Sometimes it works to sell on price, says Martyn Bradley of M&R Glass & Glazing - he admits he once lost a job by £6 - but then there are the other times.
The Spalding installer has just started work on its biggest ever contract, potentially for over 100 houses, which it won by having the full Secured By Design certification as well as the right U-Values, thanks to trade fabricator Glazerite Windows Ltd.
“We have regularly used three suppliers in the past but only Glazerite had all the certification for this job and the main contractor insisted on all the proper paperwork so it was an easy decision. In this case, as it happened, Glazerite was also the most competitive but that wasn’t the reason for the choice.
“I admit, I have often sold on price because it’s sometimes what’s needed. When you lose a job because somebody else was six quid cheaper, as I have done, you learn that the hard way. But if you need the right spec’ and the right technical back-up, you have to choose your supplier carefully and for us that meant Glazerite.
“Apart from the products, they are people you can talk to and you know that if you’ve got a problem, they’ll do their best to get it sorted as quickly as possible.”
The contract, for housebuilder Haycroft Homes, is for casements, vertical sliders and composite and French doors, initially in 56 new properties with potentially another 50-plus to follow, in a development in the Lincolnshire town’s Station Road.