Consider this…would you buy a new car without knowing the cost of each option on the sticker? How would you be able to negotiate a lower price if you didn’t know the cost of that paint job? Answers: You wouldn’t and you can’t.
So, why would you try to negotiate a 50-page capital equipment quote that has 100 line-items and one price at the bottom? You shouldn’t. Increase your negotiating position by demanding line-item pricing.
Here are three great ways to make sure your Suppliers aren’t hiding anything on their quotes:
- Request all line items be priced separately – They might not do it on their first draft, but if you ask your Suppliers to list the prices out separately for each of the components of the quote, they usually will. This will allow you to more get a better “apples to apples” comparison of what you’re buying.
- Request both list prices and discounted prices – Always ask for both the list prices and quoted prices for each line item. This will allow you to better establish true discount percentages, a key metric when comparing same or similar equipment pricing.
- Request any trade-in value or offers be provided separately as a stand-alone option – Don’t let trade-in offers fool you. Sometimes trade-in offers are simply marketing promotion dollars applied to the purchase and don’t represent the true value of the equipment. Instead of trading in your equipment, keep it. Many times they’ll still be able to apply the same discount offered. Best of all, you can always resell the equipment you didn’t trade in and get double the value!
Apply some of those same car-buying tactics when purchasing medical equipment. You’ll see the same strategies often work just as well!
