Systems and Kits

We often talk about “systems and kits” as the cornerstone of language alignment across sales, planning, and execution. After all, systems (groups of kits) and kits (individual barcodes and SKUs) integrate seamlessly with rental management software.

However, this approach is incomplete.

While systems and kits are helpful for planning — especially for operational allocations, prep sheets, warehouse pulls, and communicating with the execution team — they don’t solve our most crucial challenge: How do we sell?

Moving From Rental Think to Show Think

For years, we’ve been aware of a disconnect between how we operate and how we should sell our services. Now, we understand that “rental think” is holding us back.

Rental is our heritage. In our industry’s early days, live event companies rented individual items. Over time, they evolved into producing small shows, then bigger productions, and then complex events where systems were essential.

But we never stopped structuring operational processes around managing inventory. This approach may work well for companies renting boxes off a loading dock, but it isn’t suitable for those of us setting up equipment for our customers.

The solution? Embrace “show think,” which starts with customer-facing language. To effectively convey our value to customers, we must explain what we’ll do for them and price it in terms they understand and identify with.

We can’t achieve this if we root our proposals and quotes in rental-think language and structures. Instead, we need to use customer-facing descriptions. We have to sell the end result, not the parts and pieces it takes to get there.

The Operational Concern

I know this raises concerns for your operations team. They’re worried that a customer-facing approach doesn’t give them the information they need to plan effectively without having to detail each order once it enters the system.

I understand. If we sell to our customers with a scope of work, we don’t have an operational order pre-built that allows the ops team to look ahead and figure out what they need to sub-rent, allocate, buy, or who they need to hire.

The customer-facing approach to quotes and proposals adds an extra step that operations doesn’t usually have to take. Fortunately, there’s a solution.

The Solution: Connecting Scope of Work to Execution

We must understand the direct correlation between:

1. The language we use in selling (to convey a scope of work to a customer)
2. The systems, kits, and products that convey information to the execution team in terms they understand (so they can go out and get a show done)

Without this complete chain of information — scope of work, systems, kits, and products — we have an incomplete picture of the job. Our solution is to create a framework that connects all these elements.

Think about the last 20 small sound system jobs you did. I bet 19 of them had nearly identical equipment:

• Two JBL EON-powered speakers with tripod stands
• A small cable kit
• An 8-channel mixer
• A small audio snake
• Accessories
• Two wireless mics (plus a couple of extra handheld mics tucked away)

Instead of renting “two speakers on sticks,” why not make the above equipment list the standard system for a small sound system? It’s made up of six kits, which are made up of about 50 individual items or SKUs.

If I were a salesperson, I would sell a “meeting sound system.” When I open my rental management software to build a quote, I would type “meeting sound system.” The software would automatically describe the scope of work and the standard price and suggest add-ons.

It might look something like this:

This approach gives sales and operations the information they need, using language that resonates with both teams.

Embracing Flexibility and Standardization

I know what some of you are thinking: “But Tom, every job’s different! We can’t standardize everything!”

Here’s where we need a mindset shift.

When you sell a scope of work and fulfill it with systems and kits, you provide more parts, pieces, and capabilities than the job probably needs. And that’s okay. This built-in flexibility makes the job’s execution more successful.

Everything you do is stock. Your stock systems and kits can be combined for a custom solution, but the systems themselves are standardized. Even on rare occasions when you provide an extremely customized solution, you build a great deal of it from standard systems and kits.

Getting Started: From Solutions to Items

So, how do we implement this approach?

Start with Packages, then apply the systems and kits that complete each package. This is the opposite of our industry’s standard approach: working from items and trying to build up to a solution, customizing it every time.

This is the problem with rental and operational think: they force us to build up instead of down.

Switching to show think can be tough, but following these four steps will help:

1. Identify your common packages: Look at the systems you sell all the time and write descriptions for them. What’s the scope of work for each one?
2. Standardize your fulfillment: Recognize that you usually fulfill these packages the same way. The times you don’t, you probably didn’t need to. You just chose to because you lacked a standard solution.
3. Build your hierarchy: Create a simple structure of Packages > Systems > Kits > Items.
4. Embrace stock solutions: Avoid the idea that everything you do is custom. Your stock systems and kits are the building blocks of your custom solutions.

By defining solutions for 80% or more of your business, you’ll create better-fitting systems, more complete kits, and less concern about individual items. This approach streamlines your operations and helps you sell to your customers in a language they understand.

The goal isn’t to constrain your creativity or limit your offerings. It’s to create a framework that allows you to be more efficient, consistent, and successful in delivering exceptional live event experiences.