third Party Installations [RE-wrenches]

[Allan Sindelar]

Joel,
> The smart plumber tells his customer, "Sure, I can sell you the Home Depot
water
> heater at the same price as Home Depot." Then he either buys the heater at
Home Depot
> or buys it at a discount from another supplier or tells his customer why
he should
> buy the brand heater that he sells.

What am I missing here? Why would a plumber buy the water heater from Home
Depot at the same price the homeowner would pay, and then sell it to the
homeowner at that price? For that matter, he will typically pay about the
same from HD as a plumbing wholesaler for many standard products.

> Plumbers, electricians, PV installers, etc. are competing with Home Depot
and other parts suppliers. So learn how to compete. Make your equipment
prices competitive.

You may be competing with HD, but we're not. When they moved in two years
ago, we decided to stop carrying Philips compact fluorescents, because their
retail price was less than what we paid wholesale. We tell customers to go
there first for CFs, then come to us for specialty needs. But that's
ordinary merchandise, not PV systems.

We sell solutions, not hardware. Our primary products are our knowledge and
service. The hardware is secondary. That's why internet discounters have not
proven to be a major threat to us. We generally sell our hardware at list
price. We'll occasionally discount if asked, and if it's to someone who
knows what they want and won't need lots of face time.  But when we design
and quote a power system, we give a single package price for the components
we specify. It's not an itemized quote with line item prices, because that
serves no useful purpose. In some cases, we won't even include a component
list, because many customers don't need that, they need a power system
specific to their application. The customer isn't looking for a hardware
list. They want a system that meets their needs.

When someone asks our price on standard products, and isn't seeking our
advice, we will sometimes suggest that internet discounters or HP
advertisers can supply what they need cheaper than we can. Sometimes we'll
suggest that there's a better product than the one they're asking for a
price for, just to see if they want guidance or already know everything.

Allan @+E

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