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In the last quarter, Jarltech has again met or exceeded all targets set by the vendors, and we are pleased to continue experiencing steady, double-digit growth.

What's funny is that some of our competitors who are losing revenue say over and over again during their analysis conferences: "Although we are losing revenue, we are gaining market share." Sorry, that is a bold-faced lie. But I do not have to buy your shares.

You can see where one or the other vendor on the market is losing points in the fact that some vendors again dig deep into the "promo" box in order to stimulate sales.

Leading the pack in this hustle and bustle is a large vendor of ours, who actually hurled eight "promos" with one stroke on 1 October. Plus, some of our employees are to be paid directly for the sales (which we cannot stand, because we want to decide for ourselves what products we promote). When a vendor employee wins a prize at our Networking Dinner there is immediate compliance-terror - but suddenly the companies can pay cash directly to our employees.

Or there are massive "retrospective rebates" on products which are still not selling better. Our dealers do not now go and buy 100 extra scanners if there is not a job order.

And if I lower a scanner price by 30%, then I have to massively sell more to reach a similar turnover. Of course, we distributors also preach that quarterly targets need to be reduced accordingly. Since all vendors should sell 30% more, it is quite logical that the price also is in the basement. It has taken just three days for the promos to be sent via data feed into all retail web shops - and thus the product is not interesting for a software house, since there is nothing more to earn.

Apparently, one or the other manager wants to reach for quarterly target by any means necessary - but maybe you should re-negotiate the goals realistically with your employer, rather than to give away a massive margin and to annoy the channel.

If one looks for the cause: every one of this vendor's employees which one talks to finds this promo mania completely useless and cumbersome, and nobody wants it to be "it" again. Maybe it was just a hacker from the competition, and it's all been just a stupid joke in the end.