Comparative Building Shopping: The following was originally blogged about in July of 2011. It is a conversation we have with our designers regularly.
On Fridays, Hansen Buildings holds an internal informational teleconference for our Building Designers. These sessions provide our designers with the best possible tools to assist clients in designing ideal dream buildings.
Last Friday’s discussion was centered around comparisons between our pole buildings, and those offered by others. As is usual, in this type of discussion, the topic of “price” gets thrown onto the table.
Honestly, it’s impossible to sell any product, based strictly upon being the lowest price. There is always someone who is willing to compromise quality or service (or both) to get to a lower price. And when price becomes the definer, then products become seen as a commodity – which causes true product benefit to be thrown out the door.
In comparing our buildings, against those offered by others, we can eventually take enough features off our buildings (sacrificing quality) so we will be the least expensive. But why? Why subject clients to a less than satisfactory permanent solution. A poorly designed building is not like a car, it can’t be traded in for a new model.
My advice was – instead of “dumbing” our buildings down, have the competitors add in features to bring them up to our standards. I assisted one of our clients in the not too distant past. He had gotten quotes from us, as well as from a fairly large lumber chain. Both buildings were of the same dimensions, number and size of doors, and the initial prices were approximately the same. There is where the similarities ended.
By the time our competitor had added all of the features provided in the pole building solution we had proposed, the building was over double the price and did not include a structural warranty or a manual of instructions on how to build!
Rather than price or cost, the most appropriate term for clients is value – to always offer the absolute best possible value, for the least possible investment. Make sure you are comparing apples to apples, or oranges, when building shopping. In other words, make sure you know what you are buying!
