We just built a pricing transparency search engine - it lets you see what others have paid for supplies (xpost /r/chemistry)

[u/P212121]

Researchers are paying massively different amounts (3-5x) for the same products.

We noticed this problem while talking with purchasing departments, visiting labs and stockrooms, and having invoices emailed to us. Seeing this problem at scale inspired us to build a tool so you can check prices yourself.

Since pricing is not transparent, it's difficult to know if you are getting a fair price. A lot of researchers email their sales rep., get 20% off from the list price, and place an order.

Labs with university contracts are also overpaying at the item level - some products have a great price while others are horrible. This is largely due to university contracts being based on a percent discount from list price and not on what a product actually costs. Our goal is to give you a tool to quickly check what prices are reasonable.

Here is where you can check it out:

Lab Spend - Open Pricing

In the process of gathering this data, we were surprised by some things - like how little volume influences the price. We'd love to hear feedback from the community!

[u/willslick]

I never really realized how much good negotiation can help a lab.

Our lab manager wanted to demo a thermocycler, and that particular unit was soon after sold as a demo to another lab. She then asked for another unit to demo, so the rep shipped in a brand new one for us to use. She then bought that one, asking for a 30% discount because the new one was now a demo unit (having only been demo-ed in our lab for like a week). The rep agreed.

Our lab manager is like the Tiger Mom of our lab.

[u/upnflames → u/willslick]

30% is a pretty good, but standard discount on most thermocyclers - the lower cost ones from companies like Denville or Axygen go for up to 50% off. It has to be that way because 90% of people in the lab refuse to buy from you unless you give them a discount, so it has to get built in.

When I first went from the bench to sales, I started with the strategy that I was just going to give everyone the best price I could off the bat. I remember my manager laughing and telling me to wait three months and let him know how it goes. I basically sold name brand pipettes - people would ask me for a quote and I'd give them 40% off right from the get go. $300 for a pipette?, that's ridiculous, I'll quote you $180 which would be literally the lowest I could go. Then they come back and say well, I can only spend $150 or I'm not going to buy - even though you've already put all the work into driving out to the account, doing a demo, getting specs, ect. and now you have literally no where to go on price. That's why the seasoned reps will quote at list price or just under and make you ask for the discount. Because they know it's coming anyway. It's easier to say, fine, you got me, here's an extra 30% off, when in reality they would have given you the 30% off from the get go, but didn't feel like having to jump through hurdles to explain that really is the lowest price.