One of the many benefits of upgrading to more efficient equipment is reduced maintenance costs. In some cases, the cost savings from reduced parts and labor is significant enough to make a very compelling case for change.
If you plan to approach a prospect with an efficiency product that you know will yield significant savings through reduced maintenance, how do you accurately estimate the amount your prospect has been spending so that you can produce a realistic financial summary? In my experience, there are several great ways to find out this information without talking to your prospect ahead of time:
- Befriend a trusted contractor who maintains the equipment you intend to replace
- Talk to a chief engineer in a similar building who is open kimono and willing to show you the receipt books of what he or she has paid to maintain the equipment.
- Contact a manufacturer’s rep in your territory to find out what the local cost is for labor and materials.
- Talk to a mechanical service contractor who has a maintenance agreement or is in the business of selling maintenance agreements. You can be fairly certain that they know how much it's going to cost them to maintain if they're willing to sell contracts that are fixed-cost to maintain the equipment over time.
I can assure you that you’ll be far more successful if you invest some time before you approach a prospect to come up with an accurate estimate of old vs. new maintenance costs.
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