my competiter is a 3 m dealer

[mark galoob]

i recently found out one of my competiters is a 3m dealer...

so if im understanding this, he is a dealer for 3m, and a sign shop that uses 3m...

somehow this does not seem like a fair way to handle their business...

mark galoob

 

[Mikeifg]

how big are they and maybe they are bsing.

 

[mshi]

He could be reselling it but at a much higher cost than what the average sign shop would spend. 3M is actually trying to downsize their North American distribution, the value that they would have to buy at would be huge

 

[mark galoob]

my sources are very reliable on this...i believe they are 3m dealers...

i also know for a fact they are competing against me in the sign business

mark galoob

 

[cptcorn]

Call your 3M Rep directly and ask him some questions. Not much we can tell you here.

 

[Pat Whatley]

Or call your 3M rep and demand the same deal.

 

[artsnletters]

i recently found out one of my competiters is a 3m dealer...

so if im understanding this, he is a dealer for 3m, and a sign shop that uses 3m...

somehow this does not seem like a fair way to handle their business...

mark galoob

so if this company has ponied up all the money to be a 3m dealer...no doubt he has to have adequate stock, and that certainly isn't free, and basically buys his material deeper than you can, he sells in the same market you do? Is his sign co run as a separate entity or subsidiary? Sure, it may seem unethical, no more unethical than trying to compete against people who run plotters and printers in their garage (IE much lower overhead)....i mean really. What control do you have over it? Life NOR business is fair...control what you can control and worry about that. Sounds like stressing for the sake of stressing.
Tim

 

[acothran]

i recently found out one of my competiters is a 3m dealer...

so if im understanding this, he is a dealer for 3m, and a sign shop that uses 3m...

somehow this does not seem like a fair way to handle their business...

mark galoob

I'm pretty sure any company will make you a dealer, or at least give you great deals, if you order huge quantities of their product. Call 3M and tell them you want to purchase $25,000 per month of IJ180C-v3, plus other items and I'll bet you can be a dealer. I've been told that I can get really good deals on vinyl (i.e. 3M and Oracal) if I'm willing to purchase a whole container load.

Allen

 

[Mosh]

Are you planning on becoming a supplyer? If not who cares.

 

[petepaz]

we are a 3M distributer/dealer also but all that really means is you buy enough of a product to get special pricing
and the thing with 3M is you can only buy certain products from them because the have their products divided up into divisions so only certain people can buy/sell certain products we use a ton of their adhesives(transfer tapes they call it) but we don't get such a great deal on other products but they are slowly changing that
we also buy alot of there sheet products for screen printing and the have a special roll material program that we qualify for for printing labels we get special pricing on those products also
long and short is it doesn't mean all that much

 

[SurfaceSigns]

Pricing is almost always based on volume, no matter what product or what industry.

As business people, we are all always searching for the best deal on our supplies. All this guy has done is bucked up to get a better deal on his supplies. It's my understanding that you have to be spending well into the 6 figures to buy direct, so, if you are willing to commit to that sort of volume and dollars, I have no doubt that 3M would be happy to sell directly to you as well. If you not, you really don't have anything to complain about, to 3M anyways.

In my area, there are 3 or 4 shops that can buy direct from 3M, and it is all consumed within their own shops. The funny part of it is, they are some of the more expensive shops to get signage done at. All they are doing is maximizing profit margins.

Fair has nothing to do with business.

 

[btropical.com]

I would buy the product and promote how qualified and professional you are in applying the product and how competitive your pricing is

 

[mark in tx]

Last time I talked with a 3M rep, I was told I would have to buy pallet loads of Controltac on at least a monthly basis to buy direct from them. ymmv.

 

[702 graphics]

We have a place out here in Vegas that does business like that. We all boycott them. Your a supplier or a retailer PERIOD.

 

[Salmoneye]

I tried a local supplier here in town. I walked in and saw a sign advertising banners. "You make signs and sell supplies to the industry?" I asked. "We only make banners, indoor stuff. You know." All they saw from me was the back of my head walking out the door.

 

[ProWraps]

psh. who cares. if that is your biggest worry, you are doing something wrong.

 

[andy]

Mark,

I've got one supplier of polymetal who is sneaking around looking for direct retail clients... the cheeky f*ckers even phoned me up to ask for some fabrication advice. On the surface they claim to supply the trade.... in reality they are desperate to chop the trade off at the knees.

As soon as a supplier crosses that invisible line then they become competitors not suppliers... and get treated accordingly. I can't stop the supplier doing what they want.... but I'm certainly NOT funding their foray into my market... I'm not that thick.

As a result of this supplier forgetting his place the entire product range he offers is BANNED from my shop (it's cr@p Chinese junk anyway so no big loss".

The local dealer who carries this suppliers product... banned. Opportunity to quote for ANY other material supply... denied. Until the local agent dumps this polymetal brand I'm not buying a single scrap of anything from them.

Suppliers can do what they like... but the sign community can vote with their feet... compete against us and see ALL your trade income vanish.

 

[daveb]

This is turning a totally different direction than it originally started out. 3M selling on the basis of volume is one thing, what your talking about selling small quantities to your customers is something else. The Everbrites and Persona's have always brought direct from 3M, Reynolds, because they're big enough they're cutting out the middle man (distributors that we buy from). What you're talking about is what Daktronics does, just had Dak screw us out of a $50,000 message center replacement at a civics center here in town, they even screwed their own salesmen on this one. The factory bid it direct. I've lost several in the past to Dak salesmen selling directly to schools especially. I've even tried to work with them and quote their units and because their regional salesmen have more flexibility than the person I'm getting he quote from they actually sold to my customer cheaper than they were to me (saw the quotes). But I digress, fact is, it's been going on for years and it probably is getting worse. On the bright side, I've got far more Watchfire message centers within a 100 miles radius than Dak could even dream of because I'm local and customers have come to trust our service, service, service. That's the key, provide something they can't.
Nuff said