The Local Advantage

Almost every week I hear from one of my customers that it is such a huge benefit to have my warehouse located locally where they can send someone by to pick up some urgent cables. We have offered this will call service to all local accounts, and every day we get resellers, installers, and even distributors coming by to pick up product that is needed immediately. Professional Cable carries a large inventory of the most common items that they need - bulk CAT6 wire, HDMI cables, SVGA cables, CAT5e cables, etc. In addition to these common items, we carry the harder to find things, like PCMCIA to Express card adapters, gender changers, DVI to HDMI converters, etc. We offer good prices, but I don't think any service we provide can compare to the benefit of being local.

I used to work for System Connection in Provo. At the time they were one of the largest cable manufactures in the USA. Even larger than Belkin for some time. Rick McCloskey the president had a philosophy that I still think is great. He wanted to become the first world-wide local cable company. Unfortunately this never came to pass. But his idea was genius. I can't compete with a company in Ohio, say Cables To Go, when it comes to selling to resellers in Ohio. I'm not there. My pricing might be better (and it is). My products might be equally good or better (which they are) and my service might be superior (which it is). However, when that value-added reseller needs 20 patch cables today for an installation and they did not bring in the cables in advance, who do you think will get the order? That's right. The local cable company.

I'm fortunate to live in a hot-bed of technology companies. Novell is 10 minutes to the south. Iomega is 45 minutes to the north. Omniture, Altirus, and countless other smaller technology companies are all close by. And who do you think they are going to turn to every time they need a cable? That's right. Good old Professional Cable. They know that whatever it is they need, we'll have it. We are the Wal-Mart of cables & adapters. You know when you need a light bulb, some laundry detergent, some cereal, and a pair of socks, that you can go to Wal-Mart and get it all in one stop.

For our customers in Utah, we are only a day away via UPS. An account in St. George, Logan, or Sandy knows that if they order a USB hub today, it will be in their store tomorrow. The further away from the target area, the harder it is to compete.

Now we have many many customers on the east coast. Luckily for us, these customers find that the pricing, quality, and service are worth the wait. But I'm sure that for the urgent needs, I probably lose out to some small local company. I can't compete with same day delivery or will call. That is what Rick McCloskey knew. He needed to take his company to the large cities where lots of resellers and VAR partners would be located. Put stock there in satellite warehouse, and sales reps in the field. It's a good idea. I know that Belkin has opened other warehouses in other cities. It's hard to compete with Chicago-based Tripp Lite if you are located in Compton, CA. So Belkin took the company to the customers.

I've mentioned a lot of other cable companies. I know my competition well. We are adding new customers every day because we are a little different than the competition. Our products are priced well for the savvy VARs who know that you pay way too much for the big names. Our customers know that we offer a life-time warranty on our cables and that our quality is equal or superior to our competitors' products. But what I hear more than anything is that our service cannot be matched. We're smaller than most of these mega-companies, and our customers really appreciate the support that we give them and they don't sacrifice anything.

If you'd like to add a little more margin to your invoices and deal directly with experts in the cable industry who care about your business, please call Professional Cable 801-928-8844. We'll pick up the phone and help you like no other cable company in the world. Professional Cable.