Masonry Magazine July 2010 Page. 28
BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
We use all the basic technologies for accounting, inventory control, shipping, tracking, lead management, etc.
- Earl Bickett, general manager of Mortar Net U.S.A.
Masonry: What are you doing to keep your customers? Are you extending unbelievable pricing and "deals," or are you creating new/different products to try and fit their exact needs? Or both?
Aronie: Because we are a niche business, we have been able to maintain our prices. But if a distributor buys in larger volume, we have discounted our prices a small amount.
Bickett: Mortar Net USA has maintained its practice of keeping the masonry design, supply and construction community aware of its products with extensive advertising, Lunch & Learn presentations, trade show participation, product demonstrations, sponsorships of numerous masonry education programs and the like. All of these things help to keep our name, our products and the benefits they offer "top-of-mind," and help to get our products specified in the projects that are going forward. We also have new and innovative product offerings such as TotalFlash and Blok-Flash; and while the overall construction market has shrunk, sales and installations of those products are actually growing at a high rate.
Coe: As I mentioned, we're really working hard to give our customers products that help them work more efficiently and avoid downtime, and we're doing it at a competitive price. We have never been a brand that has had to resort to "desperate" discounts to sell product. We are a company that thinks and acts long-term and will continue to offer our award-winning products at competitive prices.
Masonry: How important has technology become to your everyday business? Which types of technologies do you take advantage of to save time and increase efficiency?
Aronie: New technologies have not affected our actual manufacturing efficiencies. We keep up with UPS software upgrades and YouTube demos.
Bickett: Certainly, technology is incredibly important to us as it is to every business. If I wasn't using a computer to type the answers to your questions, I doubt you'd be able to decipher my notoriously bad handwriting. We use all the basic technologies for accounting, inventory control, shipping, tracking, lead management, etc. And, I really do like my new Droid.
Coe: Bosch is an innovation company that is always looking at all types of technology for our next innovation. We are
The New Improved Quikpoint Drill-Mate Mortar Gun.
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Paving
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Melvin Mancia (Mason Forman)
Job: The John Winthrop School, Dorchester, Ma.
Just scoop mortar into the three quart capacity hopper, pull the trigger on the drill and a continuous controlled bead of mortar can be applied, up to five times faster than conventional pointing methods, to any masonry application.
Quikpoint, Inc. 23 B Bradford St., Concord, Ma. 01742 USA
Phone: 978-371-3267 Fax: 978-371-2292 Toll Free USA: 800-368-2292
Web: www.quikpoint.com E-Mail: sales@quikpoint.com
READER SERVICE #165
26 MASONRY
July 2010
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