How to Value Engineer Better w/ Alex Meaney
HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs
Bryan Orr
4.9 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 28 January 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode, Bryan and Alex Meaney talk about value engineering. They discuss what it means to value engineer better when it comes to construction projects.
Value engineering is about finding ways to reduce the costs of a project. However, we don't want to do a bad job or use extremely cheap materials just to bring the price tag down. In many cases, builders will want to reduce the cost as much as possible, but we also want to make sure the construction project works in the end. In other words, 2+2 doesn't quite have to equal 4, but we don't want it to equal 3. We can't afford to lose work or do bad work.
When we value engineer, we have to bring some sales experience to the table. We will have to negotiate with builders, and the process of value engineering is transactional. We also have to be honest about solutions that will work and ones that won't. It's best to show builders previous value engineering solutions that have failed. You don't have to sound robotic in your meetings with builders, but you want to be sincere and have a consultation process that works for you. It's a good idea to let previous results speak for themselves.
However, you will want to mention options that you think the builder will reject. More often than you could imagine, the builders do indeed take those more expensive add-ons.
Alex and Bryan also discuss:
- Speaking your customer's language
- Coming to the table with the most expensive option
- Selling vs. consulting
- Printing your failures
- Approaching a sales conversation with pros and cons
- Changing solutions and technologies
- Finding a consultation process that works
- Price objections about parts warranties
- New constructions vs. retrofits
- Where builders usually want to cut costs
- Flex duct
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This episode of the HVAC School Podcast is made possible by our sponsors. |
| 0:09.2 | And our sponsors are carrier and carrier.com, navac and navac global dot com |
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| 0:28.0 | Also speed clean and speed clean.com, speed clean makes coil jet, coil shot and the mini split bib kit, great solutions to get |
| 0:36.2 | coils clean and to keep systems well maintained. |
| 0:39.6 | Find out more by going to speed clean.com. Mitsubishi Electric. We have been Mitsubishi Diamond |
| 0:46.4 | Dealers, diamond contractors for years and years at Kailos and Mitsubishi is coming out |
| 0:51.1 | with more and more innovative products to serve both commercial |
| 0:55.3 | and residential as well as high efficiency, high performance homes. |
| 0:59.3 | If you haven't looked at Mitsubishi in a while, now is the time to do so. Find out more at Mitsubishi in a while now is the time to do so. |
| 1:03.0 | Find out more at Mitsubishi comfort.com. This is the guy that complains about capacitors failing, but praise for a failed capacitor at his last call every day. |
| 1:22.0 | Brian Or. Hey, this is the HVAC school podcast, the podcast that helps you remember some things. |
| 1:27.4 | You might have forgotten along the way as well as helps you remember some things you forgot |
| 1:30.8 | to know in the first place. |
| 1:32.4 | And today we're talking about every |
| 1:34.0 | AC contractor who's ever done new constructions favorite topic and that is |
| 1:39.4 | value engineering. Now before you get cranky, because you've probably heard the term value engineering used, |
| 1:46.8 | in order to try to beat you up to reduce your pricing, today we've got Alex Meenie, who certainly |
| 1:51.7 | does not want you to reduce your pricing, and certainly does want you to do a good job, but has learned a few things along the way about value engineering and how to talk about it with contractors. |
... |
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