Reiff Preheat Systems
Long Engine Life Starts With Reiff
Message to FBO's, A&P's, and engine shops
Engine preheating is mandatory for any piston aircraft operated in cold weather. Many aircraft owners, your customers, are aware of that fact and we sell a lot of our systems directly to them. Many of these customers learn about us from our ads in AOPA Pilot or Trade-A-Plane, word of mouth, our web site, or magazine articles. They do their own research into the various systems on the market, reach their own conclusion about which is best, and call us.
However, many aircraft owners have no knowledge of the importance of preheating. As his mechanic, you have the opportunity to educate that owner about preheating and why our system is best. You deserve to be compensated for this sales effort, so we are happy to provide you a discount (commission).
When you do annuals, repairs, pre-buy inspections, engine overhauls or remans, etc. note if there is no preheat system installed and take advantage of the opportunity to suggest our system to the customer. In addition to the commission and installation labor, you will benefit in other ways. How?
- They will be happier customers when they get easy, summer-like starts in cold weather, and that satisfaction will carry over into goodwill and referrals for your business.
- They will tend to fly more in winter if they have an easy to use, effective preheater. More flight hours means more gas sales and maintenance business for you.
- Your warranty costs should be reduced because preheating reduces the wear and tear caused by cold starts. Engine rebuilders could consider offering an enhanced warranty if the customer orders a preheat system, giving you a marketing advantage.
- Your customers' safety will be increased and your liability exposure reduced because preheated engines are less likely to experience in-flight failure than engines that have been damaged by cold starting.
Perhaps you are reluctant to try us because you have no experience with our system and you've been selling and installing competitive systems for a long time. We understand it is human nature to stick with what is familiar. After all, they have a 20 year head start on us. But we've been in the business for 11 years now and, with an average annual growth rate of over 20% (74% this year), we are probably now selling as many systems per year as they are, if not more. We know that if you give ours a try you will be impressed with it. We have many regular FBO customers who tried us and switched. Why do they switch? See customer comments. We hear repeatedly that ours is easier to install, does not interfere with the engine analyzer CHT's or Lasar System, and is well built so is not maintenance intensive. With our system it is not necessary to tie up hundreds of dollars of your money in a "Technician's Kit" of common replacement parts and special tools needed to keep the system running. In fact, ongoing maintenance was the main reason cited by the US Dept of Interior for replacing the competitor's system with ours on their fleet of 60 aircraft in Alaska.
Speaking of tying up your money, with our system it is practical and economical to maintain your own in-house inventory. With only 4 systems on your shelf, you can fit any Lycoming or Continental at a moments notice, and 2 systems will fit about 80% of the engines. Try that with our competitor's system... you would need a good size stock room (and bank account) since they have 141 different systems to fit the same engines.
Of course, it is not necessary for you to maintain an inventory for short notice or AOG jobs, because we have same day shipping. With UPS Next Day Air you can have it as early as 8 AM the next morning. We maintain our systems on the shelf, assembled and ready to ship. We don't build them up when you order and make you wait days or weeks.
Some shops have told us they don't advocate our system because they make more money selling the other one. It's easy to see why...theirs costs up to 3 times ours, so X% commission means 3 times the profit. However, we feel that is shortsighted thinking by those FBO's. The FBO who acts in the best interest of his customers is also acting in his own best interest because he will assure himself their business, goodwill, and referrals for years to come. On the other hand, when your customer finds out you sold him a $1200 system when he could have had a better system for less than half that (how is that possible?), he may become your disgruntled ex-customer and spread the word to your other customers.
Besides, if you push ours instead you will likely sell a lot more systems. You won't make as much on each system but your total profit from commission and installation labor could easily be more.
Yes, we could charge $1200 also and give the FBO a bigger profit, but we feel that doing what's best for the aircraft owner will pay off in the long run and so far we have not been disappointed. We think you will have the same results.
We would be happy to talk to you. Contact Robert Reiff, President
262-593-5292 or Bob@ReiffPreheat.com
Last updated 9/20/04