Laying Tiles: Why We Don't Rush the Dealer Network

From time to time we hear this criticism: “You are hard to reach, you don’t grant a dealership in every province, your voice is too quiet.” This post is an honest answer from the inside — because you are partly right, and part of it comes from a deliberate choice.

Laying the roof like tiles

A dealer network can be built in two ways. The first is fast: you grant a dealership to every applicant, open three sales points in the same city, and the revenue signboard grows. The price is just as clear — three points selling the same product race each other downwards on price; as margin melts, service melts, and in the end all three points are resentful. The spiral we described in our essays on the sector’s price wars usually begins exactly like this.

The second way is slow: like laying roof tiles. Each tile overlaps the previous one in a set order; you leave no gaps, and you don’t pile them on top of each other. You don’t open a second sales point in a region while the first one can still earn its bread. This is the way we chose. We know its cost too: in some regions we make people say “I wish they were more visible”. But we would rather enter a region late than have a dealer resent us.

A relationship that starts face to face

Most of our dealer relationships began at a fair stand, face to face. There is nothing romantic about this; the reason is practical. Doors and automation are not a business you decide on by browsing a catalogue — you want to see how the person across from you looks at the product, at their work, at their word. So we put our weight on conversation, not campaigns. Slow, but solid.

In defence of transparent pricing

The same philosophy has a pricing leg. Our prices are simple and the same for everyone; whoever asks sees the same table. We make nobody advantageous over anybody with the “special list just for you” game — because that game has no winner, only dealers resentful of one another. For those who miss the thrill of haggling it may seem colourless; but the insurance policy of a ten-year dealer relationship is not the first day’s bargain — it is every day’s consistency.

Compensating for the light touch: the self-sufficient dealer

We also handed the remedy for the “centrally managed, light field touch” criticism to technology. On the r-technic portal, the wiring diagrams, setup and commissioning videos of all control boards sit step by step — English versions included. Dealers abroad whose faces we have never seen commission their systems with these videos; at home, the question that strikes a technician at midnight is usually solved by a two-minute clip. Strengthening the dealer to stand on their own feet instead of keeping them dependent on us — that is not an excuse for our light touch, but it is its remedy.

The tiles go down slowly; but the roof they make does not leak. We are glad to meet every colleague who trusts their work and their word and is looking for a place under this roof — our door is open.