One side of the table

We sell equipment for a margin. Sometimes we advise buyers for a fee. We never do both on the same purchase, and the line is bright on purpose.

In most transactions we are a retailer: an independent dealer with authorized reseller arrangements, earning a margin when you buy through us. That model is common, honest and disclosed on every page of this site. Its known weakness is also disclosed: a dealer's advice about what to buy is advice from someone who profits from the answer.

Some purchases deserve a better structure than that. Government agencies buying with public money. Categories where no dealer channel exists at all, so a sale is not even possible. Buyers who simply want an advisor whose incentives point the same direction as theirs. For those cases we act instead as a buyer's representative: a rigorous product assessment, the full landscape of alternatives including brands we hold no arrangement with, and negotiation with the sellers on your side of the table, for a fixed fee agreed in writing before work begins.

The bright line is the whole point. One engagement, one side of the table. On any represented purchase we take no manufacturer money, and we disclose every dealer arrangement we hold, so you can see exactly where our interests sit. An advisor collecting from both sides of a transaction is not an advisor. It is a toll booth with a consulting logo.

The fee is fixed rather than a percentage, deliberately. A percentage of the purchase rewards the advisor when you spend more, which is the same incentive problem wearing a different coat. A fixed fee agreed before work begins rewards exactly one thing, and that is the work.

And two things we will not do in either role. We do not write your bid documents, because the specification must be yours and the process must be clean. And once a formal solicitation is open, we stay at published information, because that is how a fair process stays fair. If honesty is the product, the model has to survive an audit by a skeptic. This one is built to.