Nashville NGWA convention

Anyone here besides me attending the NGWA convention next week?

First time I am going to miss it in 20 years. The Internet has really changed things. I can give my customers a virtual trade show every day. Would like to have met you though. That is the only bad thing about not being there in person. But on the Internet people might think I am 6'+ and good looking.

Yeah I was thinking after I posted this that you might be there. Too bad you won't be.

we almost set it up, coulda had free passes to show and all. i been spending too much money though.. didn't follow through. probably a good thing from what i'm overhearing about christmas shopping.

Can't take that money with you.....

I'll be in Nashville next week for the convention. Las Vegas the next week for Preferred Pump's trip.

Boycedrilling said:

I'll be in Nashville next week for the convention. Las Vegas the next week for Preferred Pump's trip.

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Actually there will be somebody from Cycle Stop Valves at both of those events. We are just not putting up a booth this year.

I was hoping to sit down with somebody from cyclestop and go over designing deep set submersibles. So far I've only used the cycle stop on above ground jet & centrifugal pumps.

How well would a cycle stop valve work with one of the in-well pressure tank?. I've got some customers that would like something that wouldn't need any kind of pump house or vault for a pressure tank. It's tough to insulate a tank that in the crawl space under a mobile home.

When you get to Vegas ask one of the Preferred guys to find Cycle Stop Rob for you. They know who he is. He is a pump man and driller from way back and can help you with any CSV questions.

They don’t let me leave the office very often anymore. So I would also be glad to help if you want to give me a call.

We are very familiar with in well tanks. It was actually our patent. They have their limitations, but we can show you how to make them work.

Ok. I'll look up rob while I'm in Vegas. Are you going to have a booth at the Pacific Northwest groundwater expo in march?

Sorry no, we won’t be there either. The only trade show we are doing is the Texas State show, and that is because it is in Lubbock. I can drive from my house and may set up a card table or something. There was a time when trade shows were the only place to find out about new stuff. We were spending lots of money doing 20-30 trade shows a year.

We changed our policy a couple of years ago and now spend our advertising money on the Internet. So far it is working great. Most people have learned by now that if you need something, just Google it. I find out about more new stuff that way. Plus you can read past the hype and find out the truth about a lot of things you thought you already knew.

20 years ago, trade shows were fun. Now the expense and hassles of dealing with the airlines, freight, hotels, labor unions, and time away from my business is not worth it for the few people who show up to trade shows. The Internet has fundamentally changed the way business is done. Time will tell, but I think it is a good thing.

The Internet is good and bad. Good for exposure, but terrible when a customer goes online and sees similar items for less money and wants you to supply the materials at Internet prices.

craigpump said:

The Internet is good and bad. Good for exposure, but terrible when a customer goes online and sees similar items for less money and wants you to supply the materials at Internet prices.

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Once that Genie is out of the bottle, it is impossible to put it back in. Like I have said before, we need to start embracing things we cannot change. I made changes many years ago when Sears was the only place a homeowner could buy a submersible pump. I would match the price of their “off brand” pump, with a “name brand” pump. Rarely did I miss a sale. I had published prices for a splice, wire, pipe, fittings, tanks, and all misc stuff. I was happy to cut some wire, make a splice, and load it into their car. You can make pretty good money this way and never have to start the pump truck.

I just had to start charging what it is really worth for labor. This was a while back, so my installation charge went from $100 to $500. It would probably be twice that now. I even got a kick out of selling all the equipment, when they tried to get another pump man to install it all for 100 bucks. You wouldn’t believe some of the mad calls I got from my competitors. When your competitors are mad, you know you are doing something right.

Sometimes the homeowner would get someone else to install it. Sometimes they managed to get it installed by their self. I had already warned them about dropping something and how much I charged for fishing, on top of my high priced installation.

Sometimes they would try, but couldn’t get the old pump pulled out. So they would call back and schedule a time for me to do the install, especially when they finally realized it was still the same price installed as from anyone else. Sometimes they would get half way through, realize the labor was really worth what I was asking, and call for me to finish, at the full labor price of course.

It makes it look like you are charging exorbitant prices for labor, and you should be. Anybody can buy a pump, but you have spent years learning the best way to install, and that is worth a lot. If they didn’t want to pay my labor rate, I didn’t miss the sale, and still made pretty good money to load it into their car.

Even the ones who got it installed on their own usually said they would never do that again. After they saw how much work was involved, it made my labor prices not look so bad after all.

The pump companies and the Internet have made it hard to make profit on the sale of pumps. So you need to charge for your expertise. Some will still be able to DIY, for which you still make a little money. But many will realize your price for a professional installation is worth every penny.