Lots of Vendor Talk, here's my Jerry McGuire

[DriverzInc]

Simply.... well said. I agree with a lot you have to say.

[64pontiac]

You will be thoroughly disappointed if we all start lowering our costs to manufacter so that the parts are cheaper.

[Vegas69]

I think it's hard to sell the value of a quality vendor to the new crowd. It's no different than shopping for a TV or a loaf of bread in their mind. It goes back to my post about the internet and what modern times have done to business. It's let every Tom, Dick, and Harry compete and that means stupid low prices. It's forced businesses to run leaner. It's not going to change anytimje soon. People with money today are smarter. I hope Travis has figured out a way to have less overhead.

You mentioned raising your prices and losing customers. What customers did you lose? The customers you didn't make any money on in the first place? I've found with my business that my BEST customers are as loyal as the day is long. They refer to people just like them. I always tell the kid that works for me, "Pick your battles". If he's a grinder or not loyal, find a better customer.

[GregWeld]

Just think about all the vendors on all the forums that you've never read ANY post, EVER, about late shipping or hassles getting a refund.... There's way more of them than there are the ones you've read over and over about.

Everyone in business faces the same challenges. Price. Service. Competitors.

Just look to the left of this page and see all those banner ads... and ask yourself how many of them you've read bad stuff about. What are they doing differently? Are they competing? Are they on the Internet? Are they in a different economy?

[ord27]

I haven't started a build yet. I have owned a high end wakeboard or a ski boat most of my adult life. There are many online suppliers of boating toys and equipment. Instead of saving a few bucks ordering from one of these guys, I've always gone to my local dealer and bought from the pro shop.

Sure a wakeboard setup from them is a bit higher, but it keeps the local guy in business. If everyone did that, I wouldn't hear so much grumbling about marine service departments in other areas of the country. My dealer can hire the best service techs because he has a large, loyal customer base in all 3 aspects of his business: pro shop, service dept, and boat sales

[intocarss]

Very well said and very true Jon

[Beegs]

Jon I feel for and understand what you are saying BUT.... in ANY business that has margin, people pile on and you get price erosion. It has always happened and always will.

I feel it with my apartments, haven't raised rents in almost ten years but my costs continue to go up. I feel it when I sell a load of topsoil. My father made more profit selling dirt in the 70's than I can today. EVERYONE has a truck, EVERYONE has machines...EVERYONE chops balls.

Price erosion.....it sucks.

De Beers ...now there is a business model! Are diamonds rare? My wife thinks so and that's all that matters....along with setting prices....lol

[sik68]

I can't say it any better than what everyone here before me has already said...and it is the internet's fault like Todd is saying.

Among the admirable vendors on the left side of the screen is DSE. I can draw so many parallels to Apple I won't waste my time, but they built a brand, focus on their products, prove it in the field, and stay off forums. Their price is their price...and although I don't own a single DSE product, it's a brand I aspire to buy "because it just works."

[Bucketlist2012]

Being in the service business almost 30 years, Quality Service, parts, and follow up are key.

I understand the mark up on parts....I did it....Always the good customers come back, over and over again..

Why when I go find a Killer shop to work on my car, would I try to barter down to near his wholesale price ? Sure to save money, but I will make it somewhere else and Pay the man for the parts and the Labor..

Sure i see what I can get them for, so as not to get ripped off, but to say to him, " I know you get it at cost, so what is my price ? " , to me is getting spit in my food....Get my drift ? I would not want to work on my Car...

Instead, I have a loyal relationship with a great Builder, and My job is to go make My money so I can pay him what he needs ..

It was always just under what I would pay retail so no biggie..

In my Trade, We are charging 1.2 times on parts, so a 50 dollar part is 110... I understand how it is.

[Blake Foster]

Originally Posted by ratman67

"re-think your manufacturing, and find away to make your product cheaper so you can lower retail across the board."

im building my first high end pro-t camaro, i am looking for quality and value in the parts i buy. when i first started looking at forged wheels i was shocked at the prices...i mean the wheels are made out of aluminum not platinum. lol

i looked at most of the different wheels out there and someone here on lat-g told me to check out pro wheels, which i did, their prices where about half of what other wheel builders are selling their wheels for granted they usually have a six week wait which i understand...good product with a great price will net you lots of business. the quality was first rate and my wheels are absolutely beautiful. i called prodigy to ask him about back spacing and felt obligated to to buy my wheels from him for giving me the back spacing dimensions (this was just before people started posting here they were having problems getting their parts from prodigy) i did get my wheels, although it took twice as long as it should have, i would have bought them direct from prowheels had frank not given me the back spacing...fortunately pro wheels is a great company and are re doing my front wheels because frank didn't give them the correct info on my brake set up and the front wheels were hitting the calipers.

i am running a full dse set up in my camaro, sub frame, quad link, subframe connectors wiper motor, mini tubs and other dse products as well as a bunch of other parts i needed for my build. i called dse and they will not budge on their list prices and i understand that they can't compete with their distributors, i ended up calling matts told them what i intended to buy for my car and asked what he could do for me if i ordered all my parts from him, he told me he would knock off 15% accross the board. my first order was 15k in parts, they were very knowledgeable, i felt it was win win for us both, i did get great service, great pricing, and fast delivery. so don't tell me you can't have all three. i will be making another order with them soon for 6 or 7 k to finish up my car and will do so with confidence...rm

Paragraph 1
As a manufacturer we (all manufacturers) try and reduce the cost or our parts, it is the only way to increase margin,(other than raising the price) but when we do lower the cost. don't expect to see a lower retail price. We are in business to MAKE MONEY. if you want cheep parts call CHINA, and no sorry i don't have the number.

Paragraph 3
You purchased the cheapest forged wheels you could. from the lowest price vendor.
They took twice as long to get as expected.
and didn't fit.
anything else.

i will go back to Jon's story about the Speedtech sub frame, this customer actually called Every dealer on the west coast, we ended up talking to all of them and quoting and figuring out the shipping to 6 different locations. and the guy still hasn't placed an order not the best way to LOWER YOUR COSTS.10 guys dealers &manufacturer) quoting on 1 sub frame to make 300 bucks???? (that is how low the price was driven not the normal margin BTW)

I would love it if all the dealers stuck to the price sheet. We were having this talk just yesterday, We just finished redoing our pricelist and spent weeks working out cost, dealer cost, retail and margins and comparing competators offerings and we price our product to sell at full retail. We could mark it way up and give everyone a discount build in huge margins for the dealers and have them discount the parts all day long, but that is not the approach we took.
Speedtech is the same as DSE in that we do not discount the pricing of the product so as not to compete with the dealers, lets hope some of them are also reading this.
The most important thing in business is to make MONEY, you all get up everymorning and go to work to MAKE MONEY how many of you would do it "Just For the love of it" not many I'm betting.
We strive to provide high quality parts, great Service and good availability, all while making a profit. and you know what sometimes the stars don't all line up. We do try tho.