I've been pretty mild mannered on this forum to date. Tried to help where I can. But a couple of posts on this thread have annoyed me. Not annoyed me as much as our handling of COVID or the inequality of income distribution around the world. But annoyed me in comparison to the vast majority of stuff I've read on the forum. So here is my Jerry Maguire piece.
The next time there's a post with people complaining about the lack of interaction from sponsors, I'm just going to link back to this thread - this is exactly why people don't bother to sponsor or interact with the forum anymore, Online Stockist couldn't be further away from what "CBF" supposedly stands for (and I'm not a sponsor before anyone moans!)
I should probably add as I didn't really explain myself, I have no issue with OLS and totally appreciate they have a place in the market which many will utilise.
It's just CBF was supposed to be the "Custom Bats Forum". Championing British brands, especially those who make their bats from the raw cleft, whereas lately it just appears to be totally the opposite (and thus less input from the brands it was initially aimed at!).
@Neon Cricket, I would love to give you the benefit of the doubt on these. As you wrote later, maybe something has got lost in translation. But I can't I'm afraid. There just seems to be too much vitriol for it to be a question of wording.
Tom has already debunked that CBF is just for "British" companies. He helped set it up to open up discussion on crickets brands, not restrict it. I really value the breadth of brands on the forum. The fact that it includes also posts about training, management of club affairs, thoughts on international matches as well. It's interesting and useful.
Secondly, I think you have vastly misread your audience if you believe you'll get much empathy that forumites are to blame for sponsors, retail stockists and individual brands failing to interact because, for instance, there is an active discussion about an Indian supplier. A somewhat tricky position to defend when you, by your own admission, resell Indian supplied goods.
I'll now quote the last post on the thread that annoyed me and then wrap things together hopefully with a little useful advice.
Also worth noting that there are now a couple of others in Scott Cricket and Reaper that are really trying to offer some input and share pics of what they like me are offering and bar maybe one or two 1 line posts there isn’t 2 pages of comments or views or feedback like this can get about some gloves from OLS.
Hell iv had at least 5 who have messaged, sent pics argued about price, finally agreed or got beaten into submission and agreed a price and then never pay or reply again.
Catch 22 basically
I was involved in a discussion about cricket bags a couple of weeks ago. I pleaded for any suppliers on the forum to get involved in the discussion. The silence was deafening.
For a small, medium or even large business a forum like this can provide not only sales leads, but really valuable insight about what we are thinking about with our kit and our cricketing lives in general.
Take soups. Fresh soups, canned soups, vegetable soups, broths etc. Is there a soup drinkers forum? Not that I can find. So soup manufacturers get their information from sales analysis, analysis of their competitors' sales (if they can get it), market research, and product research. That all costs money. Actually quite a lot of money and probably too much for most small and medium sized businesses.
So Neon Cricket and Soulman, this forum can give you first hand research at the cost of some of your time, and even better quality research if you get involved and ask the right questions. So what, if we're discussing what an Indian supplier provides? Look at what we're purchasing and understand why. Read, listen, and think. Innovate and offer things that are not homogenous and come down to price. And that includes products, after sales service, pre sales service to name a couple. It might even get to a level of understanding where you accept that you can't compete on a particular product and no longer stock it. At least you won't be losing money on it.
Coming back to my plea on cricket bags, more members than I imagined said they were willing to spend a decent amount of money on a bag, but wanted it to last for longer than a season or two, and didn't care so much about platinum lined beer holders, or ocean fried shoe compartments. My particular gripe was zips on cricket bags. Something that for an extra £4 or so to get YKK versions, means the bag won't be useless after a season and, I'm pretty certain would be a winner with us, and a winner for you if you're quick to market.
Yes, it is tough to run your own business. The effort you have to put in just to keep afloat can be exhausting. Then a pandemic comes along and sales drop off. And to top it all off some of us customers can be a royal pain in the bottom. We can be demanding, uncertain, flighty and tight. But it is a buyers market unfortunately and you have to keep at it despite the setbacks. There is no easy money to be made right now. There will be, that's the way of the economic cycle. But not right now.
If it helps, think about the alternative - sitting in an office all day, with a tosspot of a boss, demanding to know why some dull spreadsheet hasn't been updated five minutes after they've asked and so stand behind you whilst you do it and offer the wisdom of their experience from 20 years ago.
Author
Topic: Online Stockist (Read 9629 times)