Today i wanted to talk about buying everything in one place, I know not everyone does this because it doesn't really save you money but a lot of people don't take into account time and petrol.
The one thing that usually brings in the crowds is a special promotion, now nine times out of ten the marketing team for a big company don't have the slightest clue, they have never sold anything to a customer, they don't know what the needs are and read from a book what products are actually used for, along with this there information for promotions is done on a national scale (tarring every area with the same brush) There fresh out of university or college and they have a nice shiny bit of paper to say in there interview process "i have studied marketing" and this gets them a nice cushy job, i think you may have gathered i don't have a lot of time for the marketing field with the experiences i have had so far in my professional career (that's not to say that ALL marketing people are the same, just the ones i have come across).
So you come in from a hard days work, your post is on the side with your invoices and within the invoices is a flier that says *Multi finish plaster - £1.50 a bag* so you think this is a cracking deal! well your right and wrong depending on what action you take, the first thing i would advise to do is get together the rest of the prices you need, it's all well and good if your skimming plaster is £1.50 a bag but what if your paying well over the odds for skim beads, joint tape, plasterboard and Adhesive then any savings on the multi finish goes out the door.
You have your list now and you price it up, with the multi finish offer overall the price is cheaper than the other merchant down the road but the only thing that is cheaper compared to the other merchant is the multi finish, so what do you do?
Do you just buy the multi finish and go to the other merchant for the rest? or do you buy it all from the one merchant with the overall cheapest price?
This is where you need to weigh up your options and take into account the following factors:-
How much time and petrol is it going to take to buy from both merchants?
Will the second merchant hold there price if you say your buying the multi finish else where?
Can you ask the first merchant who has the multi finish offer on to match the second merchant?
It's an extremely difficult situation that needs to be addressed whenever there is a promotion, marketing make my life difficult because if a offer comes along that's cheaper than what my customer has been paying for years they ask the question:- " have you been ripping me off all this time?!" fair question and one i would ask if i was in there shoe's! the truth is merchants and there staff aren't given the true cost on a huge scale of there items, what we see as an amazing deal because were making 10% margin on an item may not be that great if the company is getting a 30% rebate from the supplier at the end of the year, so were in the dark as much as you, a cold truth but the truth non the less.
Another post will address this as it needs more depth.
To summarise, when you get your quote realise that the job your taking on isn't just about the materials and your payday, there are a lot of other factors and if there addressed it brings you to what I'm trying to do for you all.......saving you money.
As always tradesmen connect get there links posted as they have helped me with referrals and get the blog up and running. If you wish for a similar deal please contact me.
www.tradesmenconnect.com
http://www.facebook.com/TradesmenConnect
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