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Component Manufacturing dverti$ dverti $ er
Don’t Forget! You Saw it in the
Adverti$$er
May 2024 #16298 Page #90
Design Connections
Geordie Secord, Senior Recruiter TheJobLine.com – Canada
What Will Customers Want, Need, and Pay to Have
ver the last couple of articles, I’ve spent some time discussing improvements that would improve both the energy efficiency and the ability of the truss system to withstand extreme weather conditions. If you’ve read those articles, you will know that I think it is ridiculous that we continue to design and price our products – our highly engineered, specialty products – to appeal to a buyer that is largely motivated by finding the lowest price.
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Yes, I trust that many of you would be quick to point out that YOUR customers don’t buy purely on price but also value the service your people provide and the quality of the product you produce. I have no doubt that is true, and I hope that you can use that goodwill to maintain and grow your business. I also know from my own firsthand experience that there are component manufacturers that refuse to engage in marketing their products and services in a way that is heavily reliant on having the lowest bottom-line price but insist on producing quality products and providing exemplary service. If you have managed to successfully position and maintain your company in the latter group, I congratulate you. I would speculate that your customers are happier with the products and services they receive from you, and their business benefits. I would also speculate that your employees are happy to know they can be proud of the products and services they provide. It may also seem that my articles suggest that the builder is solely accountable for this raceto-the-bottom mentality that seems to dominate the component industry. Certainly, there is some responsibility with the builder, but I know that they also need to look to what is most important to their client, the home buyer. I’m reminded of an industry focus group I was in a number of years ago. I don’t recall the details of most of the discussion that day, but comments made by one of the participants have stuck with me for nearly 20 years now. This individual was a senior VP of operations for a large home builder that was consistently producing 3-4,000 homes per year at that time. As part of their marketing and planning efforts, they decided to survey potential clients visiting one of their model homes. They asked their prospective customers a series of questions, and for each there were three available responses: Is this feature something you would like to have in your home?; Do you believe this should be available in our homes?; Would you be willing to pay more for your home in order to have this feature? Continued next page
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