You Can See The Biggest Threat To The Channel In The Mirror

By Andre Nataf, Senior Business Development Manager, Digital Dining

The channel's biggest threat is themselves and more specifically who they choose as partners.

Now that I have your attention what I mean by that is the world has changed and selling and servicing point of sale (POS) has become more in line with other more mature sales and service models, like selling aftermarket home windows or selling HVAC systems. In fact you can pick anything that you can think of where a company represents a manufacturer’s brand and sells it and services it in a geographical area and what I am saying will apply.

Let me illustrate my point by picking windows for homes — there are three major types: vinyl, graphite/fiberglass, and wood/composite. There are tons of local dealers and, within that group, expensive ones known for quality and cheap ones known to do the trick for the short run. My point is how do the quality companies like Pella and Anderson sell their product at three times what the others charge, they do it by knowing their product and representing their brand above and beyond the consumer's expectation of the brand. In other words from the first sales visit through the installation and with every service call afterward, they deliver beyond what their customer expects. These companies that have had competitive environments for over 50 years —  like what the POS market has evolved into — and have learned how to build highly profitable businesses and evolve with change (like the Internet and new technology).

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