5 Reasons: Why Arlenco. The other day I was visiting with a customer in Portland, and his comment was – essentially, “Why should I shop at Arlenco? Arlenco only has 5 locations and Anixter has locations all over the country.” I was grateful for his honesty; but it left me confused. I’m not exactly sure of the point he was making. Benefits? Sure. More of them? Not so sure.
Most of the companies we do business with don’t have national footprints and therefore wouldn’t require supply locations in every county of every state (not to mention the fact that even national distributors run like 10-headed monsters with competing sales people; each operating with a very LOCAL feel.) We have national shipping accounts and the ability to drop ship orders to almost any location on the globe. Our rates and products are easily competitive. In fact, most lines we carry are very “non-proprietary” and open. So what is it?
Years ago I was on an installation in the Clackamas area (Oregon) and we needed some parts. Well, we had an account with ADI; we were based in Salt Lake and had traveled to one of OUR regional accounts to do some work. Couldn’t we just swing by and grab what we needed? Not so fast. Our ADI account was nonexistent and we were treated like a regular street vendor coming off the street to purchase parts. We were a very large Integrator, but not a “National” one. The sales people treated us like an un-important alarm company; we sat at the counter for almost an hour while they tried to get a purchase through.
There’s so much to cover here, but I’ll start with the most beneficial reasons I can think of. I’ve always had MY reasons for loving Arlenco, but maybe we haven’t done the best job of articulating the answers to these questions.
- Small Business – Family owned and operated. Arlenco has been in business from the ’80’s. Thanks to our great customers, we’ve grown organically from scratch. Despite this history, we employ some of the most knowledgable minds in the industry (both in distribution, and in sales).
- We’re happy to be here. Arlenco’s sales people have generally been working for Arlenco for quite some time. Each is dedicated to the company and the eco-system created by it’s ownership. It’s a fantastic company to work for. We’re not perfect, but we want to be.
- We’re fighters. If we’ve learned anything from this past year, it’s this: we’re fighters. We battle daily with manufacturer shipping departments, shipping companies, accounting departments, and sometimes each other (in friendly ways :)). Why? To get you the product you need, as quickly as we can. In times of shortages, it’s nice to have a scrappy-fighter in your corner.
- We’re conveniently located. Each of our locations is conveniently and quickly accessible from the freeway. Each facility is open to each of our customers for free wifi, soda, and quick access to the sales personnel at each location. You aren’t routed through 10 different people when you call. We also offer FREE Access to our training facilities (one at each location). We’ve hosted trainings ranging from manufacturer trainings to conceal-carry trainings. We’ve hosted Alarm Association Luncheons and ESA Trainings. A good healthy alarm-industry is good for ALL of us!
- Non-proprietary lines. This may not seem like a biggie, but take our word for it, it is. We’ve noticed that when distribution channels are consolidated (product not available for purchase through most independent distributors), and when manufacturing squeezes happen, it can be very difficult to get products for installations. A couple of perfect examples are Potter and Napco. We haven’t had many problems getting either of these products into our customer’s hands. Yes, in some cases a Potter product may take 2 weeks, but that’s generally worst case scenario (compared with Honeywell) and an acceptable gap for scheduling installations when compared with the frequent 8 week turn-around happening with other manufacturers.
There are so many other things we could talk about, but just know that we’re happy to serve you!
Come on by, grab a soda in the fridge, and shoot the breeze with our sales staff!
