Guest post by a potential double glazing customer:
Had a double Glazing salesman round at the house on Saturday morning. I’d gone through the web pages to request a brochure and lo the phone calls started, telling me there was a team in my area and they’d be happy to pop round to give me a quote. Well, says I, “I’d love to get a quote, but I won’t be signing anything on the day”. “Oh now sir, that’s not how we work these days.” she assures me. We’ll see! Anyway, couldn’t do it the week they said there was a team in my area, but by amazing coincidence there was one im my area the following week too – how lucky am I?
Anyway, the guy appears at my door bang on time, with a big bag of brochures and a laptop and printer. 45 minutes later and we still haven’t seen a brochure, never mind had the windows measured. 1 hour in and he’s just coming back from the car with the demo material – a corner piece. At 90 minutes in he’s now retrieved the demo window with the locks. He’s assuring me that although some companies might quote about 5 grand for the windows on the front of my house, that’s far from realistic and here’s all the ways they’ll be ripping me off.
Come 12:30, we’ve finished measuring the windows and he’s putting together a great quote for me. He’d love to have one of the company vans in my street, there’s plenty people needing window replacements and I could be the one to kick off a lot of sales in the area – I’ll get a great price based on being the conduit to all these sales.
My wife is now putting on her jacket and getting the wee man ready for going over to his Grannies. At 12:45 he prints out the 1st quote just a ba’hair under £14k. I stifle a laugh… I thank him for his time and go to get my own jacket. He’s mumbling something about window scrappage scheme and Barclays finance package. I’ve got my coat on and he’s furiously typing away at the calculator.
“I can do this for you at £7900 but you’d need to sign up today and don’t tell anyone I’ve offered you this price.”
“Well, thanks for your time. We’ve got to go to the Grannies now, I’ll be in touch next week if we decide to go with you.”
“Aye, well, it’s not for everyone. Some people just can’t afford the best and take short sighted decisions due to financial constraints, I understand that”, says he in what I’m beginning to suspect is a bit of an indignant manner.
“Do you need a hand carrying your stuff back to the car?”
Now, the question I have is, why should he be shitty with me? He was supposed to take 45 minutes to demo his product and measure us up for a quote. The fact that he took 3 hours isn’t my fault. I said right up front that I was after quality and a good value for money quote. I explained to him that I was web savvy and had been doing a bit of research on double glazing. I had decent question to ask him about his product, but I’d told everyone I wouldn’t be signing up on Saturday. How disrespectful is it of him to think that I’d change my mind based on his wasting an extra 2 hours and 15 minutes of my Saturday morning? Giving me a quote that can immediately be reduced by over £6k is exactly what I told him not to do.
This is a genuine example of a customer receiving a quote for double glazing in 2009. Not 1989. But 2009! Is this acceptable? Is it time that our industry accepts this type of sales practices? Your comments are welcome (without naming names)…
Tags: double glazing quotes, double glazing salesmen, replacement windows, window scrappage scheme
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You knew I couldn’t resist posts like this
You already know what I think to these practises, it will die a death, perhaps not soon, but in the future when the whole customer base becomes fully aware of the technique and knows not to be taken in by it.
I’d love to name names, but I fear this won’t get through if I do lol.
Sounds to me the, ‘Potential double glazing customer’, played the salesman along. The poor guy was trying to sell using the basic selling steps, build up rapport, created desire, attach, close and consolidate. No different to a car sales man: a furniture shop salesman and any good salesman.
People buy the four P’s Product,(brand) Place(company) People (the salesman) and finally the Price. The price is based on your own perception of value. The value of a brand is very important, If all double glazing was sold on a cost plus basis. You could be out of business very quickly; everyone is in his or her perspective businesses to make a profit. Small companies selling at a low value does nothing to enhance the value of good double-glazing. The raw materials and manufacturing cost are continually going up, so why should pricing remain low? I would suggest that big brand names hepl to increase selling prices allowing smaller companies and independents to sell their products at higher prices, isn’t that what you all really want. Stop allowing your prices to spiral downwards quote VFM and justify your price and any price drops you may give.
No need to name names, we all know who they are and so do they, they should feel ashamed, they hold the industry back and make themselves a laughing stock. When the banks stop supporting them and propping them up, all the better, perhaps then they will sack the 1970s instructors and get real.
The vast majority of my customers have invested heavily in all areas of marketing, internet, media etc but one their biggest assets is their showroom. I know we all have different buying criterior when making a large mainly one off purchase, but I for one would not invite any company to my home until I knew who I was dealing with!
Reading all the recent post’s on window scrapage, national window, door & conservatory companies and phoenix operations you can see how potential customers can become very confused.
When I am at any of my clients showrooms and they have customer’s in you can almost see the fear in their eyes when they first walk in! This turns to a relaxed smile once they are guided through the products on offer and the options they can choose on materials, glass and hardware etc, and all this before they have spent a penny!
My advice to the “guest post from a potential double glazing customer” is to visit most of your local installation companies and ask as many questions as you want before parting with your money.
these guys are our best salesmen!!! when i do a call after “this type” and have finished what i have got to say in 20 minutes, mr and mrs smith are only too glad to sign up just so they dont have to waste more of their time.
The unfortunate thing is there are people who are not as switched on as this gentleman and they do get taken in by these supposed discounts… Trust me I still get some people saying I’m getting 40% off for being a showhome with A…..n what can you do for me. My reply ” Just an honest price the first time.”
I fear that these practices will always be with us and there is nothing that any of us can do. Especially bloggers as most of you ar monitored by all the powers that be. (Freedom of Speach died a death).
I’m completely with Andrew Green. We operate on a basis of a genuine honest price first time, no fake discounts etc. The more we educate our customers the better. If A potential customer comes out with a similar sort of sentence as Andrew Green has just mentioned, we are blunt and straight with them and explain that it’s all just a tactic. Seems to work most of the time!
I love this story. It’s something we hear every day of the week thankfully. Long may the dinosaur salesman live and breed.
@ Richard (post 2)
There is selling for a healthy profit, and there is straight ripping people off! It staggers me that to this day there are still people who fall for these ’showhome’ or 50% off if you sign up tonight discounts!
The ethics of a company are more and more becoming a valuable selling tool that can create a desire in it’s customers, be it potential or current, as it fills some of the deepest human needs. This is a better way to add value and command a decent price for your product, promoting your morals and ethics as a sales too rather than being blatantly deceitful and attempting to plainly pull a customer’s pants down and slap him on the @rse!! Its going to hurt him even more if there is an issue with the installation, and he is more likely to want to exact revenge on the installation company in return.
Well, i have said my piece now, so im off to bed!