how to negotiate with dealers?

I do not ask my dealer for a better price. I buy MOST of my parts from him. I send friends to him. And in return if I need them to do warranty work on anything it takes 1 or 2 days and not 2 weeks.
And they always have free coffee.
 
Rivets said:
Landscapers, please remember your business is far different than your equipment dealer service center. The dealers over head is vastly different than your's. Both have the same expenses, but the dealer has a hugh inventory in parts and new equipment which you don't have, which is constantly accruing interest if not moved quickly. Remember, the dealer must ordered six to eight months before the season to get inventory and any kind of discount. There is no 0% interest program for us.

A new guy with a decent reputation from from the big city nearby decides to expand and comes into your area with a multi-team crew and starts advertising he will do the same job you do at a 15-20% discount to your prices. He's got nice trucks, good equipment, guys in uniform showing up on time and they can do everything you do. He is making his money on volume and time and paying his crew less to make his profit. Your customers call and ask you to match his price. What do you tell them? Isn't that the same thing you are asking us dealers to do for you?
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Well as with any business you and us have the right to say no... On the other hand I leave wiggle room for hagglers... They don't haggle I get more profit if I do haggle I still get profit but the customer is happier...and assuming I do a great job he will be more than likely to stay longer.

A guy comes to town like you said I end up losing a few customers I adjust my prices and get new customers it happens. Our business are greatly different and you said it your self you need to move your inventory so you either sell a piece of equipment with a slight discount and make money or you don't sell.... Simple enough no?
 
The last non-Stihl dealership I worked for was a Husqvarna dealer in Bardstown. Lowes told their customers that if they had any problems, take the mower to us, and
we "had" to do the warranty work.....

So we would get pissed off folks all of the time showing up, and once the owner heard where they bought the unit from, he would tell them to take it back there!!!!

One day in the service department, the secretary patched in a phone call from Husqvarna to me, they begged me to look at this guys trimmer that he bought at Lowes.

Needless to say, my boss was pissed at me for taking it in, I fixed the problems as I found them, the customer was an *** from the start.

After all, I was a warranty dealer, I had to make it right????? No?????

Needless to say, the dealer submits the warranty claims, and if Husqvarna denies it, then the dealer has to try to get the funds from the customer...... Right!!!!!!!!!!!

Plus the poor mechanic gets into trouble for wasting all of this time dealing with the forms, phone calls with Husqvarna and the customer, time listening to the customer come in and biatch for a half hour, etc....

All for a unit bought at Lowes!!!!!!!! Sheesh!!!!!

Hell, after I quit that job, that customer started calling me at home!!!!!!
 
pugaltitude said:
So you think a business can give away approx 20% of its product and still expect to make money?
That's like $300 ish. (Toro)
lucky if the dealer gets 20-30% buying anyway.
I don't know any business who could survive like that.
They are going for volume rather then turnover.
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I think the dealer giving me that $300 ish discount is still making enough money on the mower that he isn't hurting himself. The thing is you treat someone right they come back and spend more money, in the last eight years I've purchased ever piece of equipment I have from the same dealer so how much money as he made from me in the long run. It's all about building customer relations.
 
LoCo86 said:
If your dealers are anything like the ones we have here you are better off buying it where you can get the mower the cheapest, since you're mechanically inclined. If you're not in the millionaires club here it could take 1-2 weeks to get your equipment back from repairs. As far as negotiations go it's just like buying a new car or motorcycle. But since your not buying multiple pieces of equipment costing thousands of dollars you won't get much of a discount if any at all. So just buy the mower wherever you are able to purchase it the cheapest.
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Home depot will accept lowes 10percent off coupon on that mower for 999. Or if you have military family member they can get ten percent off. Also home depot will negotiate and give 10-15percent off to anyone in that section just ask grills mowers trimmers etc my brother was district manager for them and they encourage that dept leaders to cut deals and sell. Lastly as far as that mower your looking at you will never have to worry about dealer for service it will not fail before warranty is out.
 
Mid TN Lawn said:
Home depot will accept lowes 10percent off coupon on that mower for 999. Or if you have military family member they can get ten percent off. Also home depot will negotiate and give 10-15percent off to anyone in that section just ask grills mowers trimmers etc my brother was district manager for them and they encourage that dept leaders to cut deals and sell. Lastly as far as that mower your looking at you will never have to worry about dealer for service it will not fail before warranty is out.
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Talk to HD and get 10% off? This sounds farfetched .......
 
Mid TN Lawn said:
I Explained to you there policy if you dont beleive me that your tough ****. I was nice enough to give you 3 diff. Ways you can save 10percent.
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No rly I apreciate it.... Just seems odd that a corporate owned store to allow employees to give discounts I will definately take a lowes coupon there and see what they can do. I would rather buy from a dealer however if I could get 10-20% off I couldn't say no....
 
Ric said:
I think the dealer giving me that $300 ish discount is still making enough money on the mower that he isn't hurting himself. The thing is you treat someone right they come back and spend more money, in the last eight years I've purchased ever piece of equipment I have from the same dealer so how much money as he made from me in the long run. It's all about building customer relations.
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If you are getting a good deal as a customer then obviously dealer has to be happy as he chose to sell it at that price.
As my father always says "a price of a thing is what it will bring" and "a good deal is when both parties agree and shake hands".

I can only talk about discount structures over here.

The way it looks is he sells 3 of the same product to my 1 product and we make the same money.
He will maybe get better discount but he is giving it away in the sale.

I make up for on service where other dealers are not as good as us.
They sell the product and we get the service. The service is where the money is made. Another quote from my father "never sell your labour cheap"
 
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