Originally Posted by skinj:
“The retailers can do as much training as they want, but if they have no control of the people that can sell their kit”
AFAIK that wasn't actually the case. There were dealer criteria such as financial status, display areas, signing up yo a demo stock plan and commitments to minimum stock holding and forward order plans, commitments on advertising and having a proper engineer on-site. Now as long as a new business could meet those criteria then there was nothing that a manufacturer could do to prevent their product going on sale. Of course, if the new dealer ran the account badly then the dealership agreement could be revoked.
Things changed somewhat after the abolition of RRPs and particular as companies started to trade more under the distance selling regulations. There have always been discount retailers. Back in the 80s and 90s magazines such as What Video had pages of adverts from London based retailers offering big lumps off the latest and best reviewed products. A lot of those prices were fictional because either there was no stock to back it up or there were other conditions or factors to weigh such as delivery costs which ate in to those savings. But there was still price competition.
[quote=skinj;81609724]The retailers can do as much training as they want, but if they have no control of the people that can sell their kit, all the money invested by proper retailers in quality staff & proper showrooms is just flushed down the toilet by the guy next door in a garage selling the same kit for 15% less as they don't have the same overheads.
It's a ridiculous situation where someone can spend 45 minutes in your store touching, using, evaluating and choosing a product, then look at their phone and immediately see you're £50-100 more expensive than cheapertvs.co.uk or budgetassappliances.co.uk and ask for a discount without caring about the service and time they've already had from you or the service we would give after purchase.
Some people do value the face-to-face aspect of buying things and the after care that is provided but these are dwindling as people are force fed the idea of cheaper is better.[/QUOTE[quote=skinj;81609724]The retailers can do as much training as they want, but if they have no control of the people that can sell their kit, all the money invested by proper retailers in quality staff & proper showrooms is just flushed down the toilet by the guy next door in a garage selling the same kit for 15% less as they don't have the same overheads.
It's a ridiculous situation where someone can spend 45 minutes in your store touching, using, evaluating and choosing a product, then look at their phone and immediately see you're £50-100 more expensive than cheapertvs.co.uk or budgetassappliances.co.uk and ask for a discount without caring about the service and time they've already had from you or the service we would give after purchase.
Some people do value the face-to-face aspect of buying things and the after care that is provided but these are dwindling as people are force fed the idea of cheaper is better.[/QUOTE
Originally Posted by skinj:
“The retailers can do as much training as they want, but if they have no control of the people that can sell their kit, all the money invested by proper retailers in quality staff & proper showrooms is just flushed down the toilet by the guy next door in a garage selling the same kit for 15% less as they don't have the same overheads.
It's a ridiculous situation where someone can spend 45 minutes in your store touching, using, evaluating and choosing a product, then look at their phone and immediately see you're £50-100 more expensive than cheapertvs.co.uk or budgetassappliances.co.uk and ask for a discount without caring about the service and time they've already had from you or the service we would give after purchase.
Some people do value the face-to-face aspect of buying things and the after care that is provided but these are dwindling as people are force fed the idea of cheaper is better.”