The Master Plan;

I’ve been fortunate enough to get involved with several long term master plans for several types of buildings and businesses. The experience is eye opening to someone who has made a career of repairing and replacing things. To have customers with the level of trust needed to open the budget up to you and still allow you to be part of the bid process is ego boosting. We don’t always get the work or even the opportunity to value engineer the project. We do however seem to stay involved with the project to make it successful. That part can keep your ego in check. You can’t always be everything to everyone, there has to be some tradeoffs.

At ModernControls it’s never been about how to compete on price, it’s always been about a fair price for doing the job right. When we work with someone to develop a master plan we see things from their perspective. Sometimes they need the lowest price because they have a need to fill and financial constraints. Other times they need to make sure everything goes as planned before, during, and after a project. That’s when we provide the best value. You can’t expect people to change their work habits. We employ quality people and sell quality work; we shouldn’t expect less of our employees because the budget doesn’t allow it.

I’ve learned through the development of master plans and long term budgets that the right fit can be the lowest price. Allowing our customers to make the best decisions based on their place in the market will help them to experience continued growth. An open, honest, forward thinking relationship between the customer and the service provider can eliminate hard feelings or guilt that can damage a relationship. Our customers don’t tell us how to run our business and we shouldn’t tell them how to run theirs. They tell us how we can do better and that’s what they expect from us. It’s not always easy to adhere to this thinking but it’s the best way to maintain long healthy relationships. That’s what ModernControls is all about, long healthy relationships.