third Party Installations [RE-wrenches]

Doug Pratt dpratt at pacific.net
Sat Nov 3 16:49:19 PST 2001


-----Original Message-----
From: Baran Galocy [mailto:livewire at c-zone.net]
<snip>
Sales reps - Your input, please.  I know that some of you sell to people
who
don't  even know the panels go "blue side up", and the power panel saves
a
multitude of sins.  On the other hand, my request would be for you to
ask
the person for local input, especially if you feel that they will be
looking
for help before this whole project is through.
Baran, good questions and requests. As the primary technical writer for
Real Goods I try to weave a balance between the traditional remote
do-it-yourselfers, and the newer affluent folks who want to make one
phone call and have it done.  We've mostly given up one-size-fits-all
system "packages" so that customers HAVE to call us up, and we get a
chance to size up their needs, expectations, space available, and
abilities, then design a system that (hopefully) fits. This is a poor
substitute for on-site consultation, but for many of the remote or less
affluent folks we service, it's as good as it gets.
  I came to this industry working for a design/install shop, taking full
responsibility for finished system performance. Ideally, all systems
would be sold and installed this way (an experienced installer sure
improves my life), but that's just not possible given the widely
scattered, often very remote, sites where this equipment ends up. We've
tried a couple times over the years to set up serious nationwide
contractor referral services. We never got enough response to have
anything more than the most spotty of coverage, and a great many
contractors simply used us for the leads, then sold the job themselves.
  If there was more margin available in our industry we'd love to set up
a wholesale division for contractors. But at an average 30% margin? We
tried it for awhile. At 15% margin both we and the contractors lost
money, and the industry trend is toward even slimmer margins. As things
are now, if a customer (or potential customer) asks about installation
services we'll encourage them to look in their Yellow Pages.
Doug Pratt
Real Goods Technical Editor

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