Strategy in TECH...
In a national conference call with sales reps yesterday, Onkyo announced a major restructuring of their sales organization. This overhaul involves consolidating their four major brands – Onkyo, Integra, Pioneer, and Pioneer Elite – into two newly-created divisions.
Aim High Audio Sales & Marketing and AHA Distributing are separating, the company announced on Tuesday of this week. A prepared announcement from president and founder Chris Gilray, noted that the separation will allow each company to focus on its dramatic growth. Gilray will solely control the distribution business, while his partner Jon Perry will take over Aim High Audio’s representation business under the Precision Sales Group name.
We learned this week that two large New York Metro area rep firms have joined together to create a mega-rep firm offering an impressively large assortment of largely custom integration-oriented lines. The two firms are Audio Associates of Somerset, NJ and Thea & Schoen of Clifton, NJ…and the news is sure to shake up the market.
A long and proud tradition in our industry is the narrative of the individual sales rep or distributor salesperson schlepping through wind and snow to meet with one of their dealers lugging product samples and marketing materials, pitching his lines, getting a purchase order from the dealer, calling the order into his manufacturers and thus earning a sales commission. But data from Forrester Research, Inc. released last year shows that this tradition is rapidly diminishing, with market trends projecting the elimination of as many as 1 million B2B sales jobs – like those held by sales reps and distributor salespeople – by 2020.
Walled Lake, Michigan-based sales representative company QMI, Inc. (The QMI Group) held a Casino night on Sunday, August 23rd for the sales staff of ABC Warehouse, a large electronics and appliance retailer in the Midwest. Sponsored by Pioneer and Polk Audio, the Casino night capped a 90-day sales promotion that allowed floor salespeople the opportunity celebrate their success, blow off some steam, and earn valuable prizes.
Manufacturers in the CE industry have bantered this question about since the industry began. Should we establish factory direct sales teams or use independent sale representatives? Or maybe a hybrid of both? Varied levels of success and failure with any of these models riddle the history of our business. What works for one vendor may not work for another. Get 10 vendors and 10 dealers in a room and you’ll get 30 answers as to the most effective sales strategy, many of which would be valid. Which is one reason why the debate continues as to which selling strategy is best.
When Belden bought PPC at the end of 2012, Eric Bodley thought this was going to be great news for both PPC and its Perfect Path line, where since 2009 he had led the charge in establishing the cable and satellite connector company’s locking HDMI connectors into the custom integration channel. And while he would argue that this acquisition by Belden was, in fact, a good thing for PPC, he soon came to realize that there was a challenge for him that was difficult to address.
Core Brands, LLC, a division of Nortek, Inc., announced Tuesday that Atlantic Integrated, a Rockleigh, NJ-based sales representative company, has been awarded most of its brands for representation in the New York Metropolitan region and Fairfield County, CT. This appointment is effective immediately and represents a realignment of the brands under one rep firm.
Sapphire Marketing, a well-known manufacturer’s sales representative company focusing on the commercial and residential integration channels in the Northeast, held their sixth dealer “RoadShow” in mid-town Manhattan on Thursday and Friday of last week. We had the good fortune of being invited to attend the event courtesy of our friend Dawn Allcot of Crestron’s PR department…and we’re glad we went.
Aim High Audio Sales & Distribution announced that they have been appointed the manufacturer sales representative of record for Denon, Marantz, and Boston Acoustic brands for the Southeastern states. The appointment is effective immediately and represents a pretty serious expansion of brands available through the Marietta, GA-based rep firm and distribution company.
