We’ve been hearing for weeks about an effort by media server marker Kaleidescape to quietly hire sales representative companies around the country. Not quiet anymore, Kaleidescape officially announced today that it has augmented its direct sales force with a group of eight independent sales representative companies.
See more on this widely anticipated development…
We first heard of the company’s plans to hire outside rep firms months ago from then VP of Sales Mark Weisenberg, just before he left the company. Although the company did not replace Weisenberg, apparently, they’ve gone ahead and executed the plan to hire these new reps.
The company’s announcement calls this move “a strategic cornerstone” of the decision to launch a “restructuring of the U.S. sales operations.” The “primary objective” of this restructuring, the release says, is to support “Kaleidescape’s continuing expansion into lower price point[s], higher volume product segments.”
No mention of who these reps are…
Although the release does not name the firms hired, we are told that these are “leading” rep firms located in Metro New York, Mid-Atlantic, Florida, Greater Los Angeles, the Mountain States, Texas, the Great Lakes, and New England.
“Today, we’re joining forces with some of the nation’s most respected and experienced manufacturer rep firms to make the Kaleidescape experience a more profitable one for dealers in our best-performing markets,” Cheena Srinivasan, Kaleidescape co-founder and CEO in a prepared statement. “It is a very exciting period for our company and we’re proud to welcome these accomplished professionals to our team.”
A slow starter…
The lower price point and higher volume product segment the release refers to is likely a reference to the company’s new Alto model introduced at the end of last year. This model is less expensive than their traditional product line which the company was forced to change when they lost a lawsuit with the DVD CCA.
The DVD CCA was successful in forcing Kaleidescape to discontinue selling their server products that allowed users to copy Blu-ray and DVD discs on to a hard drive. In the case of Alto, users can purchase movies for download and viewing from the company.
In spite of a push earlier this year to introduce Alto, we’ve had several Kaleidescape dealers tell us that the model has been a slow starter for them. It is possible that the company hopes to pick up sales by expanding their sales force with this move.
Learn more about Kaleidescape at: www.kaleidescape.com.
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