Selling walk-ins

[Diceman]

Someday I want to meet a restaurant owner that cares about quality over price, someday...any day.
Get in the real world some of you guys.

[oneacman]

You guys really know your equipment but what about this for a sales strategy.Seams like restaurant suppliers mark up 5-15% on equipment cost like walkins,ice machines, and cooking equipment right? So in order to compete, match that and then sell a professional install w/warranty representation separately.You can make the same money and squeeze the rest. supplier out of your area of expertise.

[hvacmd2002]

Originally posted by oneacman
You guys really know your equipment but what about this for a sales strategy.Seams like restaurant suppliers mark up 5-15% on equipment cost like walkins,ice machines, and cooking equipment right? So in order to compete, match that and then sell a professional install w/warranty representation separately.

We are paying more for our boxes than the restauarant guys are selling them for. As a matter of fact, the restaurant guys are buying them cheaper than my supplier. UR owns Bally, and the restaurant guys get Bally cheaper than UR. Figure that out. We can't compete...period.

[selfemployed]

That is the facts. Drop ship ice makers for less than my cost. Their in a buyers club is what I'm told.

[oneacman]

AAHH Ha sounds like they have sqeezed us out but what about the install and start up. Of course that only works on units w/linesets and controls. Now there are allot of self contained designs.

[oneacman]

Originally posted by selfemployed
The restaurant suppliers sell the refrig. equip. at cost, set up the box and put equip. inside. The hook-up is seperate. I had a customer tell me I was trying to --ck him the first time I ran into this kind of pricing. He did get ----ed but not by me.

Hey selfemployed how did your customer get ---ed ? Did something go wrong w/the install?

[R12rules]

In San Antonio, my freid was bidding on an walk in replacement and the school disctrict speced a certain brand of box. It turns out that brand is in bed with a local restaurant supply.
So guess who wins the lowest bid?

Lest say there are one hundred HVAC/R service contractors in that city. Lets say there are fifteen legit rest suppliers.

Now WHY on Earth would a mfr sign on with a single restaurant supply and cut out all those potential sales thru the real back bone of their market? Ie, the contractors!
WHY???



If five contractors approached that mfr and said, "we want to have an even playing field, stop undercutting us thru that rest supply." Perhaps things would change.

But Business to Business marketing and strategic alliances have been going on since time began.

Perhaps some contractors should network together and approach a mfr of boxes and ask for better pricing.

I wouldnt have a problem with agreeing to sell/ install only one brand of box. You get to know them better than the competetion and you have less trouble with them going in.
In the long run, the customer wins and so do the installers.
"You know what you like and you like what you know."

[Linden Swanson]

Replacing walk-ins, ice machines, or cooking equipment is not a profitable market. It really never has been. You might get a good customer to pay you a fair mark-up to get an ice machine replaced quickly once in a while. But, the customer will soon find out that he could have gotten the machine much cheaper and that could lead to trouble.

The warranty market isn't much better. Warranties on ice machines come with preset time limits that are very difficult to meet. Most cooking equipment is sold with a one year warranty that must be supported be a factory authorized rep.

I refer all the requests for walk-ins and ice machines to a few pre-determined individuals that are set up to make a profit in these situations. I think service companies bidding in that market is a waste of time, generally speaking.

[icemeister]

Originally posted by Linden Swanson
Replacing walk-ins, ice machines, or cooking equipment is not a profitable market. It really never has been.

The warranty market isn't much better.

While I will agree that it's tough to make a buck doing warranty work, I disagree that that walk-in and icemaker replacement business isn't profitable. I don't do cooking equipment, so I won't comment on that.

I've been involved in selling walk-ins, ice machines and such for over thirty years and my father did it for thirty years before that. In the old days we were treated as dealers with trusted assurances that equipment would never be sold direct to the end user no matter what. Even if they had national accounts, the sale would go through you as their local dealer. They would provide sales leads for you to follow up on. Often, you had a protected territory as well. Life was good.

When the manufacturers started allowing their national accounts to buy direct with out going through the dealer, they cut us out of that action.......although were were expected to do the installations and continue with warranty service as before like nothing changed.

Later on, your sales rep or regional distributor would start selling direct to major chain accounts, hotels, schools and hospitals. Now we have mail order like Superior Products and the food vendors like Sysco direct-peddling our stuff. The restaurant supply down the street isn't necessarily your worst enemy in all of this. He's likely in the lifeboat right next to your's....and like you, trying to survive. If he's selling at cost plus 5-10% he's just a fool. It's not worth the risks involved.

I don't sell major equipment nearly as much as I used to, but when I do, I will make a good profit and will give the customer a quality product that's properly installed and serviced. If I come up against the whores of this business (and I emphatically include the manufacturers in this group) who won't allow you to make a decent profit, I'm dollars ahead by taking a pass on that sale and staying home.

The upside is that most of the sales I make are made to customers who know full well what they can buy it for elsewhere, but chose to buy it from me. That's a good thing.

[Diceman]

Ice machines are one of the few types of rest equip you still can make some money on. If they are good customers who realize they require some skilled work to be installed and set up properly. As far as coolers, prep tables, freezers, all they need is delivered and plugged in. There is no money in that at all, at least not on my end.

[oneacman]

You guys are right, theres not much for your efforts on selling restaurant equip. and now it can be purchased easily over the internet. So really we are better off just responding to urgent service calls and getem goin in a bind.Our ability to repair equipment now with overnight resources for parts.Is that our nitch in this market? Is that where they need us the most so thats were we make the most?

[Wannamakeice]

Originally posted by condenseddave
3 grand?

I wonder if the other guy forgot to put in for the equipment.

no doubt i just paid 1k for a 2' extension on an old Vollrath/kolpak box with floor.

[R12rules]

Originally posted by oneacman
So really we are better off just responding to urgent service calls and getem goin in a bind.Our ability to repair equipment now with overnight resources for parts.Is that our nitch in this market? Is that where they need us the most so thats were we make the most?

That's what we have been reduced to. We still make housecalls.

The respect of the customer has been replaced by so many in the phone directory. No more customer loyalty.
They let their fingers do the shopping thru the yellow pages.