BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION MATERIAL MANUFACTURERS
Pricing Building Materials When Freight Decides the Order
A contractor rings at six in the evening asking for a delivered rate to a site forty kilometres away, including unloading by hand. You quote the ex-factory price, he gets a delivered price from a rival, and the order is gone before you finish your tea.
We help the owner build the pricing and credit routines behind that call: delivered cost by route, dealer limits, plant loading across the year. We do not advise on product standards, mix design or structural use. Testing labs and engineers decide those.
Discuss your priorities ↗COMMON CHALLENGES
The pressures
we often see.
- 01The price list is ex-works, but customers compare delivered rates, so each order is quoted ad hoc by whoever picks up the phone and margins vary by salesman.
- 02Dealers and contractors buy on credit, and the outstanding register is a notebook that only the accountant understands, so the owner learns of bad debts late.
- 03The monsoon and the festival rush swing demand sharply, leaving the plant idle in one month and rationing trucks in another.
- 04Breakage in loading, transit and unloading is argued over after the fact, because nobody records quantity and condition at dispatch.
- 05Fuel, clay, sand or cement costs move during the quarter, but the price list is revised only when the owner remembers to.
OUR FOCUS AREAS
Where the work
usually starts.
- 01Delivered-cost table by route and by distance band, covering truck hire, loading, unloading and breakage allowance
- 02A quotation sheet with the delivered rate, validity date and unloading terms stated plainly
- 03Dealer-wise credit limit and ageing, with orders blocked automatically when a limit is crossed
- 04Dispatch slip recording quantity, vehicle and condition so breakage claims have a record
- 05Monthly plant loading chart against the seasonal demand pattern, with a stock build plan before the slow months
- 06Raw material price watch: which inputs move, and the trigger at which the price list changes
- 07Sales-team incentive tied to collected money and margin, not to tonnage dispatched
- 08Truck turnaround at the gate: waiting time, loading time, and who owns delays
START THIS WEEK
Things you can do
before you call anyone.
- Take your five most frequent delivery routes and work out the true cost of reaching each: truck, fuel share, loading, unloading and an allowance for breakage. Compare it to what you charged on the last order.
- Hypothetical example: ex-works price is ₹6 a block, freight and unloading come to ₹1.20, and breakage costs 8 paise. A delivered quote of ₹7 leaves very little margin, so the salesman should know the floor before he speaks.
- List every dealer owing you more than the amount of one month of their purchases. Call the largest and agree a payment date in writing.
- Start a simple dispatch slip with quantity, vehicle number and condition signed by the driver. Review it after the first month of use.
A PRACTICAL ENGAGEMENT
Start with the priorities
that matter most.
We begin by understanding how your business runs today, find the gaps, and agree the scope in writing. Recommendations are shaped around your team, your resources and your goals.
- A route-wise delivered-cost sheet the salesperson can read from a phone
- A dealer credit policy on one page, with limits, grace days and the escalation step
- A seasonal plant loading and stock plan marked with the slow and busy months
- A dispatch and breakage record format agreed with transporters
Not the right fit when: If a product failure or a customer dispute over quality is the pressing issue, an engineer or lawyer should look at it first; pricing work can wait until that is settled.
Explore a business audit ↗LET’S MOVE YOUR BUSINESS FORWARD
