Garage door industry magazine for garage door dealers, garage door manufacturers, garage door distributors, garage door installers, loading docks, garage door operators and openers, gates, and tools for the door industry.
Issue link: https://idoi.epubxp.com/i/177021
SaleS&MarkEting; (continued from page 41) Value Added Considerations 40 FEET HIGH, our tallest door so far TM Our Lift System is designed for high frequency operation, extremely high moisture environments and configurations involving extremely high and/or wide doors. It is designed to last the life of your building. Ask about the new SUPER DUTY series. What else is your customer buying when choosing your company? In other words, what other value does your company bring to the customer? Perhaps you offer an attractive extended labor warranty. Maybe you have IDEA Certifed techs and your company is nationally accredited. If you offer real live after hours service that is a huge value added beneft that supports both new products and repair work. It is worth something to the customer when they know that when they call of emergency service at night or on weekends that they will talk to a human being that will quickly dispatch someone to solve their problem. Another huge value to customers is a money back guarantee. If you are the best at what you do and offer only top quality products and service this should be an easy thing to add to your arsenal of reasons to buy from your company. I am sure you can think of other value your company brings to the table. Qualify them, quantify them and consider these when reviewing your selling prices. The cost of the product is only half of the value of your quoted price to customers. The other half is the value brought by your company. Sell it. So, what's it going to be? If you are not satisfed with the proft your business is making you can start the process of improving it today by raising your prices. Sure it is a challenge. What in business isn't? But when done effectively periodic price increases, especially when your cost prices rise, is imperative to a healthy bottom line. Your prices are not dictated from manufacturers, competition or even customers. Only you and the market get to agree on this and decide what your company should charge. Think about it. All of the professionals you deal with regularly raise their prices without asking for your opinion or permission. Your bank, your doctor, lawyer, insurance company, auto repair shop, grocery store and on and on. So why not you? You too are a professional and deserve to get paid accordingly. Yes it's true, you will get some resistance from customers and maybe your sales staff but the beneft outweighs the challenge of raising your prices and making them stick. In the next issue we'll examine improving your proft by reducing your cost of sales. Until then, remember that you are in business to make money. Proft is the life blood of any business and cash is king. Be bold, be aggressive and don't be afraid to be the price leader in your market. HANOVER DOORS LIFT SYSTEMS TM 105 Commerce Drive, Steinbach, Manitoba, Canada R5G 1W6 1-800-667-3667 www.hanoverdoors.com email: info@hanoverdoors.com 42 Dan Apple is president of The Apple Group LLC, a consulting frm located in Bonita Springs, Florida. His focus is assisting garage door dealers with proftability and marketing. Dan served as president of Apple Door Systems in Richmond, Virginia for 33 years which grew to a statewide dealership with eight locations. He was the frst president of the Institute of Door Dealer Education and Accreditation where he was responsible for creating the industry's frst national accreditation program in 1998. Dan also served as a director of the Door & Operator Dealers Association and the International Door Association from 1994-1998. For more information, contact him at 804.640.4253 or email: danielapple@me.com or visit the website at www.AppleLLC.net. International Door & Operator Industry™