Should I become a DirecTV retailer?

[Scherrman]

Hi everyone. I am a Dish Network retailer and have been considering becoming a DirecTV retailer also. I just want to hear some opinions from other people. Anyone here have any experience being a Dish and DirecTV retailer? I'd love to hear some input. Thanks

 

[boba]

I think D* treats their dealers better than DISH BUT I wouldn't recommend entering into a contract right now with either service. Both are trying to eliminate the independant dealer and take everything in house so you only have a future if you can become their employee. Most of us became independant dealers because we didn't like being employees.

 

[Scherrman]

The sales rep that I talked to seemed to push the fact that they are very dealer friendly. Seemed like DirecTV was getting better with retailers. I'm just weighing my options. It would seem like a great sales opportunity to sell both products, but i'm not sure if we can handle learning 2 sets of business rules and inventory.

 

[Arse69]

If you want to make a decent living in the satellite tv business, you need to offer both.

 

[Scherrman]

arse, do you have any experience selling both? I would like to hear some experiences with managing both of them. We've been a Dish retailer over 10 years, and was a DirecTV retailer before that for a little while.

 

[PATECO]

If you want to make a decent living in the satellite tv business, you need to offer both.

I agree wholeheartedly! It would suck to have to turn away a customer because they wanted something only available on the other service. Let the customer decide which is the best service for their needs, but you need to offer both.

For example, you will sometimes find a retail store that only sells COKE or only PEPSI, but the most sucessfull retailers sell BOTH!

 

[Scherrman]

I agree with that. The only thing that worries me is keeping up with both technologies and business rules. It can be a pain just keeping up with one.

 

[Arse69]

Its not hard keeping up with both. You just have to be on top of things. Know the differences between both, including current promotions. Be the satellite professional in your home town.

 

[Scherrman]

I think it would be great to offer both. We sell appliances, TV's, antennas, and Dish Network. We'd have everything covered other than crappy cable.

 

[damjr]

Its not hard keeping up with both. You just have to be on top of things. Know the differences between both, including current promotions. Be the satellite professional in your home town.

Agreed. I work for a wholesale distributor for Dish and we were the distributor for Direct before Dish.

Both have positives and negatives as do most business ventures. You will have to chase money with both companies and dedicate your life to both companies if you're going to be successful.

For DirecTv just make sure you get any promises in writing.
If they won't put it in writing don't expect it.

But if you're going to make any money in todays satellite world you will need to offer both. The best piece of advise I can give you is to make one your primary and the other a backup. If you try to sell both to a customer at the same time you will find the customer to have more questions about which service to get than they did when they first decided to go with satellite. This is turn will cause most customers to hold off on making a buying decision until they are now more informed and do more homework.

Now I know I'm probably going to get some negative response from some on this board for that last statement, but most on this board are not "Joe Public". With over 20 years in this business both in retail and distribution I have seen that the retailers that offer both E*& D* are no where near as successful as the retailers that just offer one.

Just my $.02

 

[Scherrman]

It's a tough decision to make. Sounds like it would be easy to make a ton of satellite sales, but I think there's more to it. Great responses so far.

 

[skyviewmark]

Have to agree with many.. In todays world you have to sell both.. If another DBS company starts up, I intend to sell it too.. Direct does seem to be easier to deal with as far as I am concerned, However Dish Network is paying much, much better and faster.. But I will continue to do both.

 

[damjr]

It's a tough decision to make. Sounds like it would be easy to make a ton of satellite sales, but I think there's more to it. Great responses so far.

:haha Well I don't know about easy. Trust me it will be work. You will no longer have a personal life. You will be married to the business if you are going to succeed.

But as I said before, you will want both services. There are customers that have to have the NFL Sunday Ticket, or local channels that may not be offered by the competitor, or HD channels for that matter. Both have something the other doesn't. Just qualify your customer by finding out his or her needs and then sell them what they need.

It's just that simple.

 

[KAB]

I know nothing about the sat retail business, but i would think it beneficial to the customer to have both, and direct their programming/sports/premium/budget desires to the one that fits their needs best.

 

[Scherrman]

I may have a meeting with DirecTV's rep and see what the figures look like. When he was here earlier, he made it sound like they pay well and have good co-op for advertising. I'll have to compare it to what we're making now.

 

[Scherrman]

Anyone here actually sell both?

 

[damjr]

Anyone here actually sell both?

As I stated before I'm the distributor. If you have any questions regarding dealer economics just PM me. This is not the forum for that kind of discussion.

 

[Celltech123]

Shermann, I work for a company that sells both. It is nice to be able to sell the customer something instead of nothing. I am an installer but have been on the sales side also. Not too far from you actually.

We sell alot more Dish than Direct but it is mainly because of no locals in our area on Direct. That usually breaks a Direct deal. But if the customer wants something that Dish doesnt offer we can usually set em up with Direct.

 

[Scherrman]

It does sound like a good idea, just making sure we won't be hurting ourselves in the long run in any way.