How We Do It

So, here goes:

 

1. Direct sale. This is key. Dealers double the cost. Do you like your dealer that much? Companies selling through a typical rep-distributor-dealer model are at about a 2x cost disadvantage to direct sale. Period. End of story. The old distribution model is like nuclear waste–you don’t want to get too much on you.

 

2. Very efficient production engineering. The reality is that if we are good at anything, we’re good production engineers. During my tenure at Sumo, I reduced the active parts inventory by over 80%, while doubling the product line. Mike, at Theta, ran a business that was 8x more efficient than the benchmarks at that time. We are very good at production engineering, and building stuff in large quantities.

 

3. We are very good at saying “no.” No super-zowie gold-plated chassis milled out of a solid block of metal. No color options. No custom configurations. No flavor of the month, special editions, touched-by-the-Designer’s-hand models. No sales. No promos. No special deals. No “name” parts for the sake of “name” parts. No “handbuilt by happy elves in Wichita.” No palacial office building. No pricing-because-that’s-what-the-competition-costs. Every one of these things increases the price, so we don’t do them.

 

And yeah, I know, our model isn’t for everyone. Sometimes we seem inflexible and curt. But that’s only because we are really focused on one thing: delivering great products at lowest cost, while maintaining local production. If that’s for you, great. If it isn’t, then there are plenty of other options out there.