Latest / Inside Integration / Episode 110: All About Buying Groups

Transcript

Episode 110: All About Buying Groups · Inside Integration

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Inside Integration Podcast.
• 0:02
  My name is Chris. I am joined, as always, by my
• 0:04
  partner Jason. What's up, everybody?
• 0:07
  Today we are diving deep into buying groups.
• 0:11
  This, this seems to be, seems to be something that, you know, as
• 0:15
  we, as we taught the people out there like there, yeah, maybe
• 0:18
  there's some, you know, not really clear what a what a
• 0:21
  buying group is or what a buying group does or how it could
• 0:24
  benefit you as a dealer. You know, I, I know I had a
• 0:28
  whole lot of questions when when buying groups kind of started
• 0:31
  becoming a thing. And now we, we have our own, you
• 0:34
  know, we have our own residence. That's your own inside man.
• 0:36
  Now our. Buying group guy our our bearded
• 0:40
  buying group boy. Wow.
• 0:45
  And we are, we are going to take advantage of.
• 0:47
  BBGB, OK. BBB Buying.
• 0:52
  GB, yeah. Anyway.
• 0:54
  It rolls right off the tongue. I'm not good with marketing, but
• 1:00
  as you may know, yeah, but yeah, no, it's, it's, it's definitely
• 1:05
  a, you know, it's a, it's a trend, it's a phenomenon.
• 1:07
  It kind of speaks to a lot of the stuff that we've been
• 1:10
  getting into lately about, you know, consolidation and, and
• 1:13
  how, you know, things are coming together and merging together
• 1:16
  and, and smaller groups are getting larger and, and, and,
• 1:19
  and that sort of thing. But yeah, now we've we've got a
• 1:23
  man on the inside who's he's going to tell, tell us all about
• 1:26
  it and I'll see you guys in 20. 8 minutes.
• 1:28
  OK, great. Well, we got some time to fill
• 1:30
  that joy. Go.
• 1:32
  Get your get your pillows out, fluff them up so you can rest
• 1:35
  your head on them and fall asleep to the dulcet tones of my
• 1:40
  story. Here this is now ASMR podcast
• 1:42
  this. Is what Chris is referring to is
• 1:47
  Yeah, I've had a a job switch here recently and joined all
• 1:51
  the. Ranks of the Why Pro source by
• 1:53
  a. Group, Oh, oh, listen, yeah, no
• 1:56
  great, great opportunity. So Full disclosure, I do
• 1:59
  currently as we record this, I am employed by a by the largest
• 2:05
  buying group on the in the circuit, I guess pro source at
• 2:08
  least by membership for sure. Until they hear this.
• 2:11
  Oh, I hope, I mean, I hope we're not going to talk out of turn.
• 2:14
  I hope I'm speaking everything directly.
• 2:16
  I'm going to speak for myself. Of course I'm not speaking for
• 2:18
  them. So let's make sure we make that
• 2:20
  point of very clear. This is not sponsored or
• 2:23
  affiliated in any way. This is me and Chris playing
• 2:26
  radio and yelling into the Internet.
• 2:29
  Exactly. This is totally a hobby.
• 2:31
  This is not anything poignant, but there is.
• 2:35
  I was faced many times when I was a technical Rep for Sony and
• 2:39
  certainly as a third party Rep with people asking about, you
• 2:43
  know, what a buying group is. And it's certainly part of the
• 2:46
  conversations when you walk in to speak to independent business
• 2:49
  owners. Are you part of a buying group?
• 2:51
  And then you're going to get a range of responses from
• 2:55
  absolutely, I'm part of this group, proudly been a member for
• 2:59
  X amount of years. Or you're going to get the
• 3:01
  response of, Oh yeah, I buy stuff from, you know, the Rep
• 3:05
  across town. And he's, he's my, he's my
• 3:10
  buying group. And I'm like, well, that's not
• 3:12
  exactly the same thing. So I think, you know, there's a,
• 3:16
  you know, maybe some clarity of thought as far as actually what
• 3:19
  a buying group is. And we can speak in, in broad
• 3:21
  strokes, right? Because they, they are all
• 3:23
  different and but they're the whole really, you know, the main
• 3:27
  idea there is obviously to pool your buying power, right?
• 3:30
  So if you are in the same line of work as other people around
• 3:33
  the country, wouldn't it be great if you were all on the
• 3:37
  same team, buying from the same vendors and maybe getting
• 3:40
  preferential pricing or maybe getting a freight deal or
• 3:44
  getting some sort of other access that's a value add or a
• 3:47
  dollar ad, right at the end of the day?
• 3:50
  It's, it's a bit of, it's a bit of collective bargaining, right?
• 3:52
  Where 200 voices have a little bit more power than one voice,
• 3:56
  right? That's essentially the the Crocs
• 3:58
  here, correct? Yeah.
• 3:58
  So, and you can drop parallels to the insurance industry, you
• 4:01
  can drop parallels to the automotive industry, you can
• 4:04
  drop parallels to a lot of other.
• 4:06
  Communism, you know. It's definitely not common.
• 4:10
  Oh no, sure, capitalism. It's unbridled.
• 4:14
  Sorry I forgot forgot what podcast was on.
• 4:16
  Phil yeah, come on. What are we talking about here?
• 4:19
  You can host that one on your own.
• 4:21
  But it's, it's, it's pretty, you know, it's, it's a unique way to
• 4:28
  see how business functions in America and as smaller, more
• 4:33
  independent minded business owners.
• 4:35
  And there's still lots of them out there, throngs and throngs
• 4:37
  and throngs of them, you know, put their collective
• 4:40
  intelligence together, put their collective finances together and
• 4:44
  work with vendors, you know, at a pretty high level.
• 4:48
  I mean, you're not maybe necessarily a Best Buy or a
• 4:53
  Costco or something like that, but you can still represent
• 4:57
  several $100 million worth of annual buying power depending on
• 5:02
  the on the, you know, on the vertical or on the industry That
• 5:05
  that's, that's real money. That's real revenue to to
• 5:08
  anybody. Yeah.
• 5:09
  And. So, and that, that sort of in
• 5:11
  turn, and I, I don't mean to steal your Thunder here, but
• 5:13
  that, that basically turns into benefits for members like
• 5:17
  negotiating better prices with manufacturers or different VIRS
• 5:21
  and rebates, you know, back end kind of stuff, you know, and,
• 5:25
  and also, I mean just the, the sharing of knowledge, right?
• 5:28
  Like if you're, you know you're in a 100.
• 5:30
  Percent. You're in a group with a ton of
• 5:32
  like minded other integrators, right?
• 5:34
  Like nobody, you know, we're, we're not, we're not here out
• 5:36
  here alone yelling into the wind anymore, right?
• 5:39
  You know, we're sharing best practices, you know.
• 5:43
  That's, I think that's the key benefit outside of a freight
• 5:46
  deal and outside of preferential pricing.
• 5:48
  I think that's really where the value of any buying group comes
• 5:52
  in, because there are other people that are spending their
• 5:55
  money to be part of this group. There are other people that have
• 5:58
  opinions and have experience. And maybe you're a couple of
• 6:02
  years in and you're looking to learn all you can learn possibly
• 6:06
  to learn from, from the, you know, from the greats out there.
• 6:09
  Or conversely, maybe you're, you know, maybe you're a legacy
• 6:13
  house and you, you're, you know, you're deep in the buying group.
• 6:17
  You're wonder, what is my exit strategy?
• 6:20
  What are my options? You've got a national community
• 6:23
  of people to confer with, and people that you trust are
• 6:26
  probably people that you've known for a long time that you
• 6:30
  can relate things to or talk to things about.
• 6:33
  And you know, again, have a personal plus professional
• 6:36
  business relationship. That's that's one of the
• 6:38
  beauties I think of this industry, at least from from my
• 6:41
  experience anyway. Yeah, and, and, and I would
• 6:42
  agree. I, I mean, I would say that, you
• 6:45
  know, no matter who you are as an integrator, there's you've,
• 6:47
  there's something to learn, right.
• 6:49
  Like you may have, you know, the technical side of your business
• 6:51
  might be airtight locked in, but you know, maybe the financial
• 6:54
  side isn't, you know, maybe you could, you know, learn something
• 6:57
  about structuring your proposals, you know, from
• 6:59
  another member or whatever. And, and that's, you know, it,
• 7:02
  it really feels like there's something for everybody, right?
• 7:04
  So whether you're, you know, a new dealer, you're just starting
• 7:07
  out, you know, you broke off of a, a larger company and you're
• 7:09
  trying to stand something up on your own, You know, you and
• 7:11
  three guys or whatever it is, or, you know, you're, you know,
• 7:14
  5050 people strong and you've got, you know, an accounts
• 7:17
  receivable person and everybody else.
• 7:19
  Like there's, there's something to learn on all, you know, at at
• 7:22
  all levels here in, in all, nobody does it 100% perfect.
• 7:26
  And you know, that this is something to, you know, to, to
• 7:31
  kind of keep in mind. It's, it's a, it's a huge
• 7:32
  benefit, right? Like, and a lot of times that is
• 7:35
  the benefit that ends up making you more money is being, you
• 7:38
  know, a best practice or being more efficient or knowing, you
• 7:41
  know, knowing a particular, you know, trick to making your
• 7:45
  installs go smoother or keeping your employees happier or making
• 7:48
  sure people get billed on time. And yeah, that's, that's a major
• 7:52
  man major plus, you know. Yeah, I, I think part of the
• 7:56
  other things that a buying group can help you do, you know, or
• 7:59
  help you with, excuse me, not help you do necessarily, but you
• 8:03
  know, and maybe something that we can do just as I'm thinking
• 8:06
  about here is an exercise. Oh, you're getting an important
• 8:09
  phone call? Yeah, you know, it's not
• 8:10
  important at all. It's not a, it's not a cool
• 8:12
  chime clock, but it's it's your, it's your version.
• 8:15
  Of it it's it's somebody who, it's somebody who might be
• 8:17
  listening to the show when when it actually gets posted and and
• 8:21
  they're gonna know when I was recording this.
• 8:23
  Instead of working, Hey, well, hey, that's, that's how it goes.
• 8:26
  You can, you can put those minutes on the end of the day.
• 8:28
  Yeah, that's what I did. But the, you know, some of the,
• 8:31
  the terminology that gets used by vendors and by people in
• 8:36
  certain circles, I think go over a lot of people's, you know,
• 8:40
  regular industry folks like regular techs or maybe small
• 8:44
  business owners, maybe go over some of their heads.
• 8:47
  Because I've certainly used some, you know, three letter
• 8:50
  words like MDF or DFI and kind of see the kind of see the words
• 8:56
  go in or you see the expression go in the brain.
• 8:58
  But maybe it doesn't always register, again, depending on
• 9:02
  who you're talking to, right? Explain those concepts to me,
• 9:04
  'cause, you know, explain it like I think it's 'cause I'm
• 9:07
  not. I think it's a good idea to
• 9:08
  actually do that. We can use, we can use this and,
• 9:11
  and again, part of the reason that you want to be part of a
• 9:14
  buying group is some of the adjectives we're going to
• 9:17
  describe here, right? So one like DFI, you know,
• 9:20
  someone people talk about your discount is DFI.
• 9:23
  That means that they deduct that from the invoice DFI, right?
• 9:27
  That's what that term means. So any discount that you would
• 9:30
  see from your vendor, from your supplier, what have you when
• 9:34
  when they say DFI, it means you get your discount upfront.
• 9:38
  VIR, you know that that's a big one.
• 9:40
  And people are like, what's a verb?
• 9:44
  What, what is that? What is, what's a very, I've
• 9:46
  been asked that question. And it's, you know, it's a
• 9:48
  volume incentive rebate. So that means obviously the more
• 9:51
  that you're going to be slanging in a year, the higher, higher
• 9:55
  revenue targets that you hit, the bigger dollar amounts that
• 9:58
  you hit, that means you did more volume.
• 10:00
  Depending on where their milestones are for revenue, you
• 10:03
  could be getting 1%, two percent, 5% back as a rebate at
• 10:08
  the end of the year that you can use as a credit to, to buy more
• 10:12
  stuff. So as you're getting as you're
• 10:14
  transacting all of a sudden your dollars ahead from the, the
• 10:18
  money that you're putting into the into the vendors pockets.
• 10:21
  So you're spending their money as opposed to your.
• 10:23
  Money, right and you're contributing to your margin
• 10:26
  essentially, right and. Yes, because you're still.
• 10:30
  Margins are tight. You're still transacting cash on
• 10:33
  the outside, right? You're still getting your credit
• 10:35
  card payments or your ACH is from your clients, but on the
• 10:39
  back end you're utilizing the credits and you're using the
• 10:42
  rebates and things that you're given by the vendors and the
• 10:44
  suppliers to fund and offset some of the margin compression
• 10:48
  that that you see out. There so sure.
• 10:50
  Those are those are big ones. Another one that I hear a lot
• 10:53
  about is MDF and I think the technical.
• 10:57
  Medium density fiber board. Oh, wait.
• 10:59
  Yeah, exactly. I do that.
• 11:00
  That was 1990. Building speaker boxes, baby.
• 11:05
  Yeah, that, that was a while ago, but yeah, it's not particle
• 11:08
  board. It's actually a term that that's
• 11:11
  used again by vendors, by suppliers for market development
• 11:14
  funds. So that's a fancy term utilized.
• 11:17
  Stickers on your own, logos on your polos.
• 11:21
  So many different ways. You know, it's, it's make good
• 11:24
  money. I think in some in the worst
• 11:27
  cases, which it's not supposed to be, but I think in in a lot
• 11:30
  of cases it it can end up being that.
• 11:32
  What? What do you mean by make good
• 11:34
  money? Just just.
• 11:35
  To Oh, well, let me just say let's just say some random
• 11:39
  scenario happened along the way that wasn't great right now,
• 11:45
  right caught on fire TV left a left a bad taste in somebody's
• 11:49
  mouth through maybe nobody's fault, maybe somebody'd fault,
• 11:53
  maybe everybody's fault. Sure, not really.
• 11:55
  Someone get too specific on on where that'll lands, but somehow
• 12:00
  the vendor is the foil in this particular.
• 12:05
  Arrangement or at least agrees to take the blame, maybe for.
• 12:08
  Something exactly the vendor has the deepest pockets, right?
• 12:11
  So therefore the vendor can probably shoulder the damage
• 12:16
  with, you know, accrued from certain situations.
• 12:20
  Safe face all the way around applies to.
• 12:21
  Yeah, so. Some soothing, yeah.
• 12:23
  Salve to the wound, right? But it's never anything that's
• 12:28
  just like a payment done directly, like that's not
• 12:31
  something that's legal because of the accounting, right?
• 12:35
  So it becomes a situation where there's proof of performance.
• 12:40
  So maybe in, in a situation where you had a problem, hey, if
• 12:46
  you put an ad up for us and you know, you know, advertise our
• 12:51
  product or you run a promo in your store or you put a display
• 12:54
  up in your store, I'll pay for that.
• 12:57
  And some of the money can be used obviously to, to fund the
• 13:01
  display in your store, but hopefully helps you feel a
• 13:04
  little bit better about the situation.
• 13:06
  So again, I would, I would never say that MDF is some overt like
• 13:10
  money in an envelope because I've never seen that happen, at
• 13:13
  least in all of my days. But it is intended to use for
• 13:18
  growing marketing awareness, market developing.
• 13:20
  Funds. Yeah, and, and I mean, and it's,
• 13:22
  and it's most, you know, in it's most obvious form it is, you
• 13:25
  know, you see an integrator van driving around and it's got a
• 13:27
  Lutron sticker on it or you know, it's.
• 13:28
  There's nothing. You know a savant authorized
• 13:31
  dealer or you see people walking around at at CDO with polos with
• 13:36
  their name on it and then AV Pro on the on the sleeve.
• 13:39
  That's you just. Described what market
• 13:41
  development funds? Are no wonder those are NPS.
• 13:44
  Yeah. So that's, you know, those are
• 13:45
  some terms I think that get they get tossed around a fair bit.
• 13:50
  Like I don't know, you know, even when you talk about terms,
• 13:53
  you know, when it's like net 30, net 45, those kinds of things,
• 13:57
  right? Some of those, you know, people
• 13:58
  are like, what does terms mean? What does that mean?
• 14:00
  You know, if you pay within that 30 day window, that means you're
• 14:04
  not paying any interest or you've got, you know, a certain
• 14:07
  set of, you know, points that they're gonna, they got their
• 14:11
  vigorish that they're they're gonna tag you with.
• 14:13
  And you know, hopefully you're you're paying, you're paying on
• 14:16
  time. So, you know, Johnny Red Shoes
• 14:17
  doesn't come over and boil your feet for, you know, for the
• 14:22
  money you owe on that weight or whatever.
• 14:23
  See, yeah, every manufacturer has an enforcer.
• 14:26
  And what you don't realize is that suddenly Joe Pesci might
• 14:29
  show up. And yeah, yeah, we didn't sell
• 14:33
  that many TV's this month. F you pay me right?
• 14:36
  This doesn't. I don't care, that's not my
• 14:38
  problem and. And, and again, like, you know,
• 14:42
  net 30, net 45, that kind of thing that you know, that is
• 14:45
  opposed to placing an order and having a credit card on file and
• 14:49
  having an immediately charger, having an ACH transfer
• 14:52
  immediately, right. You can, you know, you can let
• 14:54
  that float so that if you're, you know, you're doing a final
• 14:57
  installation and you're ordering all your final gear, you can
• 15:00
  essentially get that gear on the promise that the, the, you know,
• 15:03
  the, the client is going to pay you that final billing.
• 15:06
  And then you just turn around and apply it to that, right?
• 15:08
  So it's a little bit of a, it's a little bit of a gap, a little
• 15:11
  bit of a leeway, you know, and it makes your books a little bit
• 15:14
  more flexible, right? Like you may not, you know, you
• 15:16
  don't, you don't necessarily have to have that amount from
• 15:19
  the client at that moment when you order, but you know, that's
• 15:23
  that's sort of how that works. And, you know, a lot of people
• 15:26
  look for terms. Sure well, I think which is
• 15:29
  good, you know, it's it's maybe not your credit line hit, you
• 15:33
  know, you're using the house money.
• 15:35
  I think that's a good, you know, a good way to to look at
• 15:38
  business and you know, people might be listening to this
• 15:40
  going. What the hell are these guys
• 15:42
  talking about? Houses relate to buying groups.
• 15:45
  These are the kinds of conversations that you're having
• 15:48
  with other professionals and maybe there's some terms,
• 15:52
  there's some things getting slung around that you don't know
• 15:54
  right off the top of your head. Because you're you know, you're
• 15:59
  maybe you're a younger business owner, you're come from outside
• 16:02
  the the you know, the you know, the service type of industry
• 16:06
  world where you know, some of these terms just haven't been
• 16:09
  things you've heard before, you know, haven't heard before.
• 16:12
  This is a safe space to to get together with like minded people
• 16:15
  and regardless of buying group, I think they all offer, you
• 16:20
  know, a social component and they all offer a, a business
• 16:23
  conference and a let's try to build it better angle because
• 16:28
  again, outside of a freight program, that's really where the
• 16:31
  the value comes in, right? So.
• 16:33
  And, and some have, you know, again, some buying groups, some
• 16:35
  of those benefits are regular trainings, regular conferences
• 16:39
  that you know, you can send your, you know, I know your
• 16:43
  organization and correct me if I'm wrong here, you know, you
• 16:45
  guys have a nice experience center in Colorado that you're
• 16:47
  going to be spending a lot of time at.
• 16:51
  Yeah, the, you know, very ambitious.
• 16:53
  Some of the partnerships, you know, I'm, I'm not here to air
• 16:56
  it all out, but they, they are building technical partnerships
• 16:59
  with colleges to get, you know, younger people on board and
• 17:03
  enthused about what, what this industry could mean for, for
• 17:06
  them and certainly going forward because we, we do need trades in
• 17:09
  this country. So.
• 17:10
  See, and, and that's, I mean, that, that's where that's where
• 17:13
  that one hits, you know, hits right at my heart is that the
• 17:16
  finally, finally the outreach of, you know, of, of that kind
• 17:19
  of thing. And, and I've told this story so
• 17:21
  many times, like, you know, at, at one point me and my partner
• 17:24
  wanted to get bigger, you know, we wanted to expand.
• 17:26
  We were just running ourselves ragged trying to do stuff and
• 17:30
  trying to find qualified people in in any market is is
• 17:34
  difficult, you know, especially in like what we wanted to do is
• 17:36
  we wanted to find somebody new just starting out and train them
• 17:39
  our way and, and, and move them up and have them advance.
• 17:42
  And, and you know, that that all kind of speaks to business
• 17:45
  continuance and legacy and, and all these things that that we've
• 17:48
  talked about a lot and we couldn't you know, where are you
• 17:51
  going to get somebody like that? Indeed.
• 17:53
  No, it's not, you know, it's not quite right.
• 17:56
  And you know, we didn't want to hire a hiring service.
• 17:58
  We didn't want to do that. You know, we kind of wanted to
• 18:00
  find somebody, so we went to our local trade school, which was,
• 18:03
  you know, county. It was a it was part of the
• 18:05
  public school system where I'm from, New Jersey, which doesn't
• 18:09
  seem to exist out here on the West Coast.
• 18:11
  And you know, essentially we went and talked to the trade
• 18:13
  program there and said, you know, hey, can you scout out,
• 18:16
  you know, part of the electrical program, you know, maybe maybe
• 18:19
  somebody who doesn't want to do high voltage, somebody who might
• 18:21
  want to hang TV's or build racks or whatever.
• 18:23
  And we ended up getting a lot of good leads from there.
• 18:26
  What you guys are doing is super dope where you're, you're kind
• 18:29
  of, you know, you're, you're, you're aligned with Lincoln Tech
• 18:33
  as far as I understand it. And, you know, being able to
• 18:37
  help those guys kind of guide a curriculum to build that sort of
• 18:40
  thing up is a huge service for the industry, right.
• 18:43
  And, and giving your members access to, you know, to that
• 18:47
  sort of thing, eventually, you know, as that partnership kind
• 18:50
  of blossoms and plays out is, is huge.
• 18:52
  I mean that it's massive for, it's massive for your members,
• 18:55
  but it's massive for this industry where we're always
• 18:58
  trying to get awareness and we're always trying to get a,
• 19:01
  you know, good stream of new blood coming into this thing.
• 19:04
  Because if you look around, everybody's our age, right?
• 19:07
  I, you know, again, I'm not a, I'm not a company spokesperson
• 19:10
  and I don't pretend to be 1, certainly not on this podcast.
• 19:13
  But I will say that the, the outreach and the future for that
• 19:18
  kind of stuff looks very, very bright.
• 19:21
  And I, I think again, across our industry, because driving
• 19:25
  awareness, making people, you know, know, if there's actually
• 19:28
  an opportunity and, you know, maybe with some new construction
• 19:31
  and some other things that are happening, the, the standard of
• 19:34
  living goes up because technology is going to be
• 19:36
  incorporated into all of those builds.
• 19:38
  Sure. And whether that's
• 19:40
  entertainment, whether that's lighting, whether that's
• 19:42
  security or all the above, you know, that's, that's where the,
• 19:47
  you know, the layers of, of all of this to your, to your earlier
• 19:51
  point, kind of kind of play on, on the heartstrings.
• 19:53
  But yeah, again, I'm, I'm excited about the change.
• 19:59
  It's nice to be a part of a, a group of professionals that, you
• 20:04
  know, are from the industry or, you know, are kind of cut from
• 20:06
  the cloth. I was looking at some of the
• 20:10
  roster of, of the members and certainly some of the people
• 20:13
  that are my colleagues and it's kind of a who's who.
• 20:15
  So I'm again, really, really pumped about that.
• 20:19
  Not not to say that, you know, working with you was, you know,
• 20:21
  terrible, but it wasn't the best for sure.
• 20:24
  So. You're kidding.
• 20:27
  No, we've never. We've never discussed that
• 20:29
  before. And after the show, I kid.
• 20:31
  I kid, I mean. Come on man, we spent more than
• 20:34
  a year here, you know. We had some, we, we almost had
• 20:37
  some elk together and it was cool.
• 20:38
  Yeah, it was, it was fun. We had a good time.
• 20:41
  So you know, we've we've kind of got into the benefits a lot and
• 20:45
  obviously you know those, those all kind of come at a price.
• 20:47
  So like what is obviously members pay dues, right?
• 20:51
  Like there's, you know, sure. You have to pay.
• 20:52
  I'll be honest with you. I don't know exactly what the,
• 20:56
  what the cost of admission is or what the comparison is between
• 21:00
  the the major buying groups out there.
• 21:01
  I'll be I I don't know if you know pro source is the most
• 21:04
  expensive or if HDSA or Azione or Oasis or you know, I don't I
• 21:09
  don't exactly know exact, you know, where where they line up
• 21:12
  and not all of the same brands are aligned under the same
• 21:16
  roofs. And I think that's that's a big
• 21:18
  part of it, right? Is you're you're.
• 21:19
  Absolutely you're. Paying a, you know, you're,
• 21:21
  you're, you're paying to be part of the buying group and you're
• 21:23
  getting benefits from that. But that also, you know, you
• 21:26
  need to be loyal to the brands that are represented by, you
• 21:30
  know, that buying group, right? So if you go into a buying group
• 21:33
  and they're, let's just say that they're, you know, one of their
• 21:35
  big tent pole brands is Sony or Samsung or whoever, you need to
• 21:40
  do a certain amount with those brands in order to show that
• 21:44
  you're, you know, you're committed as part of the buying
• 21:46
  group. So that's the other side of
• 21:47
  things you get you get a lot of benefits, but there are some,
• 21:50
  you know, there are some requirements besides just a
• 21:52
  monthly, you know, monthly, you know, dues payment.
• 21:57
  I think it's important too to point out who, who owns the
• 22:00
  thing because you know, one of the things that's, you know, I
• 22:05
  think a separator at least in, in terms of, you know, what it
• 22:09
  looks like overall. And, and you know, everybody has
• 22:11
  to make a living all of that stuff, but not all the buying
• 22:13
  groups are, are member owned. Well, that's one of the things
• 22:17
  that makes pro sources a a different entity.
• 22:19
  And I, I don't know what the, the scheme is for any of the
• 22:23
  other buying groups out there across the, across the land.
• 22:26
  So I'm not here to throw this or anybody, but yeah, figured it
• 22:31
  out for yourself. But you know what, I know that's
• 22:32
  one of the the the proud pillars that they, you know, they talk
• 22:35
  about it pro source is that the fact that they are member owned.
• 22:40
  So it's not a a group that's there for profit.
• 22:42
  There isn't like a secret machine behind the the, you
• 22:45
  know, behind the walls trying to, you know, trying to do
• 22:49
  something. It's, it's all owned by
• 22:51
  membership, you know, so that's a huge, that's a huge benefit
• 22:54
  to, to everybody on board because you know, it's, it's as
• 22:58
  flat an organization as it can be.
• 23:00
  It runs as lean and mean as it can.
• 23:02
  And that you're seeing the maximum benefit back for for
• 23:06
  your dollars in. And, and when you're, you know,
• 23:07
  when you're looking out there, I mean, there is a, there's a
• 23:09
  pretty wide and varied landscape of buying groups and you kind of
• 23:12
  went through a few of them, right?
• 23:13
  Like there's, there's Pro source, there's ASE owned,
• 23:16
  there's HTSA, there's nationwide, there's Oasis,
• 23:19
  there's there's quite a few. You know, it, it's important to
• 23:23
  kind of look at each one of these.
• 23:24
  If, if you are, you know, as, as a business owner, if you are
• 23:26
  committed to joining a buying group and you see the benefits
• 23:29
  of it and you, you know, you want to want to contribute to
• 23:31
  that and, and see some return. It's important to kind of
• 23:35
  interview all of these and see which one is the best fit
• 23:37
  because there are definitely groups that are a better fit for
• 23:41
  integrator Y then they may be for integrator X, right?
• 23:44
  Like there's absolutely. It being owned by a private
• 23:49
  individual doesn't preclude it from being a beneficial or
• 23:52
  assure. And I want to actually clarify
• 23:56
  that definitely it's not nefarious.
• 23:58
  It's just the way that different businesses are set up.
• 24:01
  And again, Full disclosure, I know nothing about the the other
• 24:06
  situation for ownership with, with any of the other groups.
• 24:08
  You know, I just know that that's one of the hallmarks for
• 24:11
  for for pro source. And I think it kind of always
• 24:13
  has been. Right and there it's it's
• 24:15
  different structures and again, it's different, different
• 24:17
  personalities, different, you know, different benefits,
• 24:19
  different everything. So, you know, figure out which
• 24:22
  one is, is the right, you know, the right fit for you because it
• 24:25
  is, it's a commitment. It's, you know, it's not only a
• 24:27
  commitment in dollars, it's a commitment to sending your
• 24:30
  people to take advantage of the benefits.
• 24:32
  And it's a commitment to buying a certain line, you know?
• 24:36
  There's no growth in comfort, right?
• 24:37
  We hear it all the time. So you you might be feeling a
• 24:40
  little bit of a about the, you know, maybe spending the money
• 24:44
  or making that investment or flying the people out or doing,
• 24:47
  doing the mechanical things that it takes to participate in these
• 24:51
  scenarios. But I definitely see there of
• 24:55
  being of a high value to a high level of participation.
• 24:59
  We'll just say you're going to get back what you put into it.
• 25:02
  So you know, if you go in prepare prepared to be
• 25:04
  disappointed, I don't think, I don't think that's the right.
• 25:08
  I don't think that's. Open mindset.
• 25:10
  Open your heart to your buying group, right?
• 25:13
  Let the buying group in, right? You got to be you got to be
• 25:16
  vulnerable. I, I, you know, I think that's
• 25:18
  important. I think, you know, stepping out
• 25:20
  onto the ledge and, you know, sharing, you know, not
• 25:24
  necessarily your feelings, but sharing your experience in a
• 25:27
  constructive way, not just a, a, you know, a pitch and moan fest.
• 25:30
  And I think that's also part of this.
• 25:33
  You get a chance to pitch and moan.
• 25:35
  Well, it is. And again, it it kind of goes
• 25:37
  with, you know, being one voice versus being 200 voices in an
• 25:41
  organized block, right. There's here's that collective
• 25:43
  bargaining again, where you know, you're put down the the
• 25:46
  hammer and sickle, but you know, you're, you're really, you do
• 25:49
  have, you know, maybe a more direct path to the ears at a
• 25:54
  manufacturer who need to hear what you're saying.
• 25:56
  Like, Hey, we, you know, everybody that we talked to in
• 26:00
  our buying group has had this same problem.
• 26:02
  We need to, you know. Let's we need to address it.
• 26:05
  Yeah, let's address it. Let's redesign this.
• 26:07
  Let's hey, you know what? It's really, you know, the, the,
• 26:10
  you know, the learning, the learning requirements or the
• 26:13
  program requirements of this certain thing are very onerous,
• 26:15
  right? And and that's, that's good
• 26:17
  feedback, right? That's not just a whole bunch
• 26:19
  of, you know, disjointed voices in the woods calling out to the
• 26:23
  manufacturer. That's very much, you know, an
• 26:26
  organized group that can, you know, in an organized way put
• 26:29
  together directed feedback and, and, and comments.
• 26:33
  And that's, I think that's a good thing.
• 26:34
  That's a good thing for manufacturers to hear, and it's
• 26:36
  a good thing for integrators to to be heard, you know?
• 26:40
  Sure, and we have wandered around the woods pretty well on
• 26:44
  this podcast. You know, see, I was thinking.
• 26:47
  About this announcement. And then we went, we went to
• 26:52
  what are they? And we talked terms like what
• 26:54
  are we doing? I was, I was thinking the
• 26:55
  opposite, right, like under the general umbrella of like what a
• 26:58
  buying group is. I think we've, I think we've
• 27:00
  explored that pretty well, right.
• 27:02
  Like if you. Yeah.
• 27:03
  I mean, there's a pay to play you.
• 27:05
  Know. Yeah, there's a pay to play
• 27:07
  quotient, right. I think you got to be at a level
• 27:09
  with your business where you're serious about either trying to
• 27:11
  maximize your returns or grow and be better improve, you know,
• 27:16
  and I think the regardless of the industry, again, there's,
• 27:21
  there's a, there's numerous ones, you know, whether you're
• 27:23
  in the mattress game, the BBQ grill game, the go Kart game,
• 27:28
  like I mean, like those nationwide shows.
• 27:31
  I'm not going to say, you know, like I've been to several buying
• 27:34
  group shows over the years, but the, the big, the big fun ones
• 27:37
  that I went to in in Orlando with nationwide where it's, you
• 27:41
  know, I was like in a little room all by myself and then like
• 27:44
  I walk the show floor and it's smokers and BBQ grills and
• 27:49
  kitchens and mattresses, man so great.
• 27:51
  Well, it reflects and again, this guy's, this goes back to
• 27:54
  find the right one that's right for you and your business where
• 27:57
  you know, maybe that's appealing to more retail focused, right?
• 28:01
  Like you have a storefront, you sell high end 2 channel stuff,
• 28:04
  you know, you have a shelf full of Sonos players with, you know,
• 28:08
  prices on a shelf and that kind of thing.
• 28:09
  And installation is a service that you offer along with the
• 28:12
  retail side, that particular buying group might be a better
• 28:16
  fit for you. Whereas Pro source, it's more of
• 28:19
  a, and, and correct me if I'm wrong, right?
• 28:21
  Like it's more of a consultative approach.
• 28:24
  It's more of a, you know, building this stuff into your
• 28:27
  home before, right? Like this is more you're not
• 28:30
  really, you know, you're not walking.
• 28:32
  Through this place, I will say this, I'll that there's a
• 28:34
  there's a broad mix. There are there are some
• 28:39
  absolute, you know, AV specialties, smaller retail type
• 28:42
  organizations on that list. There's some very large online
• 28:46
  presence of retail organizations in in the group.
• 28:50
  So, yeah, I think I think probably I would say pro source
• 28:55
  probably skews more to the to the broader spectrum as opposed
• 28:59
  to the narrow merit focus like you're talking about like maybe
• 29:02
  somebody like and as he own and again, not not, you know, broad
• 29:06
  brushes here, right. But you know, maybe a smaller
• 29:10
  group like Oasis or something like that where the the
• 29:13
  integrator guy or the more targeted narrow brand kind of
• 29:18
  set. That's that's where they're at.
• 29:20
  I think, you know, versus a pro source where they do have
• 29:25
  lighting power, security cameras and focal and like you wanna do,
• 29:32
  I mean, there's some 2 channel stuff in the 1010 building that
• 29:36
  I don't think I've ever even seen before.
• 29:38
  So and you know, it's just one of the one of the many
• 29:42
  opportunities. So yeah, again, not not to
• 29:46
  correct you, but I think, yeah, do your thinking probably maybe
• 29:48
  in the inverse side. Yeah, do your googles, man, What
• 29:50
  are you doing? Yeah, it's not like this is
• 29:52
  recorded or anything. Google it up, talk to talk to
• 29:54
  some people from from these organizations and see which one
• 29:57
  is the best fit. You know, 'cause again,
• 29:59
  different businesses, different needs, you know, and.
• 30:01
  There's see if see if it is a fit and I think that's the other
• 30:04
  thing. If you, you look at your
• 30:06
  business and you go, well, you know, I'm happy with where I'm
• 30:09
  at. I've got my book of business
• 30:11
  here. I buy from my local distributor
• 30:13
  and I'm happy with that supply chain situation and.
• 30:17
  Nothing wrong with that. You know, I've, I've got fixed
• 30:19
  margins or whatever it is I'm working at, you know, 40 points
• 30:22
  or 50 points. God bless you.
• 30:25
  Absolutely. I, I can't, I can't.
• 30:27
  Maybe maybe buying group doesn't fit into that, but you got a
• 30:30
  couple of vans, you've got a building, you've got a
• 30:33
  experience center of larger office.
• 30:36
  You're, you're doing a couple 1,000,000 bucks a year.
• 30:39
  Yeah, you, you're looking, you know, all of a sudden five
• 30:42
  points on a million or two or three or four means compelling.
• 30:45
  It's a lot different. Yeah, right.
• 30:47
  You're, you're leaving money on on the roadside.
• 30:49
  So certainly that's that's where that conversation needs to needs
• 30:52
  to happen. Yeah, agreed.
• 30:55
  All right. I think that's a pretty good,
• 30:57
  that's a pretty good overview, I I would say, wouldn't you?
• 30:59
  I hope so, yeah. I mean, like I said, all I did
• 31:01
  was blabber. I kind of blacked out for a
• 31:04
  minute. Just came to you that.
• 31:05
  Was the idea right? You you suddenly put on your
• 31:08
  your, your job hat and it was like a different Jason washed
• 31:11
  over you. And here we go.
• 31:12
  It's terrible. It's it's like The Incredible
• 31:14
  Hulk. I'm like.
• 31:16
  I'm always selling. I'm in.
• 31:18
  I'm in shattered clothes and walking down the side of the
• 31:22
  road, you know, with a exactly, you know, the one, the best one.
• 31:26
  The best one the. Best one all right.
• 31:29
  Well, hey, as always, thanks for joining us.
• 31:32
  And you know, if, if, if you've got thoughts on buying groups,
• 31:34
  hit us up man. Hit us up
• 31:36
  shootusanemailinsideintegration@gmail.com or on the Insta at Inside Under
• 31:41
  Score Integration and we'll catch you next time.
• 31:45
  Take care everybody. Bye bye.