What could be surprising about material handling equipment? What many people don’t know is how all-encompassing the term ‘material handling’ truly is. If you’re reading this you know that MHE is considered any tool or machine used to package, transport, process, or store material. It includes equipment from autonomous mobile robots to forklifts, their attachments and shelving.
You also know, it’s easy to get lost in the purchasing cycle or waste money on unnecessary equipment. Here are five surprising things to remember the next time you’re sifting through Google results trying to find equipment that fits within your customer’s unrealistic budget.
1. Thoroughly evaluate existing equipment first.
Material handling equipment pays for itself over time. Often, purchasing new equipment becomes a battle of persuasion between operations and accounting. This usually creates a large gap between wanted equipment and budget constraints. Your customer can optimize their existing equipment and increase efficiency by conducting a thorough evaluation. You can guide them through it, with our help generating more revenue for everyone than you would if simply advising them to purchase a simple off-the-shelf solution right away.
2. Don’t just go with the obvious choice.
The biggest mistake made in the industry is purchasing the cheapest equipment possible. Everyone has a budget, especially nowadays but purchasing cheap/generic equipment costs your clients time and money. Selling equipment without researching it first is like buying an aluminum cookie sheet from the dollar store instead of a proper one from Home Sense. It works but it’s a band-aid solution that won’t work for your customer long term. Don’t force your customers to re-purchase in a year, recommend equipment that gets them the most for their money and you’ll always be top of mind.
3. Automated equipment is expensive but manual equipment can be too.
Forklifts are the best-known and most-used piece of MHE in the industry. They can also be the most expensive. On average labour makes up 77% of a forklift’s total cost of ownership, with the other 13% covering repairs, charging, parts & maintenance which means the initial investment only covers 10% of the total cost of ownership. This is true for most powered units, while manual units are usually lower in price, all MHE unless automated has a high labour cost that should be factored in when your client is debating whether to purchase automated equipment.
We all know why downtime is the enemy and how easy it is to lose business because of a blown budget. This is why it is so important to encourage customers to share their existing equipment and maintenance schedule before you make suggestions. Helping them cut costs is almost as good as coming in on budget – almost! Knowing what they’re spending can not only help you provide accurate projections but also help you decide where to spend to get the most out of the equipment they have. Pictured below are a few of our products that could be considered to help with fleet management.
4. Embrace technology to the fullest.
Automation and computerization are continuously changing the landscape of the material handling industry. Constant innovations are made daily, providing new growth opportunities. Not investing in technological advancements in 2024 is detrimental to business and will create problems.
Your client doesn’t need to automate their entire warehouse to hop on the bandwagon. Simply include other solutions in your search, especially those that run on alternative energy. After all, the whole point of technical advancements is to increase productivity and efficiency. Keep up to date on the latest technology advancements from your suppliers and you may just find that business-altering solution that pushes you past your competitors.
5. The equipment you choose affects your returns too.
The suggestions you make are what help you sell. We all know that poorly managed lift trucks are costly, affecting returns and profits. Too many and they aren’t used to their full potential, too little and they overwork them requiring more maintenance and repairs.
Choosing equipment that isn’t compatible with what your customer has is like selling them socks that are too small. Before encouraging investments in new equipment, find out if their fleet is performing at its best by consulting your MHE manufacturer and yes, you guessed it, that’s us.