Minimum Order Values

I am a firm believer that it does more harm than good to have minimum order values. 


This thought was sparked by the debate about what the price should be for a 1800x1200 side opening window. There are plenty of people that only want the odd window or door doing. A lot like to spread the cost of replacement windows without paying extra through interest on finance deals. 


The saying of mighty trees from small acorns works very well in this instance. Customers appreciate companies being able to carry out small jobs. I think it shows them that they aren't out to up-sell and do them out of more money than is necessary. If the company does a good job on the one window or one door, the likelihood is that they will come back for more work, that's what I've often found.


I don't buy this excuse from bigger companies that it isn't worth doing one window or one door. They say that there isn't enough money in a one window job for it to be worth doing. Well that's not good enough and shows how selfish and greedy bigger companies are. All you have to do is simply put enough money in to pay for a fitter, his lad and diesel. Do the same to cover materials and manufacturing costs. Yes it might end up being more expensive than it would have been if there were ten windows to quote, but one thing to bear in mind is that other companies will be in the same boat, so they won't (shouldn't) be much cheaper. Then it's up to the salesman to sell the product on it's merits. 


The price for a window 1800x1200 with two openers should be around the £500 mark. Those companies selling it for anywhere between £250-£450 are selling it too cheap. Unless it's a very small operation, there simply cannot be enough money in that price to make a profit from it.


We take on plenty of contracts for single items, often from our competition who won't quote, and we make decent money out of them because we are able to command sensible prices. It just needs to be that the rest of the industry starts to think in the same way.