My friend may be moving to Corpus Christi Texas. Does Texas suck? Or is it cool? What are your favorite pictures of Texas? Should she buy these really cute boots from Etsy that have hand stitched designs on it? I wanna tell her to just stay put in Raleigh.

3/12/2010 9:57:07 PM

"Stay put in Raleigh."

3/12/2010 9:57:59 PM

You have to be the nicest, most easy-going TWWer EVER.
I'm also now convinced, after reading this thread, that you smoke crack.

daps and hugs,
EMCE

3/12/2010 9:58:39 PM

i know quite a few people who've moved from raleigh to austin, tx. i dunno anything about corpus christi. or austin for that matter.

3/12/2010 9:58:56 PM

I realize this thread is about your friend moving to Corpus Christi Texas....which I do not dispute. Hear me out, maybe I can offer some insight.

I am in outside sales, which is currently salary+commission, but will move into straight commission starting at the beginning of July 2010. I have been in this position since July 2009. I have competition from several direct manufacturing sales reps, large distributors, and local distributors. Here are the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Direct Advantages: Immediate knowledge of new technology, no middle man mark up, one shipping bill (paid by manufacturer or buyer of goods), access to larger range of non-commodity items, control inventory, have access to many distributors that can effectively sell their goods which increases market share, and set prices of commodity they manufacture.

Direct disadvantages: Typically have 1-3 sales reps per region (i.e. southeast, mid-atlantic, northeast, etc.) limiting the number of accounts they can successfully manage/cold-call, lack physical customer service or physical technical service available to or affordable for smaller users or altogether, are sometimes not trustworthy because they will go in behind their distributors that sell their commodity to one account in large quantities (i.e. they missed a big account, and have found out about it through a distributor selling their particular product) which leads to the distributor not selling their product anymore, have too many distributors selling the product ultimately driving the set price down through deviations, possibly rely on distributors to actually sell the product, and competition from other direct sources.

Large distributor advantages: have access to other commodities that go hand in hand with other manufacturers (poor example- grocery stores sell milk as well as cereal), get direct pricing, many locations regionally or nationally easing the shipping burden of buyers with multiple locations, personal service either customer or technical, many sales reps that are able to cover a broader territory, access to multiple manufacturers of the same commodity allowing to keep prices in check, service programs that smaller companies can't offer and direct providers can't match in price or value, and experts of many many commodities as opposed to one or a few.

Large distributor disadvantages: smaller local distributors creating price wars (think Michael Scott Paper Co vs Dunder-Mifflin), direct mfg's going in behind and stealing business, limited access to all of the mfg's (you won't find Harris Teeter name brands in Food Lion and visa versa), can't truly set prices because it's based on both supply and demand, territory management, and tough growth prospects in slower economies (this is true for direct as well really)

Local distributor advantages: Typically a good ol' boy setting where the seller and the buyer know each other for years (this does happen at all levels, but mostly at the local level), local folks are right down the street and can be used in emergencies, if the local guy buys at high enough volumes then there is no shipping charge to the end user, and access to both direct mfg's and large distributors.

Local distributor disadvantages: easily beaten in price, array of commodities, array of technology, lack of trained staff, low cash flow, etc etc etc.

This is what I have noticed in my six months, I am sure there are plenty more that need mentioning. The way I am setting myself apart as a sales person is this: I go after the big accounts right now while I am new. The big accounts, if I land them, will take care of me while I am new and building a customer base. The money made off of those allows me to focus free time on smaller accounts that get me higher margins. I build up big accounts, I would like to have 5-10 of these, then get 20-30 medium accounts. If I lose 1 or 2 big accounts, the 20-30 medium accounts keep me afloat while I go after new big accounts. I don't really waste time on small accounts simply because they basically pay for breakfast or something really small.

I will say this, if you can't get a big account in the first 6-8 months (assuming you have cash flow that you can ride this long) you could be in a world of trouble. If you can get one, it will really make going after the others a lot more enjoyable and less stressful. It's simply just very exhausting wasting any time on anything other than big accounts in the very beginning. You work just as hard on the medium sized accounts and see 1/3 to 1/36 of the money in my situation.

If you have any other questions, you can PM me. I hope this helps in the slightest!

3/12/2010 9:59:21 PM

But what do I know? All I've seen of TX is the Houston aeroport, though Austin seems cool... which is a long way from any coastal town.

3/12/2010 10:01:09 PM

i've been through corpus christi a few times but never really spent any time there. definitely a harbor town, kinda struck me as a little industrial and blue-collar.

then again i was young and didnt really know what to look for in a city. it is indeed known as "the sparkling city by the sea" so it may not be all steel and rivets.

but yeah texas can be great. I was born in Ft. Worth, have family in San Antonio and Port O'Connor (not too far from corpus christi actually), and hear Austin is an oasis of the arts. There's definitely no other state in the union that is as proud of themselves as Texas, that's for sure. Every time I visit I feel like it's still only a few steps away from seccession.

[Edited on March 12, 2010 at 10:14 PM. Reason : asdf]

3/12/2010 10:08:23 PM

i used to live in dallas but thats in north texas. texas is cool. i've been to san antonio and flown through houston before. but i dont know anything about corpus christi.

3/12/2010 10:11:20 PM

C.C. sucks balls, to live there.

its great in the spring and summer if you just go for a week or two, but other than that, the place is full of drunk college kids in the spring, tourists in teh summer, and dirt poor whites and mexicans in the fall and winter.

3/12/2010 10:14:42 PM

BODY

OF

CHRIST

3/12/2010 10:16:52 PM

i was there for 2 weeks for work last year. the downtown area on the water is very small, but nice. the beaches out on the gulf are also pretty decent but avoid port aransas if you want to escape drunken college kid shenanigans. if you're into that, then you'll love Port A, as they call it. other than that, CC sucked dick.

3/13/2010 12:09:10 AM

Had a friend stationed there. I did not like the place when I went to visit, except for how warm the water was. It just seemed like it had the worst elements of a blue collar town.

3/13/2010 12:12:53 AM

Quote :

"You have to be the nicest, most easy-going TWWer EVER."

she really is

3/13/2010 12:13:01 AM

I'd say "NO" based on how many episodes of COPS i've seen that were in Corpus Christi.

3/13/2010 12:18:10 AM

FUCK FSU! GO WOLFPACK!!!!

3/13/2010 12:19:39 AM

I've never been to Corpus Christi, but Houston and Galveston suck. Austin is ok, but I wouldn't go out of my way to live there.

3/13/2010 10:38:21 AM

Austin owns
Texas in general is terrible

3/13/2010 10:45:49 AM

I WOULD LIKE TO SUBSCRIBE TO YOUR NEWSLETTER BLOG

3/13/2010 1:03:58 PM

3/13/2010 1:07:10 PM