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By Gil Foltz, Executive Vice President
Part of SCHULTE's comprehensive training is on sales. And in today's economy we need to focus on sales. Also, in today's economy you may frequently see the strategy of price wars. In a price war situation, you can drop prices and/or you can defend your prices by selling value. When people are so focused on saving money, it's hard to sell value, so you need to speak "money talk."
Here's what we mean. You have bid a builder that also has a bid from a competitor that is offering a lower price. You can offer special pricing and hold on to your customers, however this might force you to lose sight of profitability.
You may have it in your culture to use value-added selling, however it still may not work in this economy. Your customers are responding that they need to show what they're getting for their money. Now's when you need to figure out what your value means to them in dollars. You are guaranteed to find that the quality and reliability of SCHULTE's products will reduce costs for you and your customers.
We've heard many examples of our value put into dollars over the years. You can use some simple product features to explain how using SCHULTE product saves your customer money. For example:
* The thick, high quality 2mm edge banding that SCHULTE uses on Classica and freedomRail can deflect damages. So you are less likely to receive a call back because a carpet layer or finish trim worker damaged it after installation.
* SCHULTE trims the back of all Classica shelves so you don't have to. The shelves are up to 5 mm shorter than the depth of the panels, so if the wall is bowed, the shelf will still be flush with the front of the panel.
* SCHULTE has patented hardware that is the strongest in the industry and in most cases has a lifetime warranty. That means that it won't fail when home owners load it with their heaviest loads and use it on a daily basis. This means fewer call backs again!
* The design software we use is fast and accurate so we can provide your customers with timely and correct designs. This creates efficiencies in the process and allows you to have the product well before the installation schedule. You'll reduce the last minute anxieties.
* SCHULTE stands behind the product that we offer because we have invested in the manufacturing and engineering processes to continue to offer the highest quality product available.
So, if you have a higher price than your competitors, use numbers to show your value. Your customers will be committed to a product that can save them money in maintenance and management costs by assuring a timely and long lasting installation.
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