Very well put Jeff
-----Original Message----- From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org <re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> Sent: Wed Feb 04 19:48:41 2009 Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Prices on PV Joel has clearly pointed out the obvious. Perhaps in your area there are only a few solar dealers and you are working on a handshake basis, but its hard enough getting clients to not "shop a job" without handing them over our job cost worksheet. There was a time when our cost proposal listed every single item and part number we planned to use. After having clients take this list to competitors trying to get a better price we stopped this and now our proposals describe a complete working system, nit the individual parts making up the system. We also found that some of the competitors the potential client took our detailed parts list proposal too would not have had any idea how to cost out their bid if they had not seen our detailed material list. We lost a recent job to a potential client that we completed a very complete site analysis as part of preparing our cost proposal. During our site work the client was surprised to learn that we were not recommending a roof mounted system as we found many shading and roof design problems, and instead we determined the bast location was a ground mounted array near the rear of their lot. When the client told me they had decided to obtain a proposal from another firm, I almost begged them not to disclose our very detailed proposal and design information to this other firm. I felt it would be better for the client to not only see a proposal from someone else without the benefit of seeing our cost proposal first, but it would also be interesting to see if the other dealer would recognize the obvious roof mounted array was a bad choice. You guessed it, they showed our detailed proposal to the other firm who then proposed the exact same system we proposed, item for item, except they lowered their price about 1/2%. Yes, we lost the job. No, its not only not a good idea to give out this cost information, but its also not a good idea to give out a detailed parts list breakout. If the client wants another bid, then go for it, only let the competition have to go to the same trouble you did to figure out what parts and sizes of equipment will be needed. Jeff Yago ________________________________ Netscape. Just the Net You Need.
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