[RE-wrenches] Prices on PV

[penobscotsolar at midmaine.com]

Very well put, both Jeff and Joel! I was trying hard to think how to
respond reasonably and you've both saved me the trouble. Thank you.



> Very well put Jeff
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
> <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Sent: Wed Feb 04 19:48:41 2009
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Prices on PV
>
>
> Joel has clearly pointed out the obvious.  Perhaps in your area there are
> only a few solar dealers and you are working on a handshake basis, but its
> hard enough getting clients to not "shop a job" without handing them over
> our job cost worksheet.  There was a time when our cost proposal listed
> every single item and part number we planned to use.
>
> After having clients take this list to competitors trying to get a better
> price we stopped this and now our proposals describe a complete working
> system, nit the individual parts making up the system.  We also found that
> some of the competitors the potential client took our detailed parts list
> proposal too would not have had any idea how to cost out their bid if they
> had not seen our detailed material list.  We lost a recent job to a
> potential client that we completed a very complete site analysis as part
> of preparing our cost proposal.
>
> During our site work the client was surprised to learn that we were not
> recommending a roof mounted system as we found many shading and roof
> design problems, and instead we determined the bast location was a ground
> mounted array near the rear of their lot.  When the client told me they
> had decided to obtain a proposal from another firm, I almost begged them
> not to disclose our very detailed proposal and design information to this
> other firm.  I felt it would be better for the client to not only see a
> proposal from someone else without the benefit of seeing our cost proposal
> first, but it would also be interesting to see if the other dealer would
> recognize the obvious roof mounted array was a bad choice.  You guessed
> it, they showed our detailed proposal to the other firm who then proposed
> the exact same system we proposed, item for item, except they lowered
> their price about 1/2%.    Yes, we lost the job.
>
> No, its not only not a good idea to give out this cost information, but
> its also not a good idea to give out a detailed parts list breakout.  If
> the client wants another bid, then go for it, only let the competition
> have to go to the same trouble you did to figure out what parts and sizes
> of equipment will be needed.
>
> Jeff Yago
>
>
>
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