Lighting retrofits create significant revenue and profit for FSG
Lighting retrofits have become an important part of business at FSG. FSG is uniquely positioned in the marketplace to take advantage of the burgeoning “Green Market” opportunity. While some segments of our business such as new construction have seen opportunities decline, retrofits continue to grow and expand. This steady growth is due to our customer’s desire to cut costs, be “green” and to take advantage of utility subsidies and ever changing technology.
One of the best things about lighting retrofits, especially those opportunities we create, is that FSG controls the business. Unlike responding to an RFP and satisfing demand, when we create an opportunity we’re in the driver’s seat. This means a higher likelihood of success and higher margins. Our manufacturers also love these opportunities, because we bring them discretionary business, rather than just being another bidder in the marketplace.
At FSG our vertical integration brings tremendous value to the lighting retrofit proposition. An ESCO needs to buy from a distributor and hire a contractor. A contractor must buy from a distributor, and the distributor does not understand installation nor can they usually provide it. FSG provides a one-stop shop; eliminating multiple mark-ups and allowing us to capture those profit dollars. And our seamless coordination provides tremendous value to the customer. We can provide it consistently and accurately across the United States, something most of the competition can’t do.
FSG has been very active in the energy retrofit business for many years. We’ve documented our success well, and have created a variety of case studies and marketing materials that can be used to establish credibility and show a proven record of success. These can be found on the public server, under Marketing, in the Energy Solutions folder, along with white papers, calculators and a host of other supplemental materials to help you with the retrofit sale.
FSG has also developed state of the art proposal generation tools. LEA has been available for many years, and has been continuously refined and updated. In NJ we’ve developed some prepackaged proposal spreadsheets for specific market opportunities as well, and I will introduce these to you as we cover the specific opportunities.
Green Solutions, our online proposal generation program is arguably one of the most powerful in the industry, created through a collaboration of many FSG divisions and employees. It will eventually be rolled out to the entire sales force. This month we hope to start beta testing the new FSG IPad auditing App. All keeping FSG on the cutting edge of a growing and exciting field!
In future columns we’ll focus on individual retrofit opportunities, from parking garages to warehouses, retail space to commercial office buildings. We’ll talk about the opportunity, the design approach, the sale and the result. I will include actual proposals, case studies and supporting documentation right down to the catalog sheets to help you fully understand the process. I’m open to suggestions. If there are other things you would like to see or have me discuss, please let me know. Please join me next quarter as I discuss Parking Garages.