[Wiser]

A notice in a lot of Flat Rate books they have pricing for new faucets.

So, here's my dilemma.

You charge your travel/diagnostic fee and recommend replacing a KS faucet with a fair profit & labor rate.

Do you have this faucet on your truck?

Do you charge an extra fee to pick one up?

With T & M, we do a lot of repair so we do not run into this too often. Most of the time customer already has the faucet for us to install.

 

[ASUPERTECH]

Not one faucet on my truck. Some at the shop, mostly cheaper ones. I try to sell from my catolog every time. If the costomer wants it, it usually doesn't matter the cost. This lets them chose exactly what they want F.F.F.=Form, Fit, Function. Build either the delivery in for parts guy, or your return trip into the price of the faucet. This is the nice part about being Flat Rate= knowing your cost so you don't have to charge the costmer for your delivery or extra trip time, but they will pay you for it any way. I also buy faucets when I see them on clearence or running a special; at the supply house. Offer these to the costomer at a "overstock price" also good to have for LandLords. Bigger & Better faucets are expected to have to be ordered just as you would at your local H.I. big box.

 

[service guy]

For awhile I didn't carry any faucets on the truck and I didn't sell any either. Now I carry 7-8 faucets on the truck at all times. BRING THEM IN THE CUSTOMER'S HOUSE! SHOW THEM! PEOPLE BUY WHAT THEY CAN SEE.

I am amazed how easy it is to sell a faucet when you bring it in and hand it to the customer to hold and look at...they look over at their old, leaky faucet as a comparison and they can't resist.:yes:

 

[Wiser]

For awhile I didn't carry any faucets on the truck and I didn't sell any either. Now I carry 7-8 faucets on the truck at all times. BRING THEM IN THE CUSTOMER'S HOUSE! SHOW THEM! PEOPLE BUY WHAT THEY CAN SEE.

I am amazed how easy it is to sell a faucet when you bring it in and hand it to the customer to hold and look at...they look over at their old, leaky faucet as a comparison and they can't resist.:yes:

I agree! However, we don't seem to have any more room in our trucks to carry faucets. Could you please post (or PM) a picture of the inside of your truck so I can see how it is stocked?

We use Ford Vans.

 

[Song Dog]

Now I carry 7-8 faucets on the truck at all times. BRING THEM IN THE CUSTOMER'S HOUSE! SHOW THEM! PEOPLE BUY WHAT THEY CAN SEE.

I am amazed how easy it is to sell a faucet when you bring it in and hand it to the customer to hold and look at...they look over at their old, leaky faucet as a comparison and they can't resist.:yes:

BINGO!
I carry 2 K faucets, 2 lav faucets, and tub shower faucets. I do the same, show them and they can see the difference.

In Christ,

Song Dog

 

[ToUtahNow]

We use to carry mostly delta faucets. For kitchens faucets each truck had 2-Delta 100, 1-Delta 300. 1- Delta 400 and 1-PP 2 handle faucet. If the customer wanted something else we would have to make a return trip which would cost them extra. Generally when they learned it would cost extra they would take one from the truck. There is no profit in standing at the supply house counter.

Mark

 

[ASUPERTECH]

What do you do with your banged up stock?

Also don't you think your costomer would be happier selecting a faucet that they wanted, verses what you have on the trucks. I sell every faucet known to man. I have no personal preference (professionally speaking). Actually my preferences dictate my warrenty on that product. it doesn't matter what the manuf. warrenty is although costomer service and part accessability do again play as factors in determining what my warrenties will be.
I personally do not like Delta. But I would sell it to a costomer if that's what they wanted. Why talk them into something when either way you'll be giving them great costomer service and making the sale.

 

[ASUPERTECH]

What is the average span that any one of these items will sit on your truck?
Lav. Faucets=
T+S Valves=
K.S. Faucets=

 

[Marlin]

I like the idea of carrying the faucet on the truck. As was already said it simply helps make a sale physically waving that shiny new faucet in the customers face. It brings about emotions that a picture in a catalog can not. They very well may be persuaded to go with a new faucet even if they absolutely hate the one you show them in which case they can look in the book and order a different one.
As for beat up stock, it gets sold at a discount or thrown out/scrapped. The answer is don't beat up your stock, keep them in cloth bags inside the boxes, avoid throwing anything heavy on them, and they should last a long time. Their is a Delta faucet that's been on the truck I work in for about ten years and it's still fine. To answer the question that's coming... I do rough in work almost exclusively. I rarely have the opportunity to make sales, that faucet is just a leftover from when someone used to use that truck for service.

 

[Double-A]

Plumb, the way we would do this is to see what else needed doing while we were there.

Yes, more work = faucet can be priced as an add-on if on truck. If not, its a prime (return trip required).

No, no more work = faucet priced at prime task price.

And yes, we did build the trip charge into the price of the faucet install.

If we had no more work, and had to make a return trip, we'd collect the call-out fee and apply it to the faucet once we installed.

 

[smellslike$tome]

For awhile I didn't carry any faucets on the truck and I didn't sell any either. Now I carry 7-8 faucets on the truck at all times. BRING THEM IN THE CUSTOMER'S HOUSE! SHOW THEM! PEOPLE BUY WHAT THEY CAN SEE.

I am amazed how easy it is to sell a faucet when you bring it in and hand it to the customer to hold and look at...they look over at their old, leaky faucet as a comparison and they can't resist.:yes:

You are exactly right! I don't know how many times I have arrived at a job to find the ho already had a faucet only to ask if I could show them my faucet side by side and then have them want my faucet.

Why do I do this? Two reasons:

#1 is that the ho has invariably brought home some piece of junk from the box store. It looks pretty on the outside but is in reality a lousy piece of crap and I hate installing crappy things.

#2 is that my markup on the product goes away when they already have it. Now you can argue (no I never argue with customers) 'till you're blue in the face about how it really is in their best interest to have you provide everything but a lot of times they can never get past the false idea that they are saving $50 by providing it themselves.

When I show them my lovely new faucet and compare it side by side to their lovely looking new faucet but show them the differances in quality, I hardly ever lose. I will generally add 10% - 50% to the retail cost of their faucet as my markup, add that to my install price and give them a single price for the installation of my faucet. It simplifies the decision making process. They can still do the math in their own head and come to the right conclusion that I am selling them a better faucet for just a little more than what they paid for their junk and have a rough idea of what I am charging to install it.

There is actually a third reason which is really related to the first. Impulse sales. Don't underestimate the power of a person's impulses. If you have it here and now and it's beautiful why is any more thought about it required? It saves you time because you are not running all over town to get the product or paying a shop runner to ferry stuff around all day.

You can't carry everything but if you carry a couple different styles of each type and 2 or 3 finishes you will sell more product.

 

[ToUtahNow]

What do you do with your banged up stock?

Also don't you think your costomer would be happier selecting a faucet that they wanted, verses what you have on the trucks. I sell every faucet known to man. I have no personal preference (professionally speaking). Actually my preferences dictate my warrenty on that product. it doesn't matter what the manuf. warrenty is although costomer service and part accessability do again play as factors in determining what my warrenties will be.
I personally do not like Delta. But I would sell it to a costomer if that's what they wanted. Why talk them into something when either way you'll be giving them great costomer service and making the sale.

What is the average span that any one of these items will sit on your truck?
Lav. Faucets=
T+S Valves=
K.S. Faucets=

We would sell the customer any faucet they wanted it just saved them a second trip charge if they bought one off of the truck or told us ahead of time what they were looking for.

Our stock did not get banged up because the materials were set in the truck not thrown in the truck. Our trucks were large enough we had compartments just for new faucets.

The common faucets might need to be restocked through the week but something like a 4-hole kitchen might be on the truck for a month or better.

Mark

 

[Wiser]

Thank you for the advice!

Stocking seems to make the most sense, but are trucks are already filled to the brim. We either have too much stuff or need to re-organize to accomodate the faucets.

 

[Song Dog]

What is the average span that any one of these items will sit on your truck?
Lav. Faucets=
T+S Valves=
K.S. Faucets=

lav = month or less for both we carry
t/s = 3-4 months
Kitch= month or less for both.

Like today, I could have put in a water heater if I had it in stock. It was set for tomorrow ( I had to go get it). They are going to milk this old one out. IF I HAD IT, IT WOULD BE IN AS I TYPE!
I need a bigger truck!
I have a KUV body box on a Chevy one ton. Kinda like ILPlumbers but smaller scale. I need a Supreme or Hackney real bad.
I can keep everything I need except for heaters and toilets on the truck. Sometimes its a pain but its what I got to deal with at this time.

In Christ,

Song Dog

 

[smellslike$tome]

lav = month or less for both we carry
t/s = 3-4 months
Kitch= month or less for both.

Like today, I could have put in a water heater if I had it in stock. It was set for tomorrow ( I had to go get it). They are going to milk this old one out. IF I HAD IT, IT WOULD BE IN AS I TYPE!
I need a bigger truck!
I have a KUV body box on a Chevy one ton. Kinda like ILPlumbers but smaller scale. I need a Supreme or Hackney real bad.
I can keep everything I need except for heaters and toilets on the truck. Sometimes its a pain but its what I got to deal with at this time.

In Christ,

Song Dog

I've had a Hackney since December '07 and I'm still trying to figure out how to get my water heaters on it. It can be done but I have to choose between 1 heater and my sewer camera or 2 heaters and both my sewer camera and cable machine. I use my cable machine much more often and so I'm not carrying them but I'm going to have to figure something out because you are correct, the "right now" ability is VERY important.

 

[Marlin]

I can keep everything I need except for heaters and toilets on the truck. Sometimes its a pain but its what I got to deal with at this time.

I drive a 14' box truck and their still isn't enough room to keep everything I'd like to keep on it. Though I suppose for service it would probably be another story.

 

[ToUtahNow]

Here is a picture of one of my old trucks. The guy I sold it to when I sold my business in 99 has not taken great care of it but when I spotted it earlier this year I pulled him over to take pictures. We carried 2-40 gallon gas and 1-50 gallon gas on each truck. We also carried a round front and elongated front water closet in 12" rough and white only. They really were great trucks.

Mark

BTW: He has updated the cab and chassis

 

[uaplumber]

That size of truck looks to fit the bill for service work.

 

[Marlin]

We use mostly vans for service, their is one truck very similar to that which we use for service and their is room to spare. You defiantly could keep a few bowls and some faucets in that thing. The box trucks are used for rough in work which is a whole differant ball game. Their is material stuffed in every crevice yet we still can never have enough.

 

[Wiser]

Here is a picture of one of my old trucks. The guy I sold it to when I sold my business in 99 has not taken great care of it but when I spotted it earlier this year I pulled him over to take pictures. We carried 2-40 gallon gas and 1-50 gallon gas on each truck. We also carried a round front and elongated front water closet in 12" rough and white only. They really were great trucks.

Mark

BTW: He has updated the cab and chassis

Now I'm jealous. That's what we need!