It is nice being close to a distributor/reseller, so we can just go pick
up what we need. But if they don't have what we want in stock, then
proximity goes out the window and we have to wait for it anyway.
One example of direct sales is PacketFlux. They seem to be able to
handle it just fine. If I have any issues, they respond almost
immediately and fix it. Well, besides maybe some firmware bugs that
Forrest has to work on. :) They forgot a SyncPipe on the last order. It
was out the door the next morning. I didn't need it ASAP anyway.
Excellent customer service if you ask me.
I think being small and handling everything in-house is the best
approach. When you're at Cambium and UBNT scale, you definitely need
distributors.
As far as AF. I've missed the last one or two. It's either sick or just
too busy. My final comment is.. a week is too long to be away. Maybe if
I had minions. A two day event, fly in the night before, stay a second
night and leave after the second day is ideal in my opinion.
On 9/23/2015 12:57 PM, Chuck McCown wrote:
Debating on whether or not to do AnimalFarm again.
My moral dilemma is that I have this nice ecommerce website now but
none of the ecommerce stuff is turned on. Easy to do. But then that
starts to erode dealer sales. And also erode the relationship with
the dealers.
But it may capture sales that would otherwise be lost.
In any event, if I am planning to do some direct sales, it is not fair
to ask our dealers to sponsor AnimalFarm - if I am serious about
doing this that is.
I am half serious. Perhaps 60% serious. As time passes, that
percentage may grow.
And the majority of the sponsorship comes from manufacturers, not
dealers...
And AF is a bunch of work. It breaks even. Not what we would call a
significant profit center in any way.
But as time has gone on, all of you have been great at crowdsourcing
the setup....
