Over the past year, we’ve conducted a number of national and regional contractor surveys where we asked them “Why do you buy from the distributors you purchase from?”
Selections included:
- Relationship with people
- Overall service
- Product Availability
- Price
- Location
- Company I work for requires I buy from them
- Access to key lines I favor
We asked them to rank these attributes based upon priority. The results, on a 1 to 6 scale (6 high) were:
Not much of a surprise that relationships are key with contractors. Service is expected and product availability is critical (time = money). Of interest is that price as a consideration is almost equal to availability. This probably speaks to the feelings amongst contractors that the market has become more interested in price, an increase in project quotations (smaller projects), product acquisition is more visible than productivity savings and increased distributor competition has leveled the playing field (costing everyone margin), and the ubiquity of email and Nextel as quoting systems.
It’s interesting to highlight that where to buy is important. The survey was conducted via email and at the counter, suggesting that many people who come to the counter are sent there by others from their company. Unfortunately, contractors very infrequently select their distributor based upon the brands the distributor carries, indicating limited manufacturer brand equity and the need for manufacturers to allocate resources to generate specificiations and committed/contracted purchasing arrangements whenever possible as well as identifying methods to earn distributor commitment (beyond rebates).
Understanding customer buying behavior and ensuring customer satisfaction, ideally measurably, is critical to achieving success. The question becomes … do you know how you are performing and what drives your customers?
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