Strategy in TECH...
WiiM, maker of a line of digital audio and streaming products that make a premium high-fidelity audio experience accessible to all, announced today that it is dramatically expanding its salesforce network in the U.S. It is doing this via the addition of at least six new independent manufacturer representative firms across the country.
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.
New York manufacturers representative company Audio Associates wrapped up their 2013 Dealer Expo on Tuesday and company executives said they were thrilled with the results this year – its largest dealer event ever. Audio Associates “upped the ante” by investing in a major upgrade in facilities for the Expo this year – far exceeding an upgrade the previous year by holding the event at New Jersey’s exclusive Seaview Hotel and Golf Club.
Strata-gee.com has learned that the Digital Delivery Group once again finds itself without an executive director – only six months after naming Daniel Kippycash as Executive Director at the end of December 2012. The group remains embroiled in turmoil as it was in the midst of a major change of direction and a membership recruitment drive to replace several members who had departed the group for newcomer Catalyst AV. After having been briefed on the group’s progress in late March, we recently contacted the organization for a new update and learned of the executive director’s departure.
Strata-gee.com heard this week from multiple sources that Core Brands had completed the analysis phase of its sales force consolidation, and was now executing the termination of the losing reps – and the reassigning of brands to the winning reps. Core Brands, a division of Nortek, Inc., had announced the downsizing process in a conference call with their entire sale representative network on April 19th – laying out a process for which the desired result was to create a smaller network of fewer authorized sales representative companies presenting most, if not all, of the company’s ten brands.
For those of you who were at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month: Did you see the new tablet introduced by Panasonic? Featured during the Panasonic press conference as an example of Panasonic’s innovation, the company showed a new tablet computer launching it into the tablet computer fray which is dominated by the Apple iPad…with a rapidly growing Samsung with its Galaxy Note and Tab lines nipping at its heels.
Montgomeryville, PA-based NuTech Group, a leading independent sales representative company has partnered with Qmotion, a manufacturer of automated window shades, to offer their line to Mid-Atlantic region dealers. The partnership takes effect immediately.
On Tuesday last week, much like any other day, after arriving at my office I powered up my computer and began wading through the usual 100-150 emails that greet me every morning. Some of these are client-related emails, some are personal, but most are press releases or announcements. On that day, however, one in particular caught my attention – it was from Richard Glikes of Azione and it included a link to a video which was…remarkable.
This press release caught my attention not because it was from Azione, that is an common occurrence. Rather it caught my attention because it was from Azione on a topic that I am not used to dealer buying groups concerning themselves with – sales representative companies.
Even by late-May’s standards, it was an unusually hot and humid day this week as a major contingent of the tech press gathered up in Mahwah, New Jersey at the weirdest looking Sheraton you’ve ever seen – more rocket ship than hotel. We were summoned to a press presentation by D&M Holdings that promised to be more significant than those in the past. Little did we know that the heat of the day was presaging the hot presentation that was the subject of our gathering!
[Read more…] about D&M Holdings Announces Sweeping Changes – Starting with Their Name
This week at the Alliance Expo 2012 being held in Newark, NJ by Audio Associates and their vendors, Monster (formerly Monster Cable) had a large presence with a booth that stretched down one wall, across a corner, and along another wall with an impressive showing of their product line. The Monster presence included those products for which they are best known – cables and headphones, but perhaps even more impressive than that – they demonstrated some of their new wireless technologies and systems…pointing towards a wireless future. [Read more…] about Monster’s Cable-less Future
