Let me tell you how re-seller partnerships work!!!

We have recently been asked to do some work for a customer that we don't have the in house capabilities to do. The customer in question really likes us and wants to engage us as the prime contractor, so we have gone out to the market to try and find a partner whose services we can re-sell. There are many out there who can do it, and the re-seller model for this is well established.

We have been in discussions with a number of companies, but there is one in particular whose attitude has amazed me. What's more, the company in question seem to be quite desperate to get the work, as they have sent a number of emails chasing up a response. However, they just don't seem to get the way a re-seller relationship works.

When it comes to pricing, we asked them what their rate to us will be and their response was, to paraphrase, “This will be largely shaped by the rate you sell to your customers”

Largely shaped by the rate we sell to our customers!!!

In other words, you tell me what rate you have sold to your customer and only then will I tell you how much I will sell my services to you for. Or, put another way, once I know how much you have sold to your customer, I will tell you what I think is a fair profit for you to make.

Well, I'm sorry guys, but it just doesn't work like that.

What we sell to our customers for is none of your business. We sell to them at whatever rate we want, add as much or little mark up to your prices as we like and are under no obligation to disclose to you what we have sold for. This is just the way it works in this game! We have plenty of relationships with other companies who sell our services on in exactly the same way.

In addition, in this sort of relationship we need to work with “knowns”. We need to know what the bottom line price to us is, all the time. We need a specific price list based on how much the company are prepared to sell to us for, not one that floats around based on how much we sell for. Again, this is just the way all other re-sellers work.

So, in this instance we have engaged a one man band who does this sort of thing day in day out. All his work come from companies like us and he knows exactly how to work with them. He does not care how much we sell him out for, he does not disclose who else he works for or what he does with them. What's more, when he does work for customers, he always does so under the auspicious of being an employee of the prime contractor and never tries to poach any work direct. He keeps very busy and, in fact, says he can pick and choose who he wants to work for. He is very easy to work with and does not consume lots of time or effort in our dealings with him.

Asked what price he will charge us, he gave a straight, simple answer. £300 per day.

Now, that's someone we can work with and keep busy and paid!

A potential sub-contractor yesterday...

An idiot bids disruptively

I'm going to take advantage of the fact that I'm probably just shouting into the dark here, so I'm going to have a bit of a rant!

DISRUPTIVE BIDS!

Twice this year I've been asked, nay forced, into doing what has been termed (by the persons asking) “a disruptive bid”. Now, dear reader, let me define a “disruptive bid” for you. A “disruptive bid” is tendering for some work which you have absolutely no chance what-so-ever of winning, at such a ridiculously low prices that the company who ultimately win the deal are put into an embarrassing and uncomfortable situation. It is also claimed that said “disruptive bid” will put the disruptive bidder in a more positive position to win work from the client in the future.

Let me, however, further define a “disruptive bid” insofar as I see it. It's something that other people can't actually be bothered to waste their own time doing but are quite happy to waste other people's. Its something that, if it were so genuinely important, they would have done themselves. In my experience a disruptive bid is nothing but something that disrupts my own time!

In essence, its the anathema of what salesmen like doing. They like putting effort into winning deals which are winnable, whilst adding value and providing benefits to their customers. Not putting effort into something they KNOW is a complete waste of time, resource and energy.

I also question the psyche of a disruptive bid from the clients outlook. Looking at things from their perspective, I'd think to myself, “Is this the sort of company we want to forge a long term relationship with, if this is the way they behave?” In one example, I've been asked to submit a bid AFTER the closing date for submission of the tender, and probably after the date the order has actually been placed, at a price lower than the expected costs of the winning bidder, and for what? Some very questionable value of future orders.

From the clients point of view, there's a phrase a friend of mine would use to describe this. He'd say it's like pissing through someone's letter box, then ringing the bell to ask them how far up the hall it went!

They'd say “They know the tender has closed. They know the order has been placed. They know the likely costs, but here they are submitting a quote at much lower costs than the ones we have ordered at. So, what will this do but potentially make us look very stupid?”

From my point of view, disruptive bids are more like an idiotic pouring of money down the drain.

In case anyone out there is listening, I won't ever be doing anymore disruptive bids........ever!

Some money being poured down the drain, earlier today...

Diary of a Badminton "player".

I've done something tonight which I haven't done for 31 years, that involves whacking; and I loved it!

No, you dirty minded reader, that's just rude!!! I've started playing Badminton!

Its been a long time coming. Apart from the 31 year gap, I planned to start two years ago, bought my bat one year ago and eventually got round to starting tonight and a lot has changed in that time.

First of all, the rules have changed. The whole scoring and serving process is different. I can't remember how it used to be and, frankly, I can't even work out what it was tonight. I was just happy to be led, told from where and when to serve, what the score was and just get the shuttlecock back over the net. There seemed some relationship between what side to serve from and the score, but I can't work it out yet. It will come though!

Why? Because even though it has just been two hours, I know I'm addicted. I now know what virgin golf players feel like when they become obsessed with the game. Tonight I was so annoyed with myself for missing the shuttlecock, air blasting shots, serving out. Each time I made such a mistake I WANTED to do it again straight away to do it right next time. I wanted to go on and on, trying to get better. To not make stupid mistakes again. The amount of times my opponent lobbed the shuttlecock, tempting me to smash it, when all I did was swing wildly and miss. I even suffered the ignominy of having the shuttlecock land and bounce off my head, like a comedy clown!

The next thing that has changed is the bats. I bought mine for £10 at Sports Direct and thought, that'll do. One of the guys tonight let me feel his bat (dirty reader, stop it!) and it was amazingly light compared to mine. What's the betting that this time in 3 weeks I'll have gone out and spunked away £100 on a top of the range lightweight titanium shaft (dirty reader!!!).

The other thing that has changed from my school days is that the game seems a lot faster. I suppose as a spotty teenager, we never really got up any pace but man, last night, some of them were really fast, mobile and powerful. My games seemed fast, but watching the speed of the other matches was bewildering. The people were very competitive as well. All of them very nice, but my, they went straight for the jugular. Even though I was struggling, there was no sympathy, just humiliation! It really made me question and reappraise my own killer instinct. When I'm fully up to speed, like my opponents today, I'll show as little mercy to the novices. It will all be part of the learning experience for them.

The other thing I learned was about “focus”. I'd often heard commentators, especially in Tennis, talking about a player loosing concentration during a game and this having an impact on their performance. I'd never quite understood that. How could it happen to a professional athlete? Now, I'm not putting myself in that bracket, but it did happen to me tonight. Half way through one match I found myself drifting off, thinking about girls I guess, and that turned out to be my worst game.

So, now I'm just looking forward to seeing how bad my body will be feeling tomorrow morning, oh.....and that ebay search for a new lightweight bat!

a 'cock being missed earlier tonight.