Saturday night….nearly 9 p.m.
I know what you are thinking, it is after beer:30 and if anything I should be out listening to my step-son Adam’s band Skyline from Fargo (yes….a blatant plug for his band) play.
Nope – we’re working! And the office phone rings. Now I am not certain who is playing with the least amount of cards in their deck – me for answering the phone, or the builder who is calling expecting the phone to be answered.
The builder needs a pole building price, delivered in Ohio. 32 foot wide, 36 feet long with 14 foot walls. He says he needs to have Owens Corning Duration Storm Cloud Laminate architectural shingles and vinyl siding – both over 15/32” thick CDX plywood. Keep in mind plywood is about 2-1/2 times the cost of 7/16” oriented strand board and they both serve the same function. The only difference is…cost. Other features included two each 12’ x 12’ commercial steel overhead doors, commercial steel insulated entry doors with steel jambs and two 3’ x 3’ dual glazed vinyl single hung windows. As well, the building had 12” enclosed overhangs on all sides and the ceiling framed to support 5/8” drywall.
All-in-all, I felt like the price I gave him of $15,846 was very competitive, given what he was looking for. So, I Email it over to him and at 9:24 I get this response back:
“that is 8000.00 more than any price in town i really cant believe you sent that over .guru”
To which I respond right away with – “send me your other quotes”. I do free quote comparisons for clients who tell me our pole building price is “more” and feel I do a pretty fair analysis. Why? Because I do want to be sure our pricing is “more than fair.” But $8000 difference? C’mon. Nothing back but silence….
After three decades in the pole building industry, I’ve learned no competitor is ever 20 or 50 or even 100 dollars less; it is always….”you are thousands of dollars more”. Or at least this is what clients try to tell me. Weird thing – no one ever produces those “thousands of dollars less” quotes, so I can compare apples to apples. If clients do produce a quote, it’s with the bottom line pole building price scribbled out, which tells me….
This is how much I do believe in our buildings being the best possible value, every time:
“When you order your new Hansen Building through me, and 30 days from your investment, you find a verifiable (documented) price on a complete building package with identical or better features than ours – we will match their price and send you a check for the difference!”
Just out of curiosity, I went back and took every option out of this building, to create a fully enclosed box covered with steel. Sure enough – it was $8000 less!!
