Do Resellers want too much?
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When I was a small one man IT shop my clients just wanted me to buy everything for them (at least several of them did). It was easier for them. Since I was handling this business for them, I didn't consider it greedy to make a few points on those sales considering it was extra work for me.
This type of thing happens all the time too. You can become a partner with the vendor in question, the sale can be on record to the end user, but you get the bill, and you turn around and bill the client.
This is a very common practice. NTG does this with Microsoft Office 365 for example. Though in that case, I think you pay MS directly and MS send NTG a commission based on sales.
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@Dashrender said:
This is a very common practice. NTG does this with Microsoft Office 365 for example. Though in that case, I think you pay MS directly and MS send NTG a commission based on sales.
Yes, that one is a different style situation.
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@Dashrender said:
When I was a small one man IT shop my clients just wanted me to buy everything for them (at least several of them did). It was easier for them. Since I was handling this business for them, I didn't consider it greedy to make a few points on those sales considering it was extra work for me.
This type of thing happens all the time too. You can become a partner with the vendor in question, the sale can be on record to the end user, but you get the bill, and you turn around and bill the client.
So it sounds like the OP on SW was trying to double dip. Make money off both the client and Dell for each sale.
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@ntg has lots of customers that want them to handle the full purchasing supply chain. It's a hassle to have someone like NTG tell you want you need, give you specs and then throw you to the wolves to contact the vendor and get the specs right. The vendor will always try to sell you an alternative, you might not know what "equal or better" comes out to, you might not know what to do in any number of cases. Sure, you can come back to us and ask, but that's a slow, painful loop. It takes hardly any time at all to just say "okay, these recommendations are reasonable, go order it for us." That way people who know what to get are the ones doing the ordering. Makes for a smoother process and less risk.
Fixes a lot of the purchasing debacles that many companies have. Bad purchasing systems are common, especially in SMB and SME firms.
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As long as companies like NTG don't try to whole sale move toward the sales side, the current model works. i.e. only ordering for clients when the clients ask them to, generally after the consulting portion is done.
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@IRJ said:
@Dashrender said:
When I was a small one man IT shop my clients just wanted me to buy everything for them (at least several of them did). It was easier for them. Since I was handling this business for them, I didn't consider it greedy to make a few points on those sales considering it was extra work for me.
This type of thing happens all the time too. You can become a partner with the vendor in question, the sale can be on record to the end user, but you get the bill, and you turn around and bill the client.
So it sounds like the OP on SW was trying to double dip. Make money off both the client and Dell for each sale.
I didn't see it that way. To me while the OP mentioned a specific option to get money back from Dell, I'm guessing that as Scott mentioned they weren't really making anything from the sale of the Dell equipment because the customer can look on line and see the vendor is 'over charging' them compared to the website. So while they did mention a specific way to make money.. I'm sure they were really just looking for ANY way to make money.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@ntg has lots of customers that want them to handle the full purchasing supply chain. It's a hassle to have someone like NTG tell you want you need, give you specs and then throw you to the wolves to contact the vendor and get the specs right. The vendor will always try to sell you an alternative, you might not know what "equal or better" comes out to, you might not know what to do in any number of cases. Sure, you can come back to us and ask, but that's a slow, painful loop. It takes hardly any time at all to just say "okay, these recommendations are reasonable, go order it for us." That way people who know what to get are the ones doing the ordering. Makes for a smoother process and less risk.
Fixes a lot of the purchasing debacles that many companies have. Bad purchasing systems are common, especially in SMB and SME firms.
This is what we do also. We will make recommendations to the client and let them decide among the options. Then once they decide I call the vendor chosen and order on the client's behalf. All of my clients have their own account at each vendor. I make nothing and get nothing out of the process except 15 minutes or so of billable time. Even that, I generally just tack in to some other task that also took less than 15 minutes.
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What I mean is, they seem to be reselling Dell hardware, they must be tacking on profit, yet they want Dell to give them money for this "Good work" they are doing on behalf of Dell.
It's like walking into walmart, buying their food, selling the food on at profit, then walking in and asking for commission. Don't get it. -
@Breffni-Potter said:
What I mean is, they seem to be reselling Dell hardware, they must be tacking on profit, yet they want Dell to give them money for this "Good work" they are doing on behalf of Dell.
It's like walking into walmart, buying their food, selling the food on at profit, then walking in and asking for commission. Don't get it.Why do you think that? The OP never said they were making a profit selling Dell hardware.
In fact, the fact that they are asking the question makes me think the opposite.
And even if what you say is true, why do you have a problem with that? This idea of double dipping happens all the time too.
Walmart for example makes many of their suppliers buy the shelf space they are using in the store.. then Walmart makes a profit off the actual item they are selling to the consumer. The shelf space is so valuable that the vendor is willing to do this.
While this clearly puts this MSP in Dell's pocket if a deal like this goes down, it's completely common.
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I definitely got the impression that the OP was not a reseller at all and was getting nothing for the transaction.
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@scottalanmiller agreed, 5k/mth is chump change
