Hey BSH: Where is your due diligence?

[oldschool]

Ever since BSH entered the U.S. market, they have consistantly jumped over dollars to pick up dimes. They have little to no grasp on the American marketplace, and believe that just because something works in Germany, it should work the same way everywhere else. Just like a five year old child, BSH sees very little beyond the tip of its nose.

The only card BSH has to play these days is product quality, and in recent years even that card is showing up less often in the winning hand. From their marketing approach (or lack there of) to their poorly executed promotions to their lack of aggressiveness in the marketplace to their inability to even accurately project product market reception, BSH continues to dig itself into a hole so deep, they will most likely never dig themselves out.

Their communication is perhaps their worst problem. Both internal communication as well as between BSH-USA and Robert Bosch GMBH in Munich is as disorganized as it is poorly contemplated and is clearly irrational. U.S. officials in Huntington Beach, CA do not listen to their field sales staff and ergot are stearing the ship straight into an iceburg (we all know how well that worked out for the Titanic), and officials in Munich neither expect nor support a rational approach to foreign market-share development. Profit over volume does not work when you are competing in a highly competitive environment such as the appliance industry; emphasis must be placed in a high volume/low profit approach as to incramentally grow long-term profits and stable marketshare.

Here is an example of BSH-USA’s clear disregard for due diligence:

Perhaps the worst decision BSH has made in the last ten years, however, is outsourcing their national accounts team to AMS. These reps were arguable the best in the industry at what they did, but have been released in the hopes of cutting payroll and other related expenses. Let’s analyze this. First, Samsung broke a one-year contract after only nine months with AMS due to lack of performance. Lowe’s used AMS for a long time and also broke their contract with AMS because they were not performing. Electrolux is tanking, and they are represented by AMS. BSH used BDS (an AMS associate, I believe) for an assisted selling program a few years ago and it did not work. Hey BSH: are you detecting a pattern here? In the nearly three months you have used AMS, you have lost more reps than you ever did the entire time you had your own in-house team, and your sales, particularly with your new Vision laundry has tanked. This is especially interesting given the fact you used far more promotions to launch the new Vision series than you did the Nexxt series, yet your old in-house team made the Nexxt line much more successful even with fewer features to offer.

Is it possible my mother was right when she said "you get what you pay for". By gosh, I think so!

Now make up all the excuses you want and say you used your due diligence in knifing the brand almost to death, but everyone knows the truth.

[bigcity]

Following Content Edited by ApplianceAdvisor.com: Personal Attacks Removed

Does B/S/H/ Have Jerk Vision? This is the vision Thinking they are the best when everybody is Lauging at Them. Just Like On American Idol People who are the worst singers cant believe they are bad. They are in the box and cant see beyond themselves. Welcom in B/S/H/ They can not see outside the Box. The only success this company has had in the previous year was the Thermador Program buy two and get one free. I wonder why it was a sucess give it away. This company is so self asorbed and cant react to the competiton will no longer be relevant. (Name withheld) and his incompetence and arrogance have already sent National Accounts into a Tailspin. This company has proven that they can not and will not learn from the mistakes. Constistant hiring of incompetent Leadership and Directors who dont have a clue on how to work with the accounts will lead them out of the Market. Rummors are they are loosing ground fast in all product catagories to LG, WP, Samsung.

ADVISOR: COMMENT BELOW BY BIG CITY MOVED HERE TO REDUCE FORUM DUPLICATION
Thanks to (Name withheld) arogance and B/S/H/ Vision and Lack of, the company in National accounts is tailspinning. After Huge increases in the past 8 years it has finnally come to a hault;. Under the new Leadership with (Name withheld) in October he is the cause of The dabaucle wich I call Jerk Vision. The People who think they are the smartest and best are being laughed at by the best. Just Like on American Idol the worst singers cant believe there bad. Just Like (Name withheld) he can not see out of his Box in this case his Office. Double Digit Decrease and employees Jumping ship I wonder will he ever get the picture? Please B/S/H put somebody in Office that has a clue on how to run an account. How Long can National Accounts handle these Decrease?

[oldschool]

I would like to think that this website would be regarded by most who use it to be a professional source for industry dialogue and general information. Accordingly, PLEASE use grammer and spell check; posts like the one I am responding to are embarrassing and makes us all look like we could not even graduate from the sixth grade. That being said, if you really want to vent to someone who may actually listen (rather than continuing to shout into an empty oblivion) regarding your frustration with BSH USA, you can email the spokesperson for Dr. Kurt-Ludwig Gutberlet (Chairman and CEO of BSH GmbH – Munich headquarters) at: Eva Delabre eva.delabre@bshg.com (Now don’t say I never gave you anything)-oldschool

[The Advisor]

Advisor Note: comment by "bringbackthetel" moved to reduce duplication

Agreed

Submitted by bringbackthetel… on Fri, 01/15/2010 – 1:03am.

Punctuate, spellcheck, and proofread before attempting to bash an executive/previous employer (that was awful).

[haute rod]

I agree that our communications should be professional, but you need to look in the mirror. Between your BSH rant (totally agree) and your "seriously?" comment, you have the following seven (7) misspelled words or typos: consistency, thereof, steering, iceberg (pretend they are Jewish, not towns), incrementally, market share, and grammar. You did get BSH right.

[haute rod]

As a small, and getting smaller, Builder Dealer for BSH, we have experienced their inept handling of sales and marketing. They jettisoned our very capable Distributor to go direct (directly into hiding). Their new "company men" in the field were from GE and spent more time bragging about having retirement money from GE and more coming soon from BSH than they did making an impact on their territories. They introduced the Turkish Towers with HD cardboard airflow diverters under the doors, but they looked so stupid, they took them off the units at the IBS and none of the staff even knew they were missing and, therefore, what garbage they were. GAG pricing was raised 30% to move the line further upscale. And, what did you get for that increase? Silence from anyone I asked. They dropped us as a THERM dealer after we resigned GAG and we thought we would be OK with BOSCH-only. No one told us we would get a new, higher price point. That just showed up by mail because our decreased volume no longer warrants a field rep. OK, so could our new "inside" person have told us about this? Or, that the BOSCH Towers have been deleted? I know that we are a gnat on the elephant’s butt as far as BSH is concerned, but they need to find a way to provide competent guidance to any Dealer who is still keeping his doors open during this down market. Our associates who are bigger BSH Dealers in larger markets claim they get the same lack of info and attention. And, they see no logic in their marketing direction. I have never seen so much positive brand awareness, product quality and positioning opportunity squandered by a total disconnect between the Suits in the Ivory Towers and the folks on the battlefield. Can anyone explain to me how Miele expects to prosper with the BSH Tower Series as the backbone of their ref/frzr program? If they pull it off, they should add lemonade machines to their coffee machine offerings.

[Bermuda Bob]

Hey Folks … instead of being critical, why not be helpful ???

Regarding spelling, one can set your computer to constantly call out incorrectly spelled words … or … You can type your missive in WORD, copy it, the paste it here …

Regarding grammar, I’d suggest that you use something more conversational both in tone and style … we’re all here to exchange ideas and hopefully learn from each other … standing on protocol is somewhat counterproductive !!!

The best thing you can do is make your post EASY TO READ … long paragraphs can be monotonous and the point you wish to make might be lost …

Remember if you thought it important enough to comment on, you want people to hear you … or … as I like to say – I don’t type to see my words on paper, nor speak to hear the sound of my voice !!!

[The Advisor]

I sense, in the comments below, a fair amount of anger with BSH over this change. Understandable. Though you may feel your recent problems were caused by the actions of a single individual though, they were not. They were the actions of a company in which individuals work. This site is a forum for industry discussions, and some of them will be unpleasant about unpleasant subjects. They should not decline to character assassination of individuals.

Have your way with the company, but avoid attacks on identifyable individuals. They can’t defend themselves, this isn’t the venue, you are anonymous, and there’s no proof but for the words you have typed. It’s all a bit dodgy.

[Author]

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