Are services to contractors worth additional costs?

RoBoTeq

As a contractor, do you use any services that your distributors may offer, such as training classes, marketing, rebates, next day delivery service etc.? Are you willing to pay more for the products that are being sold by distributors who provide services? Would you rather get the bottom line prices and pay ala carte for services?

KnightRider

Good question. You have to be competitive for some clients and others like quality. So for the upscale clients I prefer to go with Bryant or Carrier since their distributor offers first rate classes I mean the best for free.

Then for the rental homes it is bare bones and will shop around but I will sell the products of the distributor who has the best classes bottom line whenever possible and I'll get all my supplies from them also since there is no or little difference in price on the small stuff. Thank you very much.

RoBoTeq

Your going for a free t-shirt, aren't you Knighty? HEY! If you get an xxxxxl shirt, you could wear it as a knighty....

KnightRider

Well perhaps I could stick a couple of holes in it and stick it over your fat head.

beenthere

Some years ago.
When I worked for a company.
York started charging us a 75 dollar delivery fee.

We reminded them. That we could get the same product(Luxaire) from another company(some mickey mouse company in Mt Joy ) , for less, and no delivery fee.
They dropped the delivery fee.

Nothing wrong with a distributor charging for a class. As long as the class stays a way from being a sales promotion for the distributor.

Tech support(IMO) should be a free service. Provided. That the company using it. Is relying on tech support to do all teh trouble shooting(I'm sure you know what I mean).
If a company abuses TS. And refuses to send their techs to classes. Then they should be charged.

__________________
How many times must one fix something before it is fixed?

RoBoTeq

M-I-C.....see you real soon!
K-E-Y.....Why? Because you love us!
Mmm-Ooo-Uuu-Sss-Eeee

raiken

If you have several guys that need training info on a brand product then the classes are good. To pay for the info so you will be more likely to sell their products is just wrong. 90 % of the classes are on the Dealers Products only ( sales pitch ).

RoBoTeq

Education is part of being able to perform a task. We all pay for educating ourselves.

Product orientation classes most times fall on the responsibility of the distributor. But if a distributor is giving a marketing type of class, showing how to better sell a particular product, or a service class, showing how to make money servicing that product, then the education has value to the contractor and should be paid for by the contractor.

DrHeat

Let's not forget the distributor also makes money when contractors succeed.
If the training is for qualified Tecs. and its purpose is to inform on changes in the industry than the distributor or Manufacturer should pay.

New employees need to go to school for the basics.

RoBoTeq

Are you suggesting that distributors should pay for the entire training process? Why? So that contractors can benefit from free training from a distributor who must cover the cost of that training in the product cost just so that same contractor can now buy that same product from the distributor who did not provide the training?

If a contractor is not willing to pay to learn, then that contractor does not really want to better themselves.

It costs distributors a lot more then the paltry attendance fee to contractors for that distributor to put on a training program. If training doesn't have a cost, it is considered by contractors to be worthless.

DrHeat

Sorry maybe I was not clear.

Each tec. should be responsible for his core training. I for example went to night school at a Community Collage.Then I went to air balancing school to advance my credibility. The company I worked for spent a great deal of time teaching me in the field.

When I opened my own shop I made a deal with my employees to reimburse all expenses for Community Collage. I have also sent them to dealer classes which I pay them to attend.

When the dealer is offering a class to promote a new product and teach the unique idiosyncrasies or special installation yada yada etc. etc. I expect them to pickup the tab. this is especially true since I have purchased 85% of my equipment and materials from the same supply house since 1983. Further more it most likely costs me more to pay my team to attend.

I came back to add this. If a supply House offers New training on a product or process that we do not presently offer and this is not just the typical sales promo than I would be willing to pay something. I have Had the ICP trainers in my shop to give a class on economizers which I would have been more than happy to pay for. They said it was worth it for them to train us to keep warranty issues to a minimum not that we have ever had a warranty issue with econo's

RoBoTeq

I'm good with all points you have made. As long as the training continues, we all should be willing to contribute to training continuing.

nH3man

This is a tuff one! Robo, this falls back to the discussion we had in the other thread. I of course voted yes due to the fact that the more knowledge you have on the product you sell the better you can sell it. Plus the speed at which this field is advancing, its vital that these services be offered. Then the extras you were talking about are beneficial to the distributer to keep the customer coming back. I seen in previous posts a few responces that I didnt agree with. One is that a distrubitor makes money when a contractor succeeds? First no one contractor would keep a distributer afloat. I know that a good supply house sells product to the end user (contractor) for a certain percentage. I dont know that percentage, but im sure the more you buy the lower it is. There is also the factor of having to be competitive ( for tight asses that like to shop around ). I dont know about the rest of you but I have one supply shop I go to and I have no problem with rates being a little high due to training, shipping etc but its nice to have that relationship were I can tell Tom for example that Im cutting one close and he drops the price to near cost to help me out. Now that doesnt mean you do that every job. I currently just left a job because the company wanted to make a million dollars on every bid. The distrtibuter needs to make money and I have no problem with it being off of me as long as Im being taken care of.

RoBoTeq

This about sums it up. The equipment is only as good to the HO as the contractor makes it and only as good to the contractor as the distributor makes it.

Where I work, we are trying different service practices to enhance our value to our contractors. For contractors that provide the homeowner's information when they order equipment, our office will register that equipment on line with the manufacturer for full warranties as well as take care of regestration for extended labor warranties purchased by the contractors for their customers. Just one more reason to partner with us rather then our competition.