Even with the Internet, shopping for equipment, especially when you need a machine in a hurry, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Likewise for merchant salespeople with hundreds of potential customers – finding one who is willing to buy is quite a challenge. Enter Heave, an online equipment transaction website with a simple solution. Using it, buyers write down which device they want to buy or rent. Sellers on the site, if they have this device, reply with a quote. This is. The entire exchange can be handled on a smartphone, tablet or computer in minutes. The problem with the traditional sales model is that it takes too long and too much of everyone’s time, says Alex Craft, Heave’s founder and CEO. Kraft knows what he’s talking about. He has been involved in heavy equipment sales for the past 17 years and has been the Chief Operating Officer of Flagler Construction Equipment, now part of Alta Equipment. “It looks like we’ve had to fight for every deal. In all my time in the industry, no one has answered the question of why customers spend time for answers,” says Kraft. In a traditional sales model, answering a phone call can take days, possibly weeks, of research, he says. Simple, Easy, Fast is more like an RFQ system. “After the contractor enters the type of machine they are looking for, this information is published on the site, just like a post on social media,” Kraft says. “Sales reps who sign up for our website receive an alert, after which they can log in and respond to it. Sellers who don’t have an account can still see orders; they only need to have an account in order to actually quote this customer.” Then, it’s up to the buyer and seller to negotiate the final price and any other details to seal the deal. Heave is completely sloppy and doesn’t know the brand. Do not interfere with the contractual process. You don’t get a percentage of the sale, the site makes its money advertising additional services like financing, guarantees, and insurance that’s zero cost to buyer and seller. “They both get exactly what they need and just what they need. We make sure the customer gets three, four or five offers via email or text, and they can compare and decide there.” Salespeople, dealers and contractors can upload inventory they have for sale or rent. Then every time someone places an order for a particular machine, it’s immediately quoted from inventory, like a matching service, says Kraft. In the traditional model, salespeople are taught to keep in touch and show up, but that doesn’t offer much value to either side, Kraft says. “If you are a new seller, you can go to Heave and just see customers who are interested in buying or renting something. It eliminates spam calls and tries to chase contractors in the field,” he says. For contractors, it eliminates hours of searching online or browsing shopper magazines. “Initially, we see great potential for our service to help solidarity buyers,” Kraft says. “It’s normal for sales professionals to spend most of their time focusing on high-profile accounts or those that buy or rent the most equipment annually. So small to medium customers are often pushed to the back of the line. Our platform highlights these buyers and helps them give them the attention they deserve. Kraft adds that after examining an EDA report he looked at from the Tampa area (EDA is a division of Equipment World’s parent company, Randall-Reilly), he found that there had been 3,000 contractors who had bought a compact machine there in the past three years — far more than Any seller can contact him. “This is where the Heave technology can solve the problem,” Kraft says. A new online model Heave presents two main differences that distinguish it from other online equipment brokers, one of them: traditional online entities keep their fingers in the cake throughout the transaction. They crawl the internet for listings, get equipment from a third party dealer, and then pay the dealer after the customer pays them. “We don’t do any of that,” Kraft says. contractor. We want merchants to see the customer and then do the transaction just as they normally do.” Second: traditional websites generally post prices. With Heave, only the contractor and salesperson see the price. By keeping the pricing private, I feel we can give dealers and salespeople more confidence in providing a true market price, which helps both sides close the deal, says Kraft. “Today’s listing concept is causing merchants to artificially insert a high price,” says Kraft. “He puts all of his effort on the customer to search through thousands of listings in order to find a machine they are interested in. Our concept is just the opposite. We start by telling the customer what they want, then we bring them machines that only fit their criteria.”
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