One of the reasons magicians dislike YouTube is someone has gone and spilled the beans. (Just type in magician tricks revealed.) It’s difficult to be mysterious and entertaining when your audience knows what’s coming next. But it can be good comedy, if the conjurer doesn’t know you know.
We’re not going to use YouTube but we’re going to reveal some of the illusions associated with renting and buying welding gases. And in the process, we’ll show you how to get a better deal with your gases. There are three things you need to know and two things you need to do.
The first thing you need to know: the seller is far more motivated than the buyer. History has not recorded the moment but somewhere long ago, welding sales people equated acquiring gas business from their competitors to winning the Stanley Cup (this analogy works best in Canada. And their sales managers have encouraged them in this fantasy. And that’s what you need to remember: that you’re the one who doesn’t have any psychological hang ups over welding gases.
The second thing you need to know: don’t take the cheapest pricing. You want a fair price. You can get a whole lot more if you don’t focus on the price. Remember the price of gas is a small percentage of the total cost of welding. You’re going to pay more in labour and opportunity costs changing an empty cylinder for a full one. Plus if the vendor has sold it too cheap (euphoria doesn’t always lead to rationality), he’ll be motivated to look for ways to nudge up your price. Often if the pricing is quite low, the gas vendor will want you to sign a contract for a certain length of time (this is a one sided love story). But you still won’t be immune to price increases and/or surcharges. Depending on your volume, you could be restricted to certain days for delivery. Anything outside of your delivery day will incur extra costs. This isn’t unreasonable; it’s expensive to make gas deliveries.
Third thing you need to know: a good welding supplier has a lot to offer. They possess a lot of useful knowledge about the welding industry. Stuff you can actually use in your business. They have a good working knowledge on welding machines, welding gases, welding wires and welding procedures; what works real well and what causes temper tantrums; efficiencies in your welding area; calibrating of machines, etc. Yes, you might be able to find this on Google but it can’t tell you how it applies to your business.
First thing you need to do is treat your gas business with respect – your welding sales person certainly does. So don’t give it away easily. Remember your handing out the Stanley Cup. You want your supplier to earn it. If you give him your business before he’s proven himself –his job just got a lot easier.
Second thing you need to do is test the vendor out. All good marriages have a courting process. You don’t want to find out after they start delivering your gases: this isn’t a good match. It gets quite painful and costly untangling gas business. You have to return cylinders, maybe get out of a contract, replace missing cylinders (were you keeping track of your cylinder count?) the headaches abound.
Remember you want to test your welding supplier’s team. There’s no way they can be a help to you via one person. It’s a team effort; or better yet, it’s a relay system. That’s why you have a trial period – to keep the unpleasant surprises to a minimum.
When you’re supplier has worked hard for your business and you’ve gotten good results then award him the Stanley Cup. He worked hard to get your business. It should mean he’ll treat you and your business with respect.
This email isn’t for everyone. Some companies are highly motivated by price and are unable to change their ways. You’re in luck; there are gas suppliers who do very well in delivering low prices, big promises and making you look very clever. But if you want partners who will work well on your business, you now know how to get it.
If we can help you give us a call.
Give us a call; we’ll make it happen
