Intro
Hey guys it’s Myron Wittmer. In this video I want to give you three reasons why I think you should not use your manufacturing software for pricing and quoting. So I think this confuses some people because you know when they buy Cabinet Vision you know they think oh you know it has Cabinet Vision bid centers so why wouldn’t I use that for my pricing and quoting. Or KCD you know why not use the pricing that’s built in, Mozaik has one as well. So this is kind of confusing for people because you know, it seems logical you know.. all in one has to be better right.. and so that’s what we want to talk about. I want to give you three of my reasons why I feel like it’s a bad idea and it can affect your business. So let’s get into those three reasons. So I’m going to be referencing Cabinet Vision and its bid center throughout the video but the same idea applies whether using KCD, Mozaik, Cabinet Pro whatever you’re using but for the sake of this video I’ll just be mentioning Cabinet Vision and bid center.
Forced To Draw Every Job
Reason number one. You become forced to draw every job entirely just to get a price and this becomes a very big deal as a business owner because you know you’re now paying employees to spend hours or even days for some of the bigger jobs if you’re doing the full 3D package and everything when if all your customer wants is a price, and they end up just taking it somewhere else you know think of the time you’re wasting and the money you’re wasting by paying that person to do it. So you know in today’s age people care less and less about your product.. which sucks to say but you know whether you want to blame amazon or e-commerce or just the internet in general you know people aren’t really loyal to your company anymore. And that’s not speaking across for everybody, there’s some companies that have done a really good job of branding and they have local customers.. so I’ll give you that there’s a small percentage of shops out there that have that loyalty. But for a lot of shops you know people are coming to you because, yes you can make a good product, and you have it for a good price, and you can get it when they need it. And if you’re not doing all those things they’re probably going to take their business somewhere else so when you have to sit down and draw every job just to get a price what happens when you start losing.. twenty percent, thirty percent, half of those jobs to other companies. You’re wasting hours every week and so that’s where this really becomes a problem as business owners because you know this is cutting into our bottom line when we’re spending time doing things that we really wouldn’t have to be doing. And again like I mentioned there’s a small percentage of shops that this market still works for, you know those types of people where you know their customers value that full package and that time invested in it you know they get the 3Ds, they get the drawings, they get everything. But the only way that works is if you’re getting 90 percent or above of your jobs. You know I just don’t see any way feasible if you’re getting any less than that because you’re just you’re throwing your time out the door.
Everybody Designs Differently
Reason number two. Everybody draws things differently when they’re designing and especially in things like Cabinet Vision or Mozaik. You know a lot of times there’s a lot of different ways to do things you know you can do.. there’s 10 routes to the same end goal. And so if you have several employees as part of your drafting and pricing process you know it makes it hard for them to come out to the same price because they have different ways of doing things. Also when you’re designing a job you’re often not thinking about all the little things that go into it you know your mindset is I need to make this job look right for the 3D, versus I need to make this work well and make sure I have everything included when you go into the pricing process. I think that is a big one and just that that difference in how people draw and difference in how people think when they’re designing versus when they’re actually trying to order something.
Limits Potential Customers
Okay the third and final reason is, it limits who your customers can be. So I know not everybody has dealers or is involved in the wholesale market but just think about this as a possibility because you know everyone’s market can change but when you decide that you know if you’re using Cabinet Vision and you decide you’re going to use their bid center for all your pricing and quoting. Well it makes it very hard to set up a dealer or someone who wants to quote themselves when you’re using that type of model because you know there’s tons of dealers who are willing to sell your product out there. But whenever you limit it to dealers who are willing to use Cabinet Vision to design in. You know.. you really create a small niche market and you know that’s why I think it’s not a wise idea because you just don’t have a scalable solution in the event that you want to allow other people to price themselves.
Okay so those are my three reasons why I think you shouldn’t use your manufacturing software for quoting and again there’s a small percentage of you out there that that model still works for and if you have the loyalty of your customers and you’re able to design every job and they like the 3D renderings and you’re getting almost every one of your jobs, stay in that market it’s a good place to be. But who I’m talking about is those that you know you you may sell to dealers or you may sell to homeowners or contractors but if somebody walks in your door or somebody calls you and says I need a quote on a kitchen.. if they didn’t if they don’t care about the full package that you’re putting together don’t waste time doing it get you a solution that you can quickly get them a quote. You know.. whether it’s lineal foot, whether you have a nice spreadsheet that calculates all your formulas, or whether you have a software solution like Cabentry or Allmoxy, or you know there’s a lot of quoting software’s out there. But my challenge is to just think about your process and make sure your customers actually care about what you’re providing, if you are providing that full package to them. So I hope some of these reasons kind of challenged your way of thinking about how you do things and thank you for watching.