It`s costly for dealers to bid
I have just finished reading the excellent “Apparatus Purchasing: When Vendors Do Not Bid” by Bill Adams (October 1998). This article addressed a topic that has needed coverage for many years. It will be helpful to fire department personnel across the nation.
Having started in this industry at the dealer level, I would like to add another point that few departments realize. It costs money for a company to submit a bid to a fire department. Besides the time consumed by the salesperson the department meets, a lot goes on behind the scenes as well. None of this is done for free. Some companies charge their dealers for engineering time, drawings, bid supplies, and so on. Then we have the cost of bid bonds to consider as well. It can be quite expensive to bid on some requests. It becomes even more exasperating when the initial bids are rejected and the sales organization has to start all over again. In fact, my people simply won`t bother to bid a second time. Because of this, it is important for the department to get things right the first time to get the most for the money.
Please keep thought-provoking articles like this one coming. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Raymond E. Hemenway
Director of Sales
Smeal Fire Apparatus Co.
Snyder, Nebraska
