Is there anything that can be done about getting better pricing from an AB distributor or possibly using a different AB distributor?? I am getting my lunch handed to me on prices when competing for work. I have had 3 different potential customers send me an exact part list to be quoted against competing integrators. 95% of the parts are Rockwell/AB. I am fairly young and the potential customers have said they want to me to get there business but they say it really is about price. All three customers have given me what the lowest quote or price that they received and on all three my material cost is more than the total cost for my competitor to even to do the entire job. I am mostly getting a flat 15% off msrp on AB hardware.
I have worked for two different integrators in the past one was a smallish 2 man shop with yearly sales in 250k-800k range depending on which year you look at. The other integrator had about 10 people working in house sales were 3-4million range.
The smallish integrator had some of the best multipliers i have ever seen. Typically around 40-50% off msrp.
The larger integrator was in the 25-30% off msrp.
I am just ticked off. As a small startup I have missed some huge opportunities because of the crappy pricing. My AB distributor could care less if he had my business or not.
There is always the option of not using AB all together. Unless the customer specifically specifies, and even then quote him the option of using my preferred non AB controls instead.
People will talk about local AB support, to be honest if I really need support I go to the knowledge base or call tech support. Which is what my local support guy does. He brought a demo by that had a smc softstart in it. I was like is that a soft start. He was like I am not sure what that is.
And another thing I keep asking myself why should even buy Rockwell products when they do integration work themselves. Basically supporting my competitor.
I have worked for two different integrators in the past one was a smallish 2 man shop with yearly sales in 250k-800k range depending on which year you look at. The other integrator had about 10 people working in house sales were 3-4million range.
The smallish integrator had some of the best multipliers i have ever seen. Typically around 40-50% off msrp.
The larger integrator was in the 25-30% off msrp.
I am just ticked off. As a small startup I have missed some huge opportunities because of the crappy pricing. My AB distributor could care less if he had my business or not.
There is always the option of not using AB all together. Unless the customer specifically specifies, and even then quote him the option of using my preferred non AB controls instead.
People will talk about local AB support, to be honest if I really need support I go to the knowledge base or call tech support. Which is what my local support guy does. He brought a demo by that had a smc softstart in it. I was like is that a soft start. He was like I am not sure what that is.
And another thing I keep asking myself why should even buy Rockwell products when they do integration work themselves. Basically supporting my competitor.