PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
Peter Stokes, operation manager, Micro Plus Computers, tells PCR how joining Network Group has benefitted the business in a variety of ways.
Despite being in the retailer/reseller game for over 22 years, it is only recently that we have really started to engage on a personal level with vendors and distributors – and what a difference it makes! Having spent years in the ‘wilderness’ not belonging to any buying group, we would often scratch our collective heads wondering how some of our competitors were able to offer the deals they do.
It’s probably a case of ‘if you don’t ask, you don’t get’ but since making the effort to get to know our channel account managers and strike up relationships with vendors we have been amazed at some of the deals and terms available. I think the biggest problem we had was not knowing what to ask for (or what we could get away with).
“If you’re not already part of a buying group then you should give it strong consideration. It can be hard to make your voice heard when you’re on your own."
Peter Stokes, Micro Plus Computers
Phylip Morgan invited us to join Network Group about two years ago and the quality of the deals, advice, preferential terms and access to vendors that we now get makes a difference to our business every single day – but by far the biggest benefit are the five meetings that NG hold each year when we get to meet other resellers, disties and vendors. It’s the contacts we’ve made at these meetings that have made the biggest difference.
We recently held our own mini-expo for schools and businesses at a local hotel, which would have been impossible without the phenomenal support we got from Enta, Micro-P and Network Group as well as around 20 vendors that exhibited on the day including Samsung, Lenovo and Epson to name just a few.
The best advice I can give is: if you’re not already part of a buying group then you should give it strong consideration. It can be hard to make your voice heard when you’re on your own, but we have certainly been taken far more seriously since we’ve been a part of Network Group.
