Midland Distribution

Midland Distribution

Midland Distribution goes under the microscope with Peter Liley, sales manager

Where?

1 Colwick Quays Business Park, Colwick, Nottingham NG4 2JY.

What are the key areas your business concentrates on distributing?

As we are an equity partner with Orange, so the products and services we distribute are the Orange products. Almost all - 90% - of our partners’

connections are business connections, most of which are in the SME segment. The commission we pay for Orange BlackBerry connections is generous and our BlackBerry handset prices are competitive, so our overall BlackBerry connections are increasing dramatically.

What is your company’s USP?

Working with Orange provides us with a number of unique benefits. One of the most important as far as our customers are concerned is our knowledge of the products and the Orange systems, how they work and how to get things done speedily so that everyone one benefits.

Where are you investing in or expanding your portfolio?

Our focus is increasingly data sales; we are working with our suppliers and business partners to increase sales in this sector as voice is becoming a decreasing revenue stream for the networks; more minutes are being supplied for less money at every tariff refresh, and even data is being supplied free of charge within the Orange tariffs in order to encourage its use and make the customer stickier.

What is your view of the past year in distribution?

The last year has been interesting with the introduction of ongoing revenue. We have had to work harder in order to make sure that our business partner’s cash flow is at its maximum with regard to payment of the connection commission and bonuses. We have always paid commissions on a weekly basis; now we have added all the bonuses at the point of connection rather than on a monthly basis.

What is at the top of your company’s agenda for the next 12 months?

We want to develop sales in areas we have not operated in before, for example Scotland and Northern Ireland are particular target areas. We are currently working on developing these areas with the benefit of the recruitment to our company of Tracey Thornton- Clark, an experienced business manager within the industry.

What are your top tips for dealers selling your products?

Work with a financially stable supplier, make sure that your ongoing revenue will be paid out for years to come. There is a lot of rationalisation within the industry; networks seem to be polarising to distributors that specialise in their product. Make sure that your ongoing revenue for a particular network is not lost in this process. Choose your suppliers wisely now so that you can work with them to move your business forward in the future. Ongoing revenue will become an ever increasing part of the financial reward for dealers, so you should gear up now to target the market that offers the highest ongoing revenue by providing a specialist service.

What are your latest or up and coming dealer incentives?

We are working with Orange and Rim to introduce an incentive for Blackberry sales which is scheduled to start on 1 July.

What do you see as the best mobile out there for business right now, and why?

Blackberry Curve, as we charge £100 plus VAT for the phone and when it is connected to Blackberry BES tariff it provides the end user a solid email platform. Our business partner receives £267commision for the BES connection in addition to the voice commission, plus an additional ongoing revenue of £54 over 24 months plus the voice ongoing revenue; a very profitable connection.

What are your views on femtocells in the mobile arena?

Orange has pioneered the concept of voice over a WiFi connection with its UMA phones. These allow a connection to any broadband connection with permission, giving voice access which deducts minutes from the customers tariff on outgoing calls. Calls can be made and received via this process providing much better coverage in all areas.

How has the recession affected your business or the way it works with partners?

The recession has made everyone processing connections much more interested in the credit worthiness of their customers. We have a special package for credit checks to assist our customers in researching the credit scores of future prospects so that they concentrate their efforts with customers who are likely to pass a credit check and stay in business. Our business partners are having to recruit more customers in order to do the same amount of connections. Overall our connections are holding up particularly as upgrades are increasing dramatically, probably due to the increased commissions we are providing for upgrades.

Key personnel

Clare Kinson-Smith, fulfilment manager: “We offer a complete fulfilment service for business connections. Call centres use our service in order to make sure that fraud and bad debt are kept to a minimum which maximises their profit. There is an authentication process at the front end of our web portal which confirms that the person is who they say they are and live where they say they live. This process is not a credit check, does not leave a foot print on their credit file but reduces fraud to less that 1% for sole traders and partnerships. We also process all the credit checks and despatch directly to our business partner or normally to the customer. This complete service leaves our business partner to get on with selling and making more profit.”

Airtime: Orange

Handsets: HTC – LG – Motorola – Nokia – Samsung - Sony Ericson - Blackberry

Accessories:Parrot car kits

Services: Verification, connection and despatch fulfilment service.