I'm not fond of marketing guys that like to push out numbers to dealers and VARs when the numbers are based on quotas. Quotas tend to distort reasonable thinking and perpetuate bad behavior through no fault of the customers. Customers must ultimately decide on whether or not they are going to buy, lease, hold and negotiate, wait or do nothing at all.Case one is lease with 0% down and 0% interest. This is a teaser and what you need to know is that the term is for 36 months and with a Fair Market Value (FMV) option to purchase at the end of 36 months. Some of these teaser plans are crafted to only include the manufacturer's wares. Exercise some caution since technology has a way of devaluing especially when improvements outpace what was sold one year ago and gear sold then is often worth less now. Customers that don't understand FMV and the conditions need to steer clear so they can avoid the panic mode when the lease term expires and they are confronted with sticker shock to purchase or extend the existing lease that may fall under different terms (rates) than are found in the initial contract.
The differentiator in good sales or marketing folks is that they will educate you and look out for your best interests, and these folks do exist. Hardware devalues and software (licensing) pretty much stays constant. Evaluate the deal and remember that IP telephony lifecycles are unlike the past TDM boxes fetching 7 or 10 years on depreciation schedules. (Yes, of course I remember 15+ years) This doesn't mean that I think IP phones can't last 7 or 10 years because they can. But the weak link in the lease may be the IP phones since their life expectancy is often considered just a few years. So lease the phones under FMV and lease the box and software under the $1 buyout plan. Sound crazy? So does swapping out IP phones every couple of years. Just remembe--you will be glued to software and you want to keep it current--which is always easier said than done.
I don't know if lease companies will write a lease under a blanket agreement with two options or not so the rational option is to purchase the software and this where you can save some bucks. Again, caution is needed because if you buy in volume, then you must discover how your maintenance is impacted--is it based upon actual ports, software licenses, configured as or equipped as?
Case two is the factory insistence on creating poor distribution practices. The distributors serving the VARs/Dealers that are providing solutions and putting skin in the game are short sold by distributors that sell based on price only. They will undercut the other distributors and sell on cost only. How do they make any money? Several ways. First they get you for a few dollars on shipping but this isn't enough to keep their doors open. The big hit comes in the form of real marketing dollars that they demand from the factory just to sell their wares. Cash goes towards the distributor's marketing machine that more than makes up the loss of profit on the goods sold. The third practice is selling you options and services at premium prices, some of which you don't need. Another practice is to sell you key items on price with price agreements on discounts and volume discounts (quotas) while you agree to purchase on volume. Other products and services mixed into the fold are markedly higher in cost so it becomes difficult to maintain the position that you are saving money or getting higher value when in fact the laws of averaging are against you. What value does the customer get?
Company-X discovered several years ago that a specialized distributor in Canada was buying huge volumes of company-X's wares and then reselling to the government on a fixed price schedule that was a protected deal. The distributor purposely over reported the sales and the excess unsold inventory was being sold to U.S. VARs/Dealers below the authorized U.S. price lists. The Canadian government is just like any other government--they don't go out of business and they do audits and have all the time in the world. With lowball selling, even to larger enterprise, the results in poor branding and customer perception stands to fall below par. Your product becomes just that--another product.
Support and knowledge are still worth something and that's how dealers/VARs differentiate against the online retailers selling volume by price only. These folks do put skin in the game and their expertise and experience is worth something more than what order takers can ever offer. The value added distributor is also staffed and equipped to handle resolutions, configuration questions and needs and offer other services unlike the order takers selling on price only. Some recent examples are staging services that offer the benefit of ensuring that the IP systems are licensed and updated correctly before arriving to the customer site. Several days ago Graybar announced that their inventories would be available 24X7 for dealers/VARs faced with emergency situations. Value added distributors are also picking up first level support and providing technical training and certifications to dealers/VARs.
Be careful with those numbers and those clever offers. Every deal has so much profit in it and stripping away the profit normally means stripping away the value add in the supply chain. Exercise some scrutiny and avoid the rush; rush means you will overlook something that will end up costing your company money. Don't be afraid to say no or not now. Instead, they continue chasing the problem(s) with more money and resources in hopes of rectifying a bad decision, and they still end up having to pay for what's still a bad decision. It's a numbers game but many playing it don't know all the rules.
