I own a business. We do about 500K with SCP, I talked with Aquatech and they are promising to save me 15% a year.
That is alot of money, What do you guys think.
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Replies
I think it was a good decision. I too have renewed my interest in SCP and I've noticed that competing distributors also have a renewed interest in me being a prospect for them. It seems as if they share information amongst themselves somehow. I had a competing distributor tell me that I was 2nd largest customer in the county, yet I've not purchased more than $400 from this guy all last year. What source could he refer to that gives him that impression? Irregardless, its nice to have the distributors competiting for each others share of the pie. I've sent a list of materials I consume frequently. Lets see how this plays out.
-Jeremy
Florida Leisure Pool & Spa
www.FLLeisure.com
Chris Cavanaugh said:
I decided to stay with SCP. I sat down with my my BDR and Branch Manager and negoiated some rates and programs I thought was fair and will make my business more profitable. In this market you never now how the season is going to go, so going through the buying group would not work well with us I do not believe.
Thanks everyone for the help!
Chris
PoolDraw said:
As far as sharing pricing, I quite simply tell whomever I am buying from I need the best possible pricing. And I check that pricing often. When a discrepancy happens, I am not shy about shooting off an email or phone call. I tell them part X is 10% higher from you, can you help me out. Generally they can. If they cant, they cant and I get it somewhere else if all other factors (availability, shipping, etc) line up.
But, you have to pick and choose your battles. Does it destroy my budget to pay $13.79 for a junction box when I can get it for $12.77 at another distributor? I'm not going to start a fight over a buck. $75 on a pump, yeah, a buck no. It's the dollars that maintain the relationship.
Buying group AND Pool Professional License??? Sounds like a busy winter. ;)
Don Parish said:
Thomas,
I guess i would have to disagree with your point stating that it is not ethical to share pricing, especially since i recieved my membership packet today with the cost savings supplied by Aquatech where they clearly ask me what i am paying for parts that i put on the list. Isn't that unethical by your own standards?
I don't see an issue with comparing prices and letting my distributors or in this case Aquatech compete for my business, especially if i am buying the same product. As stated in this post numerous times, the products are identical so it doesn't matter to me one way or the other who i am getting them from. The service provided by the distributors and your buying group are only added into the equation if the costs are similar, but there is no reason why anyone should be that far off in pricing.
Sorry for replying to the original message, but i wanted to include the part that said sharing prices is unethical.
Thomas Brown said:
I agree with all you guys, these threads do get long. Don... I respect your comments. In regard to Charles question: Imagine, you (Don Parish) become a Member of Aquatech. You have a good business and purchase $500K per year through the group. You build pools, operate one retail location and get comfortable as a member meeting new friends at the annual Aquatech Society Conference. You trust these new friends and ask questions about issues facing your business, you appreciate the guiding answers and you really start to care about them as if they were close family.
Then your trusted group calls you and says...sorry, but I have your competitor from across town that has two retail stores, builds more pools and says he'll do $750K per year in group purchases. I hope you are OK with it; we have now made them a Member... So now your competitor has the pricing advantage, can call themselves "A Proud Member of Aquatech" and you are left to wonder why. Wondering what you did wrong, and why your group of trusted friends let you down. Now because your group gave a membership to your competitor, you can't ask questions freely, because your competitor is sitting in the room. This is not how Aquatech operates.
When you partner with Aquatech and become a Member-Owner you are provided with a marketing territory to use one of two trademarks. If you are a builder you become "Aquatech" if you have a retail location and do not build you become an "AquaValue" member. We honor these territories and try not to place our membership in competition with each other. True, there may be a larger prospect in a given market that would bring more purchasing ability to the group, but to bring that individual into the group simply because they would buy more and increase overall group sales goes against why Aquatech formed nearly 50 years ago. Believe me, when I must inform a builder/retailer that the territory is already represented by another Member I get "well I'm bigger than them..." often. Sometimes it is not about the sales dollars, it's about the commitments you have made to honor the territory. It's tough to convey this in words, I hope I am getting my point across or simply making sense.
If Aquatech did not honor territories we could have five hundred to a thousand Members, I'm sure Pool Corp/Superior and other distributors would appreciate that. In fact, I'm sure they are happy as ever that Aquatech limits how many Members it allows in a territory. We are selective in who we invite into Aquatech, and we support our Members with everything we have.
Take the internet for example, as a rule Aquatech does not extend membership to internet based businesses. Why..., because we strongly support our 200 plus brick and mortar retail Members. Would the group increase sales if it added internet businesses, I would imagine the answer would be yes. However, it would place a burden on our retailing Members and as a Member-Owned group we are not going to do this to our Members who work hard servicing their local communities.
I guess it simply comes down to partnership loyalty, if a Member is loyal to the group, then the group will remain loyal to them. It's that simple. Might seem old school, but it's the way we roll...
If you guys just reply (not hit Reply to This) then you don't drag all that other stuff along with you. Just go up to the top of the discussion and type in the box there.
Great idea Jeremy. It is getting to be a pain to follow this thread.
AMEN Jeremy
that is a great suggestion
Rex? You read that one from Jeremy? The repeating text from the initial conversation makes it tough to keep up with sometimes? When you get a lot of people joining in. Is that do-able Rex?
Charles Allen
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