Where can Generac residential dealers get the best deal on new generators?

[michaelc7a]

Buying direct from Generac has seen many recent negative changes, including horrible warranty issues, myriad new dealer requirements and restrictions and a general change where Generac squeezes its dealers for profit. After all, Generac dealer pricing used to be 25-30% of the list price. Now, dealers pay between 5% (Select level) to 11.6% (Premier level) less than the minimum advertised price, plus shipping. Meanwhile, online stores, Costco and home improvement stores get just over 20% off, last I checked, and they get free shipping while a dealer ordering just one generator can end up paying more after shipping than he would have if he just went to Home Depot and paid retail.

With Generac trying to make all its profits off the backs of just dealers, buying direct feels more like being Generac's whipping boy than the reasonable business model it used to be. While it was good for a time to be listed first on Generac's website, we get better leads now using SEO (invest in your website once and then sit back and let it work for you) or, if things slow down, adwords (hasn't been that slow in about 9 years).

So it is no wonder we've seen a mass exodus of top Generac dealers moving away from buying directly from Generac and instead partnering with big online resellers for their purchases. For our part, we've found it way less expensive to buy at MaxTool.com or at Lowes, since either will readily let you negotiate 10-20% off the minimum advertised price, with the discount getting bigger with larger orders. We were nervous about the change at first but we figured that, if things got crazy, we could just go back to buying direct. After having made the change, however, there's no way we would go back to the current raw deal Generac is offering.

My question is: where do other Generac dealers get their best deals on Generac generators? Does anyone have a lead on where to buy for more than 15% off (without allowing a home improvement store's hooks in you)?

 

[LarryFine]

Not a Generac dealer, but I've gotten most of mine from:

https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/
https://www.powerequipmentdirect.com/

Same company, actually.

 

[hbiss]

My question is why would you stay with Junkerack? Admittedly I don't sell generators but what about Cummins and Kohler?


-Hal

 

[LarryFine]

My question is why would you stay with Junkerack? Admittedly I don't sell generators but what about Cummins and Kohler?

Generac has a high consumer recognizance (?), and customers often request it. When shopping for a generator/ATS package, i sort by 'price, low to high'.

I just installed a customer-provided package labeled Honeywell and painted grey that is 100% Generac. Even the engine says Generac on it.

I merely had to replace the exterior main disco with the ATS. Ground/neutral separation done and electrode conductors already in the right place! :thumbsup:

 

[peter d]

My question is why would you stay with Junkerack? Admittedly I don't sell generators but what about Cummins and Kohler?


-Hal

Good question. I wouldn't sell a Generac to my worst enemy. :happyno:

 

[peter d]

My question is: where do other Generac dealers get their best deals on Generac generators? Does anyone have a lead on where to buy for more than 15% off (without allowing a home improvement store's hooks in you)?

The two most prominent electrical contractors who are Generac dealers in my area get them from a particular electrical wholesaler here [who is a very large regional supplier and Generac distributor]. So, with that in mind, talk to your wholesaler in your area, assuming any exist who carry Generac.

 

[hbiss]

Generac has a high consumer recognizance (?), and customers often request it.

"Recognition" is the word I think you were looking for. At any rate, many companies that spend that kind of money on the media and promoting their name to the public don't always have the superior product to back it up.

Being a good salesman is being able to show your customer how what they may have heard is not something they should believe, then presenting them with a alternate product that you have more confidence in.

Something that has not been addressed by those of you who buy through the internet or distributors is service and maintenance. How does Generac handle it? How does Kohler and Cummins handle it? If I were the customer that would be a deal breaker and judging from what has been said about Generac I can't see how after sales support is anything favorable.

-Hal

 

[romex jockey]

Even generac fanchisees can't beat the big orange store's bottom line.

and all one needs is proof of purchase to obtain activation codes & tech support

which is what franchisors of competitive brands try and keep proprietary

~RJ~

 

[hbiss]

Even generac fanchisees can't beat the big orange store's bottom line.

and all one needs is proof of purchase to obtain activation codes & tech support

which is what franchisors of competitive brands try and keep proprietary

~RJ~

Which means that if you sell Generac you are competing with trunkslammers, DIYers and any EC that puts a "we sell generators" magnetic sign on their truck.

We recently had a short power outage here and idiots were complaining on Facepalm how they had to miss part of "The Game of Thrones". A PAINTING contractor chimes in with "To those of you that were annoyed that you had to miss the last half of The Game of Thrones we sell generators."

Do you want to compete with that?

-Hal

 

[hbiss]

Buying direct from Generac has seen many recent negative changes, including horrible warranty issues, myriad new dealer requirements and restrictions and a general change where Generac squeezes its dealers for profit. After all, Generac dealer pricing used to be 25-30% of the list price. Now, dealers pay between 5% (Select level) to 11.6% (Premier level) less than the minimum advertised price, plus shipping. Meanwhile, online stores, Costco and home improvement stores get just over 20% off, last I checked, and they get free shipping while a dealer ordering just one generator can end up paying more after shipping than he would have if he just went to Home Depot and paid retail.

With Generac trying to make all its profits off the backs of just dealers, buying direct feels more like being Generac's whipping boy than the reasonable business model it used to be. While it was good for a time to be listed first on Generac's website, we get better leads now using SEO (invest in your website once and then sit back and let it work for you) or, if things slow down, adwords (hasn't been that slow in about 9 years).

So it is no wonder we've seen a mass exodus of top Generac dealers moving away from buying directly from Generac and instead partnering with big online resellers for their purchases. For our part, we've found it way less expensive to buy at MaxTool.com or at Lowes, since either will readily let you negotiate 10-20% off the minimum advertised price, with the discount getting bigger with larger orders. We were nervous about the change at first but we figured that, if things got crazy, we could just go back to buying direct. After having made the change, however, there's no way we would go back to the current raw deal Generac is offering.

Getting back to the original question, this is not uncommon. Many manufacturers are getting away from selling direct to dealers and eliminating dealers entirely. What you are seeing is probably the first step of the end. It's just not worth it for them to ship onesies and twosies when they can send an 18 wheeler full load to a distributor. Then the distributor handles returns, damages and warranty issues also.

-Hal

 

[peter d]

Getting back to the original question, this is not uncommon. Many manufacturers are getting away from selling direct to dealers and eliminating dealers entirely. What you are seeing is probably the first step of the end. It's just not worth it for them to ship onesies and twosies when they can send an 18 wheeler full load to a distributor. Then the distributor handles returns, damages and warranty issues also.

-Hal

Exactly. This is why those EC's I mentioned just get them from the electrical wholesaler directly.

 

[romex jockey]

Which means that if you sell Generac you are competing with trunkslammers, DIYers and any EC that puts a "we sell generators" magnetic sign on their truck.

We recently had a short power outage here and idiots were complaining on Facepalm how they had to miss part of "The Game of Thrones". A PAINTING contractor chimes in with "To those of you that were annoyed that you had to miss the last half of The Game of Thrones we sell generators."

Do you want to compete with that?

-Hal

We don't....

My point is they've created a non competitive market Hal

Now you may question that, and i'd encourage you (et all) do

But please realize this is by no means a level playing field

The universal axiom being 'good,fast,cheap, pick two no one gets all three' has holes in it big enough to launch cattle through, because deeper pockets always wins...

https://youtu.be/PSXOeqwbrEo

~RJ~

 

[goldstar]

Getting back to the original question, this is not uncommon. Many manufacturers are getting away from selling direct to dealers and eliminating dealers entirely. What you are seeing is probably the first step of the end. It's just not worth it for them to ship onesies and twosies when they can send an 18 wheeler full load to a distributor. Then the distributor handles returns, damages and warranty issues also.

-Hal

Bingo ! That's it in a nutshell. I was one of the first in my area selling generators (years ago) and became a Generac dealer. That got me nothing. I was able to buy generators from EGDirect for less $$$ than I could from Generac. Then multitudes of EC's started selling and installing generators and it became difficult to compete. I even tried having the HO buy the generator direct and I installed it. Then many of the townships wanted load calcs, gas load calcs, piping diagrams, site plans showing the location of the unit, catalog sheets, made you pay for the permit based on the total $$ value of the job and not just what you charged, proof that you submitted your gas load calcs to the gas co. to make sure you have enough pressure to the house and on and on. It's not that I don't think they're entitled to that info but the amount of administrative work you had to do to make a profit on the job just wasn't worth it to me.

I do basic maintenance on the generators I installed (i.e. oil, air filter and plug change). However, if anything else goes wrong with the unit Generac or the on-line sales companies will not sell you replacement parts unless you've gone to Generac training classes at your expense. Finally, I will say this - If you want to go into this full time it can become profitable but you have to get the whole package (i.e. installation, service contracts, etc.).

 

[michaelc7a]

Not a Generac dealer, but I've gotten most of mine from:

https://www.electricgeneratorsdirect.com/
https://www.powerequipmentdirect.com/

Same company, actually.

Do they ever give you more than 10-15% off the minimum advertised price?

 

[michaelc7a]

My question is why would you stay with Junkerack? Admittedly I don't sell generators but what about Cummins and Kohler?


-Hal

Now that we're no longer in contract with Generac to be exclusive, we sell and service all major brands equally based on merit and demand. Being out from under Generac's restrictive policies was a major breakthrough, as we find those requesting non-Generac prefer quality and long-term value over the short-term savings you get with Generac. After all, the only thing that matters with standby power is whether it will actually work in an outage. It doesn't matter if you saved 5% but it doesn't work when you need it. So now many of those who buy Generac are often fixing up a place to sell it (so they don't care if it works later).

For our part, our local Kohler dealer is a gem and we get Kohler 20kW same-day at a lower price point than Generac (that we have to special order and takes weeks to arrive). Even our Cummins dealer is okay to deal with, though we have to get him to quote the price to us first as an anonymous electrical contractor to a discount. If we request the quote as a generator company, he quotes retail. He's gotten to know all our phone numbers so we'll have to start using burner phones soon LOL. Its like:
Us: "...We're an electrical contractor with a resale number."
Cummins: "okay, we can give you the electrical contractor's discount."
Us: "Its us"
Cummins: "Dang it, I thought it sounded like you. You got me again..."

LOL

 

[jmellc]

A former boss bought Briggs & Stratton. He liked them and the dealer he dealt with. Since then,
I’ve heard bad about Briggs and good and bad about others.

 

[michaelc7a]

Briggs, well, just isn't for us

Briggs, well, just isn't for us

A former boss bought Briggs & Stratton. He liked them and the dealer he dealt with. Since then,
I’ve heard bad about Briggs and good and bad about others.

We had a Briggs rep out recently and we liked a couple things we saw, sure. They had generators that exhaust out the front, for when you don't have the space on the left hand side. Of course, you could simply attach a stubby duct to the left of any Generac or Kohler air-cooled and get the same effect (don't ask how I know).

Then there is their load shedding modules that communicate over the power lines. Nice but we recently had a new customer who had these things installed everywhere (six of them, if memory serves...). One power spike and they all blew. To be fair, it was a spectacular power spike... Still, we're not generally hurting for good load shed modules.

The technical leader seems to be Kohler. Generac tried (again) to make a variable-speed generator and failed (again). I still have a burned up generator end from one of Generac's first forays into variable speed constant frequency (in the 90s, I think). Pretty cool when it works. But one customer had to have his microwave door open for it to work (I kid you not). If the door was closed, the generator would rev up and down erratically for 3 seconds and shut down on overspeed. Generac gave up on variable speed for years and then came out with the Synergy. Again, great when it works but kind of a hokey execution. Generac again discontinued it rather than work out the kinks, so Generac has no unique offerings (nothing that makes their generators stand out). Kohler, on the other hand, has variable speed for off-grid applications as well as the ability to parallel their 14kW and their 20kW for 28kW or 40kW. There is nothing else we recommend between 20kW and 40kW (though it is a trick to parallel their three phase gens...). If you want that kind of redundancy, reliability and all-around elegance with Generac or anyone else, you have to install a synchronizing module, replacement governors, contactors, etc. Not for the faint of heart.

 

[michaelc7a]

Upcoming sale

Upcoming sale

Do they ever give you more than 10-15% off the minimum advertised price?

Seems they're having a 10% off sale starting Wednesday.

But, aside from their sales prices, their bulk pricing (ten or more at a time) didn't really impress as it didn't reach 10%.