Sales Question?

Roberts Ren

Okay hang with me for a minute. We are a Kitchen & Bath Contractor in Knoxville Tn, and I have been cold calling on builders a lot more latley, see we are very new to this area and still getting ourselfs out there. I have talked with three builders this week and all three have just order cabinets,
not a problem,,,,the problem is they are all using a flat pack from China. It is a plywood cabinet with snap locks to hold it together, not a "bad" looking cabinet once it is installed BUT it is still a flat pack, and these are 200,000 dollar homes :-(. My problem is I have brought in a all wood cabinet to this market that looks the same with a few more door styles BUT its glued and stapled and it is NOT as cheap as the flat pack BUT better quality. I do have access to this same cabinet they are buying BUT do not want to cheapin the market( in my opinion). Alot of guys are using these cabinets around and I can beat the price they are paying for them, any thoughts. Thanks

Mike Finley

One thought - break down cabinets going in real homes? You've got to be kidding me!

Zinsco

Here in Southern California you see a lot of cabinets from IKEA. There's guys that advertise they assemble and hang these cheap cabinets. They look nice but are cheap cam-lok and pin pieces of crap.

Mike Finley

The horror! The horror!

scrapecc

Wow, when are they gonna try to start drywalling with cardboard. How cheap can you build a house

lopreste

Always try to sell quality! If they don't want it, sell them the what they will buy
then in a couple of years when the crap starts falling apart start canvassing the home owners.

marketingmaven

Hmmmm . . . I'd sell the builders what they want and then market to the homeowners in a couple of years when they will need to replace those cabinets.

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Manassas Remodeling Contractor
Manassas Replacement Windows
Manassas Kitchen Remodeling
Manassas Bathroom Remodeling

Zinsco

I offer 2 grades of electrical wiring:
1. Excellent electrical masterpieces suitable for the finest luxury homes.
2. Minimally code compliant turn and burn jobs for those on a budget.

The electrical code is a surprisingly permissive document. When I wire a home, I can put 8 receptacles on a circuit or 50, the choice is totally mine. I can put the refrigerator on a dedicated circuit or just slap it on to the counter top receptacle circuit. I can feed the bathroom lights with the bathroom receptacle circuit if I want. I can satisfy the electrical code yet deliver a very wide range of design standards.

So, while I'd prefer to only be associated with class A work, if a customer is poor mouthing me and trying to negotiate a very low price, he's going to get a class B job. Everybody gets exactly what they pay for.
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Zinsco

samccard

Tough situation. Sounds like you want to sell quality cabinets but the builders are looking at price. I was in cabinets for about 8 years and was able to find customers who wanted quality. It is a lot harder now days. Look for a better priced line of cabinets or try to sell to homeowners that are remodeling their kitchens.

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www.destinyhomesinc.com

lopreste

You may want to reconsider selling to builders. My wife used to collect receivables for a hvac company, she told me a lot of builders as part of their
business model tend to go bankrupt and go in and out of business. Make sure you do business with only large and credible builders. Make sure you run a D&B
credit check before doing work and getting stiffed.

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Steubenville handyman serving the Ohio Valley

Astrix

Whatever happened to "Buy Made-in-America" ???
(including, of course, "Buy Made-in-Canada" )

Wouldn't it be a better selling feature for the builder to be able to advertise that his homes are 100% American-made???

Another thought:
While selling insurance and selling cabinets are not the same thing, I am often in a similar situation where the customer is only focused on the lowest price. Sometimes, no matter how hard I try to explain why they need a more expensive insurance coverage in order to adequately protect themselves, they just don't listen and insist on going with the cheapest product.

In situations where I think it is such a huge mistake to cheap out because they are leaving themselves wide open to big risk, I will ask them to sign a declaration form that states:

1) I have explained the difference between Coverage A and B and they confirm that they understand,
2) I have recommended that they take Coverage A,
3) They have instead decided to take Coverage B against my recommendation.

Furthermore, they agree to a "hold harmless" clause in the event of an uninsured loss because they only have the lesser Coverage B instead of the better Coverage A. Also, if a third party should sue because there is inadequate insurance coverage, then the customer will pay 100% of the third party's loss and will not attempt to hold me responsible (or partly responsible) for the fact that they did not have adequate insurance coverage.

It is amazing how when they are handed such a declaration and asked to sign it, that they start to take quality a bit more seriously. Sometimes just talking doesn't seem to work, but when they see that you are concerned enough about the lack of quality re the cheap product they want to go with that you are trying to CYA because you figure there is going to be future trouble re poor product, then they start to reconsider.

Maybe you could try something like that -- if they insist on the cheap cabinets then, okay, sell it to them, but without a warranty and with a waiver that you are not responsible if there are future complaints from home buyers.