Axis Secretly Paid Anixter Sales People To Push Axis NVRs

This is nothing new... but hell, if you think that's a big deal, Tri-Ed has been getting paid by Sony for YEARS to have....

[IPVM note: The original comment was wrong and 2 agreed that it was wrong.

The fact is that many manufacturers, including Sony, Axis (many others), pay / subsidize distributors having distributor employee who is the product champion / specialist for that manufacturer. Obviously, having a distributor employee dedicated to a single manufacturer's product helps that distributor think of / recommend / support the manufacturer better, but requires the manufacturer to pay extra for.]

There was an in-house Sony BDM at Norbain here in the UK for many years.

its not in place now, but it's cost was approx. £75k per annum - all paid direct to Norbain, who paid approx. 50% of that sum to the employee.

Think there are some manufacturers still with this arrangement to this day. Whether they will keep this going now Norbain is going 'full Hikvision' we shall have to see.

Spiffs were common in security distribution in the 90's, and a significant source of income for me. But mine were more on the order of five bucks per motion or glass break detector.

At issue is that manufacturers and distributors work at cross purposes to each other. Manufacturers don't care where you buy their products (which distributor), just that you buy THEIR products. Distributors don't care what product you buy (which manufacturer), just that you buy it from THEM. What incentive does a distributor salesperson have in switching a customer from one manufacturer to another? If anything, he/she may make life more complicated pushing a customer into a new product. Spiffs made the case. I didn't know they were still around.

It's been a while since I've been involved in distribution, but at least a few years ago everything was open to the highest bidder. Not only spiffs, but the signage in the distributor's office, the hallways and even the break room. (I don't remember seeing ads in the bathroom but that wouldn't surprise me.)

The even charged manufacturers to put their products in the test/support lab. What this means is that only the manufacturers who paid extra would get their products physically in front of the employees who are recommending the products.

Catalog placement was also up to the highest bidder (like I said it was a few years ago.) You want your products first in the listing, just pay more. Want your product to have a color photo? Pay more.

This is just the way it works (or at least it used to.) You have to pay to play.

I honestly don't see this as a huge deal (since it has been commonplace for a while), but I do see one potential drawback. While Anixter and it's subsidiaries are pushing Axis products to get their $150 spiff ADI has been pushing Hikvision. The Hikvision products are so low cost that the $150 is more costly than half their products sell price. In order to subsidize this spiff Axis has to sell the product for a greater price to the distributor, which in-turn passes down the line making them less attractive to the end user.

This is true, axis has always been good with offering incentives of some sort to the sales guys.

there were three or four during my tenure at Anixter

I don't see any issue with Spiffs. It's part of sales. I don't know why a sales person would need to disclose his compensation for a given sale. That is his personal business and the buyer has no right to that info.

Meh, We almost never rely on a distributor for product recommendations and will make up our own minds based on evidence and testing. Most the time the Distributors are not product experts anyway and we always assume they have their own motivations and drivers. This is nothing new and IPVM have over-sensationalised a common practice in many industries. It would be nice to know that a disty has a higher margin or cut if they sell one product over another but I can see why they wouldnt disclose such. Most of my Disty's will tell me openly if they are prefer product A over Product B because their mark-up is better or there is an incentive on.

Spike Anderson was AXIS Canada National Business Development Manager, New Solutions - now his Director of Global Security Integrators, Anixter