Even with the internet, shopping for equipment, especially when you need a machine in a hurry, is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Likewise for dealer salespeople with hundreds of potential customers — finding one primed to buy is a big challenge.
Enter Heave, an online equipment transaction website with a simple solution. With it, buyers type in the machine they want to purchase or rent. Sellers on the site, if they have that machine, respond with a quote. That’s it. The entire exchange can be handled on a smartphone, tablet or computer in minutes.
The problem with the traditional sales model is that it takes too long and too much of everybody’s time, says Alex Kraft, founder and CEO of Heave. Kraft knows what he's talking about. He’s been involved in heavy equipment sales for the past 17 years and was the chief operating officer for Flagler Construction Equipment, which is now part of Alta Equipment.
“It seemed like we had to fight for every deal. In all my time in the industry, nobody had answered the question about why it was so time- consuming for customers to get answers,” says Kraft. In the traditional sales model, it could take days to get a phone call returned, maybe weeks of research, he says.
Heave is more like an RFQ system. “After the contractor enters what kind of machine he is looking for, that information is posted to the site, much like a social media post,” says Kraft. “The sales reps who are signed up for our website get an alert, and then they can log in and answer it. Salesmen who don't have an account can still see the requests; they just have to have an account in order to actually quote a price to that customer.”
Heave
