NVA Field Agents

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savvypaul
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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by savvypaul »

TheMadMick wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 8:26 am
Without an ongoing commitment, the scheme would simply be a way for people to buy kit at 45% discount. Do you have an answer to that?
[/quote]

Require a deposit refundable under your terms.

By the by, you may need to be careful about HMRC. If the "agents" are solely in you service then HMRC may well treat them as employees no matter what title you give them. Remember Uber. That means pension, paid holidays etc.
[/quote]

Thanks, Mick,

There are a few different options for how to structure the arrangements between NVA and the agent(s). Be assured that, whatever we eventually decide on, we will stay on the right side of HMRC.
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https://nvahifi.co.uk/

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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by savvypaul »

karatestu wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:10 am My post is related to only geographical placement of the agents (makes me think of The Matrix for some reason :grin: ).

Five or six agents need to be spread out amongst the area you are intending to cover. Does that include Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland ? Scotland would need one agent imo. London is another obvious location for an agent. One in Wales ? That's three already. Are you intending to cover the North of England from Durham Paul ? And does your estimation of five or six agents include you or not ?

If you are covering the North of England Paul then that leaves the South West, Midlands, Yorkshire / Lancashire conurbation, Eastern counties. I suppose an agent situated in Birmingham could cover Wales as well as the Midlands. A London based agent could cover a fair amount of area too but the South West ?

It has to be fair to each agent ie the area they cover and population or potential market. The further you have to travel to do a demonstration then the greater the amount of time spent and the greater the costs for an agent. Have you means to analyse where your sales are coming from ?

It must be a balancing act between keeping agents content, customers happy and making it worthwhile for NVA. If all are happy then result.

I am sure you have thought through all this already Paul.
'Balancing act' is spot on. An agent will want a large enough area to give them plenty of leads, but there will be a limit to how far they can commit to travel. My very simplistic method is to ask each potential agent to tell me how far they will travel to do a dem. If they tell me that they will travel a max of 50 miles each way, for example, then their territory becomes everywhere within a 50 mile radius of their home. If a lead comes in with an address within that radius, the agent gets the lead (assuming they stock the item(s) that the customer wants to hear).
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https://nvahifi.co.uk/

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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by savvypaul »

Fretless wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:11 am NVA NL ????

I have been giving this some serious thought as a possible extra source of income. My own business is a small-scale meeting/training-centre which means that I have a suitable space for demonstrating audio gear and holding a bake-off. My own advertising is via website, Google and Facebook - an NVA agency would run on the same platforms. Location is good as I am situated right in the middle of a very small country about one hour's drive from most major cities. Also it is quite simply an extension of my own hobby which means that any extra knowledge and expertise builds on things I am already familiar with.

RD did try something similar and I did get a couple of potential NVA customers in for a demo of my humble installation. Although I am not sure how successful that was. The Netherlands does have a fairly healthy audiophile community and NVA has had a presence here in the past.

Main obstacle is the initial investment in a demo installation and it would mean me dealing directly via Tomasz in Poland (bloody Brexit).

Still pondering. :think:
It's not an easy decision to become an agent...and it shouldn't be. You are, effectively, launching a business.

We are open to the idea of having agents in Europe, provided we can get sufficient coverage.

Dealing with Tomasz isn't so bad ;)
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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by savvypaul »

savvypaul wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:42 am
karatestu wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 9:10 am My post is related to only geographical placement of the agents (makes me think of The Matrix for some reason :grin: ).

Five or six agents need to be spread out amongst the area you are intending to cover. Does that include Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland ? Scotland would need one agent imo. London is another obvious location for an agent. One in Wales ? That's three already. Are you intending to cover the North of England from Durham Paul ? And does your estimation of five or six agents include you or not ?

If you are covering the North of England Paul then that leaves the South West, Midlands, Yorkshire / Lancashire conurbation, Eastern counties. I suppose an agent situated in Birmingham could cover Wales as well as the Midlands. A London based agent could cover a fair amount of area too but the South West ?

It has to be fair to each agent ie the area they cover and population or potential market. The further you have to travel to do a demonstration then the greater the amount of time spent and the greater the costs for an agent. Have you means to analyse where your sales are coming from ?

It must be a balancing act between keeping agents content, customers happy and making it worthwhile for NVA. If all are happy then result.

I am sure you have thought through all this already Paul.
'Balancing act' is spot on. An agent will want a large enough area to give them plenty of leads, but there will be a limit to how far they can commit to travel. My very simplistic method is to ask each potential agent to tell me how far they will travel to do a dem. If they tell me that they will travel a max of 50 miles each way, for example, then their territory becomes everywhere within a 50 mile radius of their home. If a lead comes in with an address within that radius, the agent gets the lead (assuming they stock the item(s) that the customer wants to hear).
PS. Yes, I would be one of the agents, initially anyway. I would want to experience the same issues and opportunities that the other agents are dealing with. Doing so will make NVA better.
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CycleCoach (Thu Aug 26, 2021 2:34 pm)
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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by CN211276 »

[quote=karatestu post_id=223283 time=1629965410 user_id=29157I suppose an agent situated in Birmingham could cover Wales as well as the Midlands.


[/quote]

That could be the best solution as transport links between North and South Wales are terrible. The alternative would be an agent in SW England covering S Wales and one in NW England covering N Wales.
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savvypaul (Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:02 pm)
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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by DaveyTed »

Anything that promotes and sells NVA has got to be good but I think an agent could put a lot of time and effort into little reward.
Travel time and costs, including congestion charges for an agent running into even the outer London areas, would be substantial without any guarantee of a return. Even if a sale is made the customer could choose to return the goods after extended listening,
Also Paul is advising of substantial price rises which could put NVA products out of the reach of many more people.
For me, personally, the 30 day trial is the ideal because I can audition in my own time over a longer period. I'm sure we all appreciate how extended listening can reveal a system's weaknesses - it took me a while to notice listening to some material was far from relaxing with my previous class D amplifier although initially I thought it faultless.

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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by savvypaul »

Direct sales with 30 day home trial is great on paper, but it doesn't get NVA in front of enough people. Richard sold a lot through home audition and people visiting his house. He had the advantage of being close to London and the draw of being the original designer. We have to find a way to succeed on our own terms.

Field agents are an idea to put NVA into more people's ears without using mainstream dealers. Mainstream dealers will mean price rises that will make any component driven price rises look like chicken feed.

The world is full of people who can only tell you why something won't work. Nobody ever remembers their names.
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Lindsayt (Fri Aug 27, 2021 12:01 am)
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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by valvesRus »

savvypaul wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 10:46 pm

The world is full of people who can tell you why something won't work.
Some of them would be negative people who can't see a genuine opportunity.

Others would be realists who see the opportunities but have enough experience to know that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

I'm probably in the second group.

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Re: NVA Field Agents

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valvesRus wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:15 pm
savvypaul wrote: Thu Aug 26, 2021 10:46 pm

The world is full of people who can tell you why something won't work.
Some of them would be negative people who can't see a genuine opportunity.

Others would be realists who see the opportunities but have enough experience to know that the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

I'm probably in the second group.
I'm interested in the 3rd group - those that can see both the opportunities and the challenges, and then find ways of overcoming the latter and seizing the former. They are the people I want to work with. They are the people who enrich my life...and yours. Richard was one of them.
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CycleCoach (Thu Aug 26, 2021 11:59 pm)
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Re: NVA Field Agents

Unread post by Lindsayt »

I can't go with the negativity on this.

There's too much that's unknown about this venture.
So much so that anyone saying it wouldn't work or wouldn't be worth it is just guessing.

It has to be put to the test to see if it will work.

As humans it's very much in our nature to make decisions on emotions. More so than on logic and reasoning.

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