Supplier Pricing

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ptonsparky said:
Small project for most of you but fairly large for me. When asking for pricing from suppliers do you bundle the entire job or split it up into say Lighting, Switchgear, Conduit & wire?
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For me it depends on the difference. I always ask for itemized pricing (they hate that) and then I decide whether to break it up or not. I try to give the job to the supplier that has the overall best number, but if an item is way out of line, it allows me the chance to clear things up. The suppliers are just like us, trying to get the most for their services (can't blame them for that).
 
Split it up.
Did you price fixtures and gear yourself or did you get quotes?
I usually get quotes from at least 3 distributors for fixtures and gear (separate), make sure scope and specs are covered, and award to lowest bidder.
My estimating software prices all commodity items (conduit, straps, fittings, wire, devices, etc)
I get quotes on them and buy-out in phases like underground, rough-in, wire pull, trim out.
 
I asked one supplier for a rough quote on the gear and did the Lighting myself with recent pricing for another job. The conduit and wire I also used recent pricing. We still have no final prints but the job has been awarded anyway. Hopefully this next week i can get pricing & things ordered.
 
When I bid the job I get 3 prices for the gear package.

Dependant upon whom the Engineer's specified lighting manufacturer it is, I get 3 distributor fixture prices. The problem here is that the specified lighting manufacturer's rep. may play games with the pricing they put out for everyone. It is best to get a direct quote from the specified rep. and bypass the distributor. You will still need to buy from a distributor, but at least you will know exactly what number they were given. I also get an alternate/equal price from different maufaturer's rep. to make sure that the specified rep. is not over quoting me.

Once awarded the project it is time to haggle a bit on the gear and fixture price markups from the distributors and the give both packages to one vendor and open a job account with them for that project.

Now it is time to put together a "rough in" BOM and send that out to 3 distributors for pricing. A few methods of thinking now come into play for me. One is to award the sale to the lowest overall vendor on a job account. Another is to cherry pick the list and order each item from it's lowest priced vendor. IE: Pipe from Vendor A and wire from Vendor B. I prefer to go back to the vendor that has my gear and fixture packages and have them match the best pricing from each of the other vendors.....this way I only have one job account open for that project with one vendor. This makes getting lien releases for draw payments easier. If I am buying material through muliple job accounts it creates more paperwork and costs for the office staff.
 
It is best to get a direct quote from the specified rep. and bypass the distributor.
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Sometimes I get quotes direct from rep.
Fixture reps rule the world. If I knew then what I know now, I should have been a rep.

You do know that reps don't put out the same price to every distributor or contractor don't you?
Reps decide who gets "the number". And it is not necessarily just one EC gets the number. Reps weed out EC's they don't want to do business with.
A good example would be an EC who brought in another rep to bid alternates on that last job. Haha!
 
Suppliers around here can't touch "big box" stores for Romex so I never get that at a supply house...One supplier has Square D and the other has cut wire much cheaper. Bigger resi jobs always get shopped accordingly and a couple few hundred bucks gets saved.
 
When bidding a job that others are bidding to same specifications - most of my suppliers will give same quote to all who request a quote for the same job. It is easier for them to do it that way because they only have to figure it once and all bidders will be asking for same items. They are not competing with their EC's as much as with other suppliers. They don't care so much which EC buys it, it will all be sold to whoever is awarded the bid anyway, so their hope is that the winning bidder is the one that chooses them to supply it.

If you want different quote then make your own specifications and give it a different name. You are likley to get a quote that is higher even if almost identical to the job name and specs they already have in their system.
 
kwired said:
When bidding a job that others are bidding to same specifications - most of my suppliers will give same quote to all who request a quote for the same job. It is easier for them to do it that way because they only have to figure it once and all bidders will be asking for same items. They are not competing with their EC's as much as with other suppliers. They don't care so much which EC buys it, it will all be sold to whoever is awarded the bid anyway, so their hope is that the winning bidder is the one that chooses them to supply it.

If you want different quote then make your own specifications and give it a different name. You are likley to get a quote that is higher even if almost identical to the job name and specs they already have in their system.
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Not true around here. The suppliers will make different cuts to different EC's and sometimes even cut 5% or so, below their cost in hopes of negotiating with the rep on the back side. Suppliers will also bundle several jobs to a rep for bigger cuts on the back side.
Suppliers absolutely care which EC gets the order. They don't want an EC who has trouble paying them, or works for GC's that don't pay and they spend all their time filing liens.
Also, fixture reps don't give the same numbers to suppliers or EC's. You live in la la land if you believe they do.
 
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cdslotz said:
Not true around here. The suppliers will make different cuts to different EC's and sometimes even cut 5% or so, below their cost in hopes of negotiating with the rep on the back side. Suppliers will also bundle several jobs to a rep for bigger cuts on the back side.
Also, fixture reps don't give the same numbers to suppliers or EC's. You live in la la land if you believe they do.
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The suppliers will have to know for certain they are selling a job before they bundle it with other jobs or they will have material and no job. Might be fine with common items but the specialty items you have something nobody wants sometimes.

EC's bundle jobs sometimes too. When getting panels and breakers for a larger job I will throw in extras that I know I will use or even have a job reserved for them - because they practically give them away with these quotes vs. what they charge when purchasing the same item alone on a separate invoice.
 
kwired said:
The suppliers will have to know for certain they are selling a job before they bundle it with other jobs or they will have material and no job. Might be fine with common items but the specialty items you have something nobody wants sometimes.
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True. Suppliers may have several jobs they have PO's on from different EC's that they gambled and cut the rep's price by 5% in hopes of making it up. Reps hate this and sometimes not take the order.
Also reps will retaliate by not giving that supplier good numbers for a while. I've seen them cut off doing business with certain suppliers all together.
 
cdslotz said:
Not true around here. The suppliers will make different cuts to different EC's and sometimes even cut 5% or so, below their cost in hopes of negotiating with the rep on the back side. Suppliers will also bundle several jobs to a rep for bigger cuts on the back side.
Suppliers absolutely care which EC gets the order. They don't want an EC who has trouble paying them, or works for GC's that don't pay and they spend all their time filing liens.
Also, fixture reps don't give the same numbers to suppliers or EC's. You live in la la land if you believe they do.
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They all manipulate which ECs get the best pricing....the deadbeats get higher pricing all day long. The fixture game is all about relationships with the manufacturer's reps. You ever wonder why they hold their pricing until the last minute on some jobs? They are waiting to see exactly who is requesting pricing so they can manipulate the distributors' final pricing. That is why they make the distributors tell them what EC's they are providing pricing to.

Maybe Joe Blow Electric always subs out the spec package or has a poor payment record etc...they want to make sure Joe Blow has no chance to get the job and muddy up the water, so he gets a 20% higher price.

No doubt that lighting is one of the major areas that makes or breaks and EC from being able to win jobs on bid day.;)
 
cdslotz said:
Not true around here. The suppliers will make different cuts to different EC's and sometimes even cut 5% or so, below their cost in hopes of negotiating with the rep on the back side. Suppliers will also bundle several jobs to a rep for bigger cuts on the back side.
Suppliers absolutely care which EC gets the order. They don't want an EC who has trouble paying them, or works for GC's that don't pay and they spend all their time filing liens.
Also, fixture reps don't give the same numbers to suppliers or EC's. You live in la la land if you believe they do.
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What I am more used to seeing is that Lighting Rep's do put out hte same price on the street for all of the Electrical Contractors. The typical way to play favorites is to give individual EC's a deduct from the supplier price. This way, the only way for other EC's to know favoratism is being granted is for the discounted EC to open his mouth. A much wiser way to play favorites. Now regarding supply houses, that is where they may send out different prices, because they want the supply houses to KNOW that they are playing favorite.
 
You should see the parking lot at one of Dallas' largest fixture rep's office.
It looks like the Dallas Cowboys player's parking lot
 
cdslotz said:
You should see the parking lot at one of Dallas' largest fixture rep's office.
It looks like the Dallas Cowboys player's parking lot
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Is there a joke behind this? I never been to Dallas, and don't pay much attention to NFL anyway. May watch playoffs and Superbowl - rest of season is a joke. College football is more interesting.
 
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