Rolling
on Its Own
That was around 2005, he says, and things
started taking off as he joined SAS and commuted
to jobs in places like the Hollywood
Hills for a client roster that floored even
someone who had been around star athletes.
" FBI agents were on some jobs because
they're such high profile, " Steele recalls.
It was Steele's court vision this time that
set the table for Global Wave Integration,
which incorporated in 2008 and now serves
the same demographic with an expansive
technology portfolio that underscores the
company's origins and DNA.
" He was really just doing alarm, but all of
his clientele were just titans of the industries
and A-listers, and I thought, you're really not
doing AV and automation - you're leaving
money on the table, " Steele says.
He proposed to start and manage a sister
integration company that would upsell those
clients into larger-scale systems beyond alarm
and surveillance and eventually, after Global
Wave incorporated, act as referral feeders for
each other's business.
" We've really helped each other grow
our own companies, and we're just a shared
resource now, " Steele explains.
The name Global Wave Integration stems
from Steele's studies and fascination about
the " golden ratio, " mathematic/science
behind why people are drawn to aesthetics,
architecture, music, etc., though we may not
really understand it in ourselves.
Also in math/sciences, waves are all around
us, and he liked Rogue Wave as a name, which
is a type of tsunami, but thought " rogue "
might have a negative connotation. Still, in
context with radio waves, sound waves and
the like, rogue waves resonated and epitomizes
that team atmosphere that's been
Learn to Identify Who's 'Pulling the Strings'
So you want to sell to a VIP client? It's Global Wave Integration's
strength, but it takes some thick skin, a lot of savvy in
human behavior and a high degree of meticulous planning.
Here's how Global Wave president Kyle Steele explains how
one big client meeting occurred, and why it is key to identify
the real decision-maker.
" A lot of the camps we deal with there could be five, six
people who think they're the decision maker. The faster you
can cut to the chase and figure out who you really need to
pinpoint.
" I went to a job and we had a meeting, and we had to have
a practice meeting before meeting with a client because it was
timed to the minute, and it was no joke. We had two practice
30 | CE Pro October 2021
meetings - one off-site and then another on-site - before
the client gets there and there's 20 people in the room.
" It's just interesting, because as soon as I walked in the room
there's someone I never met before and he's sitting in the very
back corner of the theater where we're meeting. He just had
a legal pad he sat there, and he wasn't saying anything and
I knew right away, that's the most important person in the
room. "
Steele still remembers that the meeting ran 7 minutes over,
but the client was very happy with everything. " As we were
leaving, the guy who hired us for the project goes over to the
back corner, comes back and tells us, 'He was impressed, and
that's the guy you need to impress.' Perfect. "
cepro.com
http://www.cepro.com
CE Pro October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of CE Pro October 2021
