Don’t you just hate it when that happens…

Once in a while you buy a pair of jeans that just don’t fit right. The inseam is cut wrong, the fabric is itchy and they’re just way too tight in the crotch. Usually you try on your clothes before you buy them, but this pair looked good on the rack. So you just verified the waist and inseam, 32 x 32… perfect, and headed for the checkout line.

Bad idea.

In November of 2008, AC Tool Supply signed a distributor agreement with Extech Instruments. This was the perfect opportunity to add to our array of test and measurement equipment, as well as our line of thermal imaging cameras, right?

Wrong.

I knew something was wrong form the first email. “How can you compare a Fluke TiR1 to a FLIR b60?” the email asked. Which was promptly followed by a “…this is very disconcerting” as well as “…maybe we need to reevaluate your distribution contract”. It took some digging, but I finally figured out what happened... we ran into an infrared camera company that has never sold its product through distribution before. Well, at least not in the sense that their newly acquired Extech division has. This lack of distribution has created an in-house sales force that’s never had to deal with the competition of nationwide distribution. Now, there are sales representatives that are forced to compete with "post-merger" Extech distributors with access to these infrared thermal imaging cameras, at distributor prices. These sales reps are no-doubtedly sporting diminished sales figures. This turned out to be the "itchy fabric" and "tight crotch" of the jeans that looked just fine on the rack. After a large amount of advertising dollars going toward promoting the products of the Extech Company, we soon found out that the head of US distribution was denying distributors the right to market and ultimately sell their cameras.

What this business practice creates is a problem that they may not realize they have yet. The inability to adapt to an evolving market. With industry finding new applications for infrared imaging everyday and the technology becoming much more affordable, thermography is growning at an exponential rate. Without the power of distribution, they will condemn themselves to their worst nightmare... the #2 spot in a market they originally created. Their most potent competition in the thermal imaging arena is the Fluke Corporation. Fluke is currently making affordable camera models, very comparable to almost any infrared camera available. Sprinke in the fact that Fluke is the world leader in test and measurement, add a pinch of that “distributor friendly” business strategy, and you’ve got a recipe for market share takeover. This will easily make Fluke the market leader in thermal imaging equipment inside the next 10 years, maybe sooner.

So, what can we learn from this? That you can’t teach an old dog new tricks? That natural selection is happening all around us? Maybe it’s that greed can ultimately cost you everything. We'll see how this is handled, that is if they realize what's happening before it's too late. If you take anything from the last 90 seconds you spent reading this, I hope its that the little guy is what makes this country so great, not the salary monkey sitting in his leather executive chair telling people who can and can’t sell their products. In the big picture, if you yank your products out of the hands of the hungry little go-getter, you’re dooming your commercial future. That’s my opinion.


Christopher Mayes, President / CEO
AC Tool Supply, Inc.
2211 S. 48th St. Suite E
Tempe, AZ 85282
(877) 207-1244
www.aikencolon.com