Sound and Communications - July 2008 Issue

Full Discount Wholesaleis the premier supplier ofProfessional Audio, Video,A/V and Lighting equipmentto resellers and contractors.FDW Offers:Extensive InventoryLow Cost ShippingNo Minimum OrderHundreds of the Top BrandsFriendly, Experienced Sales ProsExceptional Customer ServiceBlind Drop Ship Capabilitythey weren’t on the work orders,and all the other factors (listed later,and more), they are getting paid. Thequestion is this: Is your companyowner keeping the profits your salesdepartment promised?The basic point of this rant is simple:When the piranhas attack, someone hasto, and will, pay for the extra materialsand the manpower required; thequestion becomes, who? If their “attack”was anticipated, there is a fair chanceof survival. If not, there is a betterchance that even the slightest “nip”will cause uncontrollable losses.So, who is responsible here? Whoare the people best suited to ensurethat the piranha won’t bite? Everyonewho has anything to do with a projecthas a role here. As a general rule, thelarger the company, and more departments(sales, design, engineering,management purchasing, warehousing,shipping, field management),the greater the risk to be savagelydevoured. I’ve seen it happen. Thissituation permits every departmentto point at every other department asthe source of failure. Funny but, atthe end of the day, everybody did hisjob perfectly, yet the company loseshundreds to thousands.Company owners should have asit-down session with all productionpersonnel (yes, even the installers),give everyone a copy of this to readand then open the floor for discussion.Some of these issues raisecomplex questions with even morecomplex answers, but that does notmake the issues or their consequencesgo away. Some are simple questionswith even more devastating consequencesif they remain unanswered,and your subcontractors or, worse,your own installers, get to a job anddon’t have the proper tools, materials,information or knowledge tocomplete the project. At some point,you do have to talk about the tutuwearingpink elephant sitting overin the corner doing shots. Someone,at some point, has to ask these questions…andhave answers.Ultimately, those answers are foundby providing a strict level of accountabilityand a detail of exactly who isresponsible for what. A precise “whoshall do what” list certainly will varyfrom contractor to contractor, but onething is for certain: The field installersaren’t being productive when theyhave to go to Home Depot twice aday, and spend two to three hours onthe phone with the purchasing agentarguing over the wrong-sized rackdoors. Obtaining accurate and usefuljobsite information is helpful but,when possible, have the actual installersscout the location and providetheir insight as to what situations willhave to be addressed.Although this outline covers many,but certainly not all, of the piranhafactors that must be considered,reviewed and evaluated prior to aninstallation taking place, it is imperativethat Mr. Murphy, his minionsand the havoc they impart be considered,as well. For example, just today,I visited a church where we willbe installing a projector and screen.The customer ordered the projectorand a “universal” mount from adiscount catalog. Guess what? Theuniversal mount—isn’t. It will requiredrilling and other modifications.Oh, and by the way, there wereno screws to mount the “universalmount” to the projector—and theyare metric—and I have to go findthem tomorrow. So? The physicalaction of simply removing a projectorand mount from the packaging andassembling the basic parts—somethingthat should have taken only 10to 15 minutes—in reality will takebetween three to fours hours to complete.And I forgot to mention…theprojector was defective, too.Let’s say the salesman priced a projectcompetitively—very. He assumedthat your award-winning, lightningfast(close-to-minimum-wage-paid),MIT-trained installers with jet hoverpacks would install the job. But, in reality,Bubba and his untrained traineewho was hired yesterday (he sayshe saw a microphone once, but can’tspell it yet…or probably ever) wasscheduled to do the job. This factoralone can destroy any hope of bringinga job in under budget. nto be continued....