Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
Improvise, Adapt, Overcome
Yeah, I agree with gens4u said. I feel like they are into sales and less into the product. We had them in writing stating they will do X if we do Y and Z. We did Y and Z and they flat out refused to do X. As I was writing this I just got a call from Generac and they said I need to give them more money. It is cheaper for me to buy a Generac Generator at Grainger than purchase one from Generac. This will be the last order we will do with them.
Thanks for the vote of confidence. My post got chopped a bit because it was too long but I think the main points still got across.
It still makes sense for most who service generators to be a minimum-level Generac service dealer (as of this writing - Generac may change in a few months...). The earlier post from GentekPower suggests you have to buy a generator from Generac to achieve this level. That was true a few years ago but Generac documentation now says you just have to buy $1. That's all the buy-in it takes. Buy a bolt and be done with it.
It just seems obvious that Generac is taking its dealer-level resellers to the cleaners, counting on them to become so comfortable in the routine and fanfare to not actually check around to see whether they're still getting a good deal. Some of the more hard-core dedicated Generac-only dealers simply haven't done the math for a couple years and don't realize that they're getting the shaft because the change happened so slowly. Even guys who are installing several per day are likely spending more on Generac and getting less in return than they were even a year ago and are simply too dull to realize it. And, you're right, Generac has lately been acting like the 800lb gorilla. Dealers just need to take a moment to review and make changes as Generac changes.
Does anyone remember the "First year's maintenance free" promotion back in 2017? That's where Generac emailed every registered Generac owner (on top of the weekly spam that Generac regularly sends to the email address they have on file for your customer) promising a free service visit. The only trouble is that, if you're a service company and that
was your customer, Generac just stole your customer and gave them to a local competitor. Cute. Good thing
you never use your customer's real email address (oops - sorry to those of you who do).
My favorite quote from the Generac conventions the last few years is when the CEO gets up to the stage and tells all up-and-coming generator dealers to stick to residential and give your industrial customers (read: most profitable, loyal and steadfast customers) to the Generac industrial dealers. You better "know your place" little man and stay in the tiny sandbox Generac provides. That's how a lot of Generac's strings work when you're a higher-level dealer - Generac is actively trying to prevent you from successfully competing with the Generac industrial product line.
To brantmacga: You're buying for 8% under retail direct from Generac, having to pay to stock extra generators to avoid shipping charges and keep your status and yet almost anyone with a phone and a credit card can get the generators for 10-15% off by working with a high-volume reseller, who offers free shipping even if you only purchase one (and, as some have pointed out, even stock them locally). And, as my post pointed out, for any generator you purchase direct from Generac, you are obligated to work for Generac and this customer for the rest of the warranty period, even if they lose their mind and start ranting and raving randomly (had this happen twice to customers with severe mood-medication issues). You're basically a slave if you buy direct from Generac but, if the generator is purchased anywhere else, warranty work that violates your policies can be sent elsewhere without risking an angry call from Generac (and possibly suddenly losing your status with Generac).
I'm sure everyone on this forum is honest <wink> but there are a lot of dealers on Generac's dealer locator using fake address information in order to be listed as closer to high-end, high-density areas. We literally had fake listings all around us so that, if someone wanted the closest local dealer, Generac's website would suggest dealers up to 100 miles away as being closer than us, just two miles away. Our reporting these fake listings to Generac had zero effect. We would then get the angry calls from the customers because, surprise surprise, companies that would be dishonest in this manner are also dishonest in other things. Customers who found out how distant these companies really were would then call us and take ten minutes or more just to get to the point because they were so angry at these other dealers. Generac even allows industrial dealers to do this. We got a call just two days ago from someone with a ~$1,000 travel bill after he called his 'closest' dealer.
Just travel - didn't even cover the repair (which wasn't done properly). And this from a Generac industrial dealer who is (falsely) listed on Generac' site as being a few miles away from this customer. I'd be more than hot if this happened to me...
Then there is Generac's quality. There are a couple Generac air-cooled models we respect but the vast majority of Generac models have been random dogs. It seems that Generac has trouble making a liquid-cooled generator of consistent quality. When you're a small generator company just starting out, you don't get the best customers. Most of these low-end customers just want the cheapest installed price (prize goes to Generac most of the time). As the dealer for this product, you get the sale but end up losing money on all the warranty calls, your reputation suffers when their cheap Generac fails to work and the customers you gained are not very loyal, on average, in relation to high-end customers. But as you grow, as your advertising becomes more effective, as your name is better known and/or as you otherwise start dealing with high-end customers, going with the cheapest generator becomes a stupid-expensive prospect. As we've found, Generac's often-failing liquid-cooled generators end up costing you not just that site, but that customer's other sites and the sites of all that customer's contractors. One Generac that was an absolute lemon practically cost us our best business in that county -
and we didn't even sell it to them; we were just the saps their contractor kept calling to fix the Generac's multiple, unrelated defects. You really don't want to make the mistake of going cheap when the customer is a high-end attorney and used only the top contractors. Yes, the customer was a jerk and it was surreal how bad that Generac was put together, even for Generac. That we ended up not getting paid by Generac, the contractor or the customer was insult enough but the injury was that it made us look bad to the contractors we had, up to then, been successful in winning over.
We've toyed with the idea of signing with another generator company altogether but, to us, it is all about what is best for the customer so we've decided to keep our options open and recommend what is best for each customer at each and every sale (instead of what is best for us). Some customers are just installing a generator to satisfy the local AHJ. Some are selling in a year. Still others are flipping a house. For all the customers who don't care if it
actually works, Generac usually wins on cheap.
For the postings by those who proudly say they're only selling Generac and taking sales away from Kohler, Cummins, Caterpillar, BlueStar, Taylor, Briggs, etc., I would counter that each brand generator has its strengths and weaknesses. it is statistically impossible that 100% of your customers were best served by you only selling Generac. So, in effect, you were knowingly promoting something you knew wasn't as good. This may run counter to all things salesmanship and counter to all industry-standard practice, but using your God-given sales talent to convince customers to buy something inferior is not something I would brag about, no matter which brand you're peddling.
