Modern Fence Technologies: Taking the Guess Work Out of Choosing the Right Hinge

Modern Fence Technologies announced today that they are once again improving the fence industry by making it possible to select a gate hinge based on the dimensions and weight of any gate. Until now, selecting a hinge was largely based on experience. Knowing that a hinge had supported a similar gate in the past allowed a contractor to “guess” that a similar hinge would support a current gate.


Over the past year, Modern Fence Technologies has taken a scientific approach to the problem, working out the physics of hinges to determine the true load that a gate generates. They have then gone the next step and rated their entire line of hinges based on these calculations to allow fence installers and job specifiers to determine exactly which hinge will be best for their application.


“The simplest way to describe the way this works is to say that knowing the width of the opening, the weight and style of the gate, and the distance separating the two hinges, it is possible to determine how much force is exerted on the hinge. Remember, the wider the opening, or the closer together the hinges are, the more load is placed on each hinge,” said Mike Jacob, a representative of the company.


The purpose of this research was to help fence professionals save time and money by selecting the proper hinge for each particular gate. It has already been used by several Modern Fence Technologies customers to eliminate the possibility of hinge failure due to undersized hinges.


In an early application of the new calculator, Roger Aronson of Aronson Fence in Wauconda, Illinois recently called on Modern Fence Technologies looking for a hinge to hang a four hundred pound gate that is six feet tall and fourteen feet wide. Using the formula devised there, it was determined that the gate in question would generate a load of nearly 2,800 pounds on the hinge. Mr. Aronson chose a hinge from the offerings available, based on the results of the calculator, to meet his needs. "This gives me confidence that the gate I put up won't start sagging, " Mr. Aronson pointed out.


This greatly reduced the likelihood of being called back to service a gate that may otherwise have been hung on a smaller hinge, one chosen to save on initial cost. The savings realized by reducing call backs justifies using the calculator, even when the contractor ends up using a more expensive hinge than was originally planned. The calculator has also proven a valuable tool to prevent “over-hinging”, the use of heavier, more expensive hinges where a more economical hinge would suffice.


The most seen and used portion of any fence is the gate. Moving parts need to be strong enough to endure the outdoor elements and to do the job they are called on to accomplish. This new calculator tool is one more way that Modern Fence Technologies leads the industry in value engineering.

Sell Quality to Earn Profit, and Satisfy Your Customer at the Same Time

  Is your customer willing to pay $50 more to get American made, high quality hinges and post caps on their vinyl fence?  $100?  You might be surprised at the answer you get when you ask.  Offering an upgrade to your standard line of products doesn't need to sound like an admission of guilt.  Your bid wasn't designed as a bait and switch, it is an attempt to offer a fair comparison with the bids your customer got from other companies.
  The advertised price on a new car is a base model, just like your fence bid.  Point out to your customer that you also offer a higher quality product with a lifetime warranty and superior appearance and function.  If the bid is typical, it will be in the $2500 to $4000 range.  If you offer to upgrade for $100, it will cost you $15 to $50 more for product, depending on the job, but that's $50 to $85 profit in your pocket, plus you have a better chance of landing the job, because you differentiated yourself from all your competitors.
  Try it, and when you land that job with upgrades, call me, and I'll hook you up with the best caps, hinges, latches and drop rods in the business!

The Race to the Bottom, In Real Time...

We've discussed market building and the effect of market destroyers on markets here before. I just heard about a scenario that is related to this discussion, and points to the fact that healthy competition can cause prices to be kept more reasonable, but when the players are not on a level playing field, market destroyers often self destruct while trying to compete.

Having competitors in a market segment is a form of accountability. No one seller can get away with overcharging or under-delivering for very long, because the consumer has an alternative. Where competition is absent, you usually see both bloated pricing and unresponsive customer service. (Think cable TV providers, and the Department of Motor Vehicles).

When all players in a market are seeking the same things, market share, profit, and growth, the forces governing their decisions are roughly equal, and their costs of doing business are based on the efficiency with which they carry on their operations. Whoever controls costs and sells products, wins.

The situation I just looked at is a little different. It involves a big player,that until recently, was practically the only game in town offering the services it offers. This organization operates on a business model which uses revenues from services sold to its members to promote the organization and to support its large staff. This promotion includes marketing the services of it's members to the public under its seal of approval. Because there has been little or no competition, there has been no check on the prices they could charge members for the services.

When a new player entered the market working on a different business model, the reaction of the big player reveals where they fall in the realm of market building vs. market destroying. See if you can follow. The new group is focused on serving its members and operates as a volunteer, not for profit group. They offer similar services to their members, and charge much lower prices, and they have no paid staff, which means much lower overhead.

Once the big player noticed that there was “competition”, they responded by drastically reducing their prices for the services they sell. How long can they hope to do this? In a previous post I described a similar situation in which Dow Chemical found a way to undersell European chemical producers, who then reduced their prices to a level below Dow's cost. Dow knew that they were losing money on every unit sold, so he began buying as much as he could from them at prices below his cost, selling to his customers at his regular price and made even more money selling their product than his own.

These two situations aren't identical. Dow was selling a commodity, something that is identical, no matter where you get it from, so his customers didn't care where it came from. They were interested only in price, which, for commodities, is all that matters. In our present case, the services sold are similar, not identical, and the profit motive present for the big seller is not present in the new organization.

As long as the volunteer organization is offering a service to its members and the community that is of equal value to the offerings of a paid staff business, and does so at a lower cost, it holds down the prices of both organizations, thus improving the market for their members and the community. They both offer value at a reasonable price.

It also should serve to drive the big organization to improve their product, adding value , and allowing them to charge more. Ultimately, with the chosen business model, that is their only road to success. Currently, the path is to engage in a race to the bottom against themselves.

Let us help, if we can...

  Modern Fence Technologies will be hosting free webinars this spring to teach the principles and practices, as well as the benefits of job costing for small business.  While aimed primarily at fence contractors, this information will be helpful to anyone operating a small manufacturing or contracting business. Stay tuned to this channel for more info, or call Mike at 888 456 6786 to schedule a free session for you or your staff.
 This service is designed to be educational, and is offered free of charge to help our customers build their businesses. Tell your friends!

Everything Chinese is not...

                          Definition of Junk: Chinese Trade Vessel

In the following email exchange, Mark Knudson, owner of Modern Fence Technologies was seeking relief from excessive emails from an exporter. He responded to the email with a request that the sender stop spamming him and other members of the North American Fence Contractors Association.

The sender apologized and promised to stop sending. Mark pointed out that he had heard from four members, complaining of this one sender spamming them. The sender then apologized again and said that the goal was to put information in front of potential customers, and started to defend the quality and price of the product offered, and again promised to not send email again.

Mark then responded by inviting the sender to consider joining NAFCA, which would accomplish the goal of putting product in front of potential customers through the regional and international Expos. The response was friendly, with the sender stating that because there is a cost to join, approval from a superior was required, then went on to try to differentiate from all the “many similar emails everyday”, and asked if Mark had ever bought from China and was he satisfied with quality and delivery time.

Mark's response was that the emails are referred to as “spam”, because they are junk. He pointed out that the market is full of junk, and no one likes to put out money for junk. He went on to encourage the sender that there is a right way and a wrong way to do business, and only one way that is sustainable.

Apparently, he struck a nerve. The response was all out of proportion to the discussion, and quite revealing. I'd love to dissect the message in full, but I'll leave that to the reader. I have heard the objection in point three hundreds of times. And not just about Chinese suppliers. U.S. Suppliers run into this same attitude all the time. Everyone wants something for nothing, or at least that's what they want to leave you with. The suppliers that survive this constant struggle are the ones who refuse to sacrifice their integrity or the value of their products to demands for lower price.

The final point devolves into a rant about the U.S. and, if it weren't so serious, would be funny. The sender touches on a faint glimmer of understanding of the point Mark was trying to make, in the line “our quotation is not cheap,but we can guarantee our quality.” Once the sender understands what that statement really means, selling will become much more rewarding.

The fact is, price is never the only objection. It is just the first one that most people will throw at you. Especially in the U.S., where we are conditioned to want to have one of everything, and most people are willing to sacrifice the quality of the things they have in order to cross more lines off their list of things they don’t have.

The only way I can see to reconcile Mark and the sender of these emails is to teach the sender how to sell quality, integrity, service and value instead of price. Until that happens, spammers will be annoyed, and Mark will continue not buying Chinese imports.

          The email exchange is posted here.