Some Thoughts on People and Skylights
My dad started Skylight Specialists out of the back of his truck in 1980. He was selling various skylights back then, actually competing with VELUX. Then Marty Goss, who’s been with VELUX for a very long time, met with us and convinced us of the superior quality and long-term durability of the VELUX brand. After reviewing the various options, we decided that moving to the VELUX brand was more in line with our business model, offering quality and excellent customer service, allowing us to provide the best overall experience to our customers.
For the last 30 years, that’s all we’ve done: skylights. Our dealership has grown into a team of 65 employees, and we buy around USD 1.4 million of VELUX products every year. A third of our business is replacements, a third is cut-ins, and the last third is sun tunnels.
We’d like to grow from a USD 6 million to a USD 10 million business in the next two years and hit the USD 20 million mark in ten years. We share an ambition for growth with VELUX, and with some strategic and consistent support, we can unlock growth for both our businesses.
National marketing works but…
VELUX does a good job with big-picture nationwide marketing. The HGTV Dream Home partnership has had a real impact on homeowners in the US wanting skylights. However, our sales teams have shared their hands-on insights, and have said that the one-on-one conversation with a homeowner who doesn’t know anything about skylights is lacking in timely statistical data and research. There hasn’t been a wealth of material or data we can use to support the many reasons a skylight installation is a sound investment. Most of the daylight and health studies are from the 1980s. There’s not much in the way of newer research we can point to when someone asks, Why do I need this?
Same with ventilation, energy savings, or ROI. It would be great to get updated, clear information to show people all the benefits of skylights. The Indoor Generation video was good, but it’s not something you pull up on an iPad across a kitchen table. It doesn’t land in that setting.
Right now, we try to fill that gap ourselves locally, with in-house training of our sales teams, video segments we ourselves produce, and other marketing materials. It would be helpful if VELUX supported that side of marketing more, pulling together the research and creating content that’s easily used by sales teams.
More certified installers would solve a lot
The training vans are helpful, but if someone only installs skylights five times a year, they won’t become confident. That’s why it’s important to have more qualified certified installers, not just a chuck in a truck. They can make a huge difference in how the final homeowner experience turns out. One of the strong selling points of VELUX is the many options available, from shades to remotes, and the VELUX App. It’s been our experience that roofers and general contractors are not going to invest the time and energy to learn and then instruct the homeowner on all these options. This can potentially diminish the efficient use and overall enjoyment of their new skylights.
The goal is for people to interact with their skylight a few times a week. Again, our experience shows that with older skylights, or new ones installed by non-certified contractors, customers rarely touch them. I’m a Skylight Specialist, and even I wasn’t using mine that much until I got the VELUX ACTIVE app. Now my skylights open and close all day long. I can even tell where my kids are playing because of the CO₂ levels. When you are using a solar-operable skylight or even just the shades daily in your house, it makes a big difference. We take the time to show these aspects to our customers and share our real-life experiences.
Down the road, I’d love to see skylights integrate further with home systems: AC, smoke alarms, CO₂ sensors, all of it. Make VELUX a part of the home automation and home health system. And make sure there are certified installers who can make it happen.
People need to see it
Skylights are hard to explain without seeing them. Everyone likes to see and touch and feel a skylight because it’s such a visual experience. Our male sales reps carry full windows around, but our female reps understandably struggle with a 50-60 pound unit.
I’m eager to receive the smaller, desktop-style samples to support us in making the conversation easier for our entire sales teams.
Once they get skylights…
… they don’t go back. Skylights are a bit of a ‘cult’. If people have lived with skylights, most will never live in a house without them again. A thing I hear a lot is, I wish we’d done this 20 years ago.
We had a family that debated for ages about putting in one sun tunnel. Only the wife wanted it; everyone else said no, too expensive, no point. They finally installed that one sun tunnel. And over the next three years, they added… sixteen! Sixteen sun tunnels in one house. Wow! People who started out not liking the idea at all ended up being the biggest supporters.
We see every day how much skylights change a home and how much homeowners end up loving them once they have them. We just need better tools, better data, and more consistent installation quality to help more people get to that point.
The difference they have made to the amount of natural light in the house is astounding. The skylights have literally transformed the living space from dark and dingy to bright and beautifull!
S L Hawthorne
My final comment is about people
VELUX does a genuinely good job hiring great people who stick around. Marty Goss in VELUX has been my main contact for 30 years and is still pushing things forward. That deep know-how, partnership and consistency make a difference for us.:
Photo: Danny is CEO at Skylight Specialists and was recently nominated for the NHL Hockey Fight Cancer Game. He beat his battle with cancer from 2009-2024. He loves cheering on the Avalanche and playing hockey. VELUX has sponsored a charity he works with called Dawg Nation Hockey, which is a huge success.
