Consumers respond to value when it is offered. They respond to price when it isn't.

  How did Ray Kroc, founder of McDonald's, get rich? What about Warren Buffett? Or Henry Ford? They didn't do it by clipping coupons and settling for generic ketchup. They did it by offering the best product in their categories, at the best price possible, (Best, not lowest. A fair price that offers value to the consumer and profit to the producer.), and by building a reputation for offering useful, reliable products.

  Consumers respond to value when it is offered. They respond to price when it isn't. That means that as a business owner, you must offer value to your customer, or forever let your price be set by the guy up the road who is always trying to undercut you. Learn to sell quality products at a fair price and never wonder again if you can make payroll, (or buy name brand ketchup).

  

Forrest Gump's mom was right, "Stupid is as stupid does."

  All right, it's time to 'fess up. I've spent the better part of a year bashing Chinese and other inferior import goods as a poor economic choice. I've insulted the intelligence of people who shop based on price alone. While I could give you all the really good reasons I didn't want to spend a lot of money on good quality tires, I won't bore you with them.

  It made perfectly good sense to me at the time. I put four new 16” tires on my minivan for under $500. For the first two months, everything was great. Then I noticed that the left rear looked low. I checked it, and sure enough, it needed air. I filled it and looked for an obvious leak and found no nails, so I decided to keep an eye on it. For three or four weeks, everything looked fine. Then one morning I noticed it looked low again. Again, no nails, no obvious leaks, and I decided that since I had parked on the street in front of my house, that it was a neighborhood kid goofing around with it.

  Then a week later it was down fifteen pounds. I had parked in back that time. I was getting fed up with filling this tire every week, so I took it to the tire store that sold them to me and they “fixed” it. I don't know what they did, as they didn't record anything on the service record, but I drove away thinking, okay, now I have four good tires.

  Three days later it was down twenty pounds. From that point I was filling the tire every three to four days. I called and made another appointment. They “fixed” it again. Now my tires were five months old, and had been installed and fixed twice by the same shop. Same result. Needed air twice in the first week after the second fix. I was headed out of town for a week on business, and didn't want my wife bothered with filling the tire constantly, so I called back and was told they were “swamped” and couldn't get me in to fix it before I left.

  By the time I got back in to have it looked at again, the fourth time they had the wheel off the van, I was filling the tire twenty or more pounds three or four times a week. I had owned the tires for seven and a half months, and driven just under ten thousand miles. Mostly to and from the tire store. This time I was smart. I walked in unannounced, with my eight year old son, and told them I would wait while they fixed my tire, and that I wanted a full report of what they found, not just a smile and my keys back.

  After over an hour and a half of waiting, (reasonable, given the fact I had no appointment, but irritating because it was my fourth trip in less than eight months), the salesman at the counter explained to me that there was a puncture of the interior sidewall of the drivers side tire, likely from hitting a curb, and that it was an unrepairable condition. I'm not sure I want to know how he drives home, but I do know that if I got an unrepairable puncture, on the inside sidewall of the drivers side tire by hitting a curb, I'd remember it. In fact, the rest of my van would show some signs of ill treatment as well.

  Up to this point in the story, my experience can be chalked up to choosing a poor tire store. A tire made anywhere in the world could have these problems. Here is where quality, pride of workmanship, and value come into play. The road hazard warranty I paid extra for was pro rated. In less than eight months of driving, fewer than ten thousand miles, just over half the tread was worn off this tire. I asked if it was from running at low pressures, and the salesman said all four tires were in the same condition.

  What did I do? I paid the man over seventy dollars to put a replacement tire on, which was half the original purchase price of the tire, plus installation. And I made up my mind that I would not deal with that tire store again, because I am convinced that the leak was present when the tire only had 10% wear, but they jerked me around long enough to get 50% of the replacement out of me. I also did the math, and for 30% more I could have bought American made tires with a tread life warranty to 60,000 miles. That's three times further than I can expect my “inexpensive” (read 'cheap') Chinese tires to run.

  So to all who I have offended in running down inferior imports, I apologize. I am just as dumb as you.

Thoughts on Sandy Hook, and Christmas

  When we allow grief to set policy, it propagates more grief. I've seen blogs that point out that the failure in Sandy Hook was not in controlling the availability of weapons, but rather an unwillingness or inability for area residents to recognize what is right and wrong, then act on that recognition. Many people who knew the gunman reported that they were “not surprised” to learn he had committed this horror. He was widely reported as “odd” or “weird”, yet no one took the time to look further.

For fear of being labeled "insensitive" to the plight of mentally ill individuals, we allow them to occasionally take over our entire country through gross acts of violence. America used to have a backbone. We used to stand up to bullies, dictators, and madmen. Now we spend so much time comparing ourselves to them to make sure we're "not as bad as that guy", we have forgotten that bad guys do bad things, and that the reason we have been given the ability to see that is because we also have the responsibility to prevent it.

I am shattered by the image of those broken parents as I put myself in their shoes. I hug my school age sons a little tighter since last Friday, and I find myself urged to pray for the comfort of those left behind. What was done cannot be undone. It may be that what was done cannot be prevented.

At this time I am reminded of another madman. One who was so concerned with a perceived threat that he ordered the deaths of every male child under the age of two in an entire region. And he had the might of the sole superpower nation in the world behind him, to see that it happened.

Our Lord escaped that horror, and never once suggested that the means used to kill those babies be eliminated. He came to show that the deficiency is in the hearts of every one of us. He pointed out that we live in an evil age, surrounded by evil. He showed us that the way to overcome evil is through diligent prayer and love for one another. Love for one another implies that we protect one another. Since we are unable to remove from our world the means which bad people use to harm others, we can do only as Jesus did. We must be willing to put ourselves in harms way to prevent harm to others. Let us not cower even further by abandoning our responsibility to protect our children to the good intentions of others. Every parent of every child that died last week did that when they sent their children to school that day. A school that the gunman knew would be absolutely defenseless.

Wanna Make More Money On Your Next Fence Job?

  I can offer you a single question to add to your sales presentation that could make you up to $100 more on your bottom line. For each job. By offering premium product to your customer, you can differentiate yourself from the competition, and in this case, you can do it without putting down your current product.

  Most customers will immediately see the value in your offering, few will deny that there is value in it, and the only determining factor that goes into their decision is whether the price you offer is worth the value upgrade. Most of the people asked this question will answer, “Yes!” enthusiastically.

Simply put, point out that your bid contains industry standard hardware, which is usually imported. Then ask, “Would you be willing to spend $50 - $100 (fill in your number) more for me to include 100% American made hardware on all your gates, (or vinyl caps on your posts, or both) with a lifetime guarantee? You will be surprised at how many people jump to say yes right away. In some cases, it's like they've waited all their lives to be asked that simple question.

  What about the question of your current quality? Simply point out that in order to allow a fair comparison of bids, you included the same quality of materials that your competitors use, but that you prefer to allow the customer to choose better quality products. You may even want to say that you prefer to use the higher quality products, but that in order to get an “apples to apples” comparison you have written imported hardware into the bid.

  There is no use trying to point out the deficiencies in imported hardware here. The customer will have a personal opinion about imported goods, and your sales pitch isn't going to change that. What you are appealing to is the inherent preference for “home grown” shared by most Americans, tapping into a distrust of inferior substitutes, and allowing them to make all the conclusions.

  The beauty of this is that the price difference for you could result in a savings plus the upcharge. Many of the caps we sell are priced at or below the cost of imports, and our hardware is, in most cases, very competitive. Using this technique can make you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars and can win you those jobs you have been losing to your competitor on price because you offer more than price. You offer value.

  To offer value to your customer, and make your hardware and accessories a profit point, as well as letting them distinguish you from the rest of the pack, use Modern Fence Technologies products on your next job!

Invest in You

  Part of being a professional is a commitment to constant improvement. For teachers, it means taking courses when school is out. For doctors, it means attending lectures and studying new techniques and treatments. 
  For fence professionals it means going to Sebring Florida this February to attend the NAFCA Fence Training School 2013. Learn from some of the most experienced installers and teachers in the industry. It's an affordable investment in your business, and your career. Check it out at: http://www.4nafca.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=74:fts-2013&catid=34&Itemid=66.