Pricing and reputation.

Host a resident event. This will give the team the chance to get to know you.

Once the account is secured Checking the quality of work to keep the standard high throughout the relationship. Don’t make me be the jerk who complains as well as keep the up charges to a minimum. We all know if we have a unit that will require additional attention and we can charge appropriately but hands down there are less of those than the every day normal wear and tear don’t charge me $35 for something silly.

To get my attention show me the review, give me 2-3 people to call that you have pulled through for in a tight situation. We all have those last minute things. Come through on those and then when you are pitching offer you the scenario.

You have to build up trust with who you are trying to gain business from. They have a million things going on and don’t want to be pitched out of the blue. I’m a huge advocate in utilizing your local Apartments Association to build these connections. Now, usually your huge players (MAA, Greystar, Lincoln) carry National accounts and may cannot make the switch at the property level. Still, build that relationship to find out how/who makes that decision. Also, take a manager, maint super, regional, whoever out to grab a beer if they are having a crazy day … maybe you can help solve whatever is causing the crazy day.

A good way to get in the door, let them know you really appreciate their loyalties to vendors. Give them your business card with prices. Tell them if your regular vendor gets backed up and you need someone sooner, give me a call. Be competitive with your pricing. If they do call you when their backed up do a kick ass job. This is how many vendors become regular vendors

Free stuff. But not for me. Value added. Free delivery if you deliver stuff. Free carpet spot cleaning in the hallway when you clean the carpet in an apartment. Free haul-out when you replace carpet. Free dumping of old appliances when you deliver a new appliance. Free extra visit if the dumpster gets overfilled (from time to time). Free inventory checkup for housekeeping supplies and the maintenance shop. Automatically supplying an SDS when you supply a chemical. Free whatever when you do whatever. It all depends on the service you provide. We're all working on a tight budget and can't afford to have that "extra" done.
I have had HD Supply, Lowes Pros, Grainger, Ferguson, and a number of other suppliers ask me how to get their business. I told them all the same thing... Come work with my maintenance tech to inventory my maintenance shop of all the products they carry, set par counts and labels, and I will buy all that stuff from them. Nobody has taken me up on the offer, so until then I'll just be making the hardware store trips as things run low.

It's kind of a hassle now to set up a new vendor so if I'm happy with who I've got, I'm not switching. I've got to be really unhappy to consider a change. Plus, some of our suppliers are national vendors and we have little to no say in who we use - carpet/vinyl for example.