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MSM Market Study Machine
Compare your ICP/GrandAire prices against what competitors are quoting your customers. Available to every Watsco subsidiary — Baker, CE, ECMD, Carrier, Gemaire, and anyone else running a pricing study.
- 📄 Drop in competitor price sheets (Excel or PDF) that customers have shared with you.
- 🔎 See per-product market position — red where you're priced too high, green where you're winning.
- 📊 Export a formatted Excel report to take into OEM price-correction conversations.
Past Analyses
Completed runs from the last 30 days across every sub. Click a row to reopen.
| Date | Sub | Study | Region | Prepared By | Run Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Green = Below Market
Our price is cheaper than competitors — we're winning.
Yellow = At Market
We're within ±3% of the competitor average — competitive.
Red = Above Market
We're priced too high — at risk of losing the sale.
At-a-glance metrics — click any tile to drill in
| Baker Model | Baker Price | Avg Competitor Price | % Gap | Tier | Undercutting Competitors |
|---|
| Competitor | # Products | Avg % vs Baker | # Cheaper |
|---|
Below market (Baker cheaper)
At market
Above market (Baker more expensive)
Insufficient data
| Customer | # At Risk | Avg Gap | Worst Gap | Primary Threat | Risk Level |
|---|
Past Analyses
Completed runs from the last 30 days. Click a row to reopen a run.
| Date | Sub | Study | Region | Prepared By | Run Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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🔎
| Brand | Model # | Price | % vs Baker | Source / Customer |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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By Model
Every matched product with Baker price and each competitor price it's been quoted against, grouped by customer.
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By Customer
What each customer is being quoted across Baker and competitor brands, one row per model.
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By Competitor
Overall pricing position per competitor — how often each is cheaper, on-par, or more expensive than Baker.
| Competitor | # Products | Avg % vs Baker | # Above Market | # At Market | # Below Market |
|---|
By Product Series
Pricing gap rolled up to the product-series level.
| Product Series | # Products | Avg % vs Baker | Worst Gap | # Above Market |
|---|
About MSM
MSM — the Market Study Machine is a collaborative Watsco + OEM platform that helps any Watsco subsidiary (Baker, CE, ECMD, Carrier, Gemaire, Heating & Cooling Supply, and more) identify where ICP/GrandAire pricing is out of step with the market. It turns customer-shared competitor price sheets into an evidence base that drives OEM price-correction discussions and regional sales strategy.
The tool is built around two workflows:
- Run a new analysis — upload one or more competitor price sheets (Excel or PDF) plus optional custom cross-reference and Baker pricing files. Tag the run with sub, region, study name, and prepared-by so the result stays findable.
- Revisit past analyses — every completed run is kept for 7 days with its metadata so teams can hand off analyses and compare periods across subs.
Originally built by AJ Blatner for Baker Mid-Atlantic. Now maintained as a shared Watsco tool by Mario Cruz.
How the Colors Work
Everywhere a price, percentage, or tile is colored, the meaning is the same:
| Color | Market Position | Meaning for Baker |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Below Market — Baker >3% cheaper than the competitor average | Favorable. We're winning on price. |
| Yellow | At Market — Baker within ±3% of the competitor average | Competitive. No immediate action needed. |
| Red | Above Market — Baker >3% more expensive than the competitor average | Unfavorable. Baker is priced too high and at risk of losing the sale. Action needed with ICP. |
| — | Unknown — no Baker price available for comparison | Competitor prices are shown but no gap can be computed. |
Methodology
- Cross-Reference Mapping — A master cross-reference workbook maps each Baker/ICP model number to equivalent competitor model numbers. The tool supports the Master A2L format (10 competitors in a single sheet: Goodman, Carrier, Bryant, Rheem, Ruud, Lennox, Trane, American Standard, Daikin, York) as well as the legacy two-sheet Branded Cross / GrandAire Cross layout. Users can supply their own cross-reference at upload time or let the tool default to the demo reference.
- Competitor Price Extraction — Excel and PDF price sheets shared by Baker's contractor customers are parsed automatically. The parsers handle system sheets (HP, AC 80/90/95), package units, master sheets, and generic fallback layouts for Excel, and price books, system catalogs, and quote documents for PDF.
- Baker Price Source — Baker's selling prices come from the Baker pricing file (
APP SELL/ICP R.E INVOICEcolumn). When a run is missing Baker pricing for a product, the tool still shows competitor prices but flags the market position as Unknown. - Component → System Aggregation — Baker component prices are aggregated into system totals (furnace + coil + condenser) and validated against stated system totals with a $1 tolerance, so system-level and component-level comparisons stay consistent.
- Refrigerant Segregation — R-454B (A2L) and R-410A products are auto-detected from model numbers and file names. Comparisons never mix refrigerant types.
- Price Comparison — For each matched product, the tool computes
((Competitor Price − Baker Price) / Baker Price) × 100and classifies market position using the ±3% band. - Output — Results are rendered in the web UI (Executive Summary, Priority Actions, Competitor Landscape, Category Analysis, Gap Distribution, Customer Risk, Pricing Gaps) and exported as a formatted Excel report with per-tier sheets, summary stats, unmatched products, and conditional formatting.
What Each Analytics Tab Shows
- Past Analyses default tab
- Every completed run from the last 30 days. Click any row to jump straight into its Executive Summary.
- Executive Summary
- Headline metrics at a glance — products analyzed, critical overpriced count, average gap, market-position breakdown, data coverage. Each tile is clickable to filter the full dataset.
- Priority Actions
- The specific products where Baker is most overpriced, ranked so price-correction conversations have an obvious starting point.
- Competitor Landscape
- Per-competitor view: who's undercutting Baker most often, on how many products, and by how much on average.
- Category Analysis
- A heatmap by product series × competitor so readers can see whether pricing issues are systemic or isolated.
- Gap Distribution
- Histogram of the Baker-vs-market gap across every matched product — useful for spotting shape (long tail of overpricing, bimodal, etc).
- Customer Risk
- Which Baker customers are being shown the most cheaper alternatives by other distributors — the customers most at risk of switching.
- Pricing Gaps
- Products with missing Baker prices, by series, with likely-position estimates based on comparable products.
- Appendix
- Raw drill-in: Dashboard (all matched products, filterable + searchable), By Model, By Customer, By Competitor, By Product Series. Competitor columns are derived from the actual data so every brand in the run gets a column.
Data Sources
A run can use two sets of inputs:
| Input | What it contains | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-reference | Baker/ICP model ↔ competitor model mapping (Master A2L or legacy two-sheet format) | Baker team or user-uploaded on the Upload page |
| Baker pricing | Baker's selling prices (APP SELL / ICP R.E INVOICE) for ICP Branded and GrandAire products |
Baker internal or user-uploaded |
| Competitor price sheets | Actual prices competitors are quoting to Baker's customers (.xlsx, .xls, or .pdf) | Customer-provided, uploaded per-run |
The built-in demo uses a canonical Baker Mid-Atlantic data set: Master A2L cross-reference, Baker pricing, and price sheets from American Standard, Ameristar, Goodman, AirMac, Whirlpool, Chisholm, and Burnette.
Terminology
- ICP
- International Comfort Products — Baker's primary OEM. Brands include Comfortmaker, Heil, Tempstar, and others.
- GrandAire
- A value-tier brand distributed by Baker, also manufactured by ICP. Shown alongside ICP Branded in the cross-reference.
- Cross-Reference
- A mapping that identifies which competitor model is equivalent to which Baker/ICP model, enabling apples-to-apples price comparison. Supported in two formats: legacy (two sheets) and Master A2L (single sheet, 10 competitors).
- APP SELL / ICP R.E INVOICE
- Baker's selling prices — what Baker charges contractor customers for each ICP/GrandAire product.
- Run metadata
- Optional fields set at upload time: study name, region/sub-region, prepared-by, and free-form notes. Surface on the Past Analyses table and the run-summary pill above the results.
- Fill-template / Merge
- A run type that reuses a prior run's competitor price sheets while swapping in a freshly-filled cross-reference or Baker pricing file. Lets teams refresh mappings without re-uploading every file.
- SEER2
- Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio 2 — the industry-standard cooling-efficiency rating. Higher is more efficient.
- Tonnage
- Cooling capacity of an HVAC unit, measured in tons (1 ton = 12,000 BTU/hr). Residential systems typically range from 1.5 to 5 tons.
- Efficiency Tier
- A grouping by system type: Heat Pump, AC with 80% furnace, AC with 90% furnace, AC with 95% furnace, or Package unit.
- R-454B / A2L
- A next-generation refrigerant replacing R-410A. "A2L" is its ASHRAE safety classification. Products are only compared within the same refrigerant type.
- Price Sheet
- An Excel, XLS, or PDF document provided by a customer showing the prices a competitor is offering them for HVAC equipment.
- Market Position
- One of Below Market, At Market, Above Market, or Unknown — computed from the average competitor price and a ±3% band.
Assumptions & Limitations
- ±3% at-market band. The threshold is a configurable assumption — products within ±3% are considered competitively priced.
- Price-sheet recency. Competitor prices are only as current as the price sheets customers provide. The run metadata's date reflects when the analysis was run, not when the prices were published.
- Exact model matching. A competitor product must have its exact model number in the cross-reference to be matched automatically. Unmatched products are collected and surfaced in the Pricing Gaps view.
- Same-refrigerant comparison. Products are compared only within the same refrigerant type (R-454B vs R-454B, R-410A vs R-410A). The tool will never mix these.
- System-total validation. Component prices are aggregated into system totals and validated against stated totals with a $1 tolerance; discrepancies are logged, not silently corrected.
- PDF extraction accuracy. Prices pulled from PDF price books use automated table detection. Most layouts work reliably, but complex or scanned PDFs can produce extraction errors — spot-check before relying on a PDF-heavy run for critical decisions.
- Optional Baker pricing. If Baker pricing is missing for a product, competitor prices still appear, but percentage difference and market position are marked Unknown rather than defaulting to zero.
- 7-day retention. Uploaded source files and result payloads are kept for 7 days before automatic cleanup. Job records (date, metadata) are preserved longer.
How to Use This Tool
- Start on Past Analyses — the home screen lists recent runs. Click any row to open it.
- Kick off a new analysis — click the + New Analysis button in the top-right. Drop in one or more competitor price sheets; reference files are optional (the tool will fall back to demo defaults).
- Add run details — before submitting, expand the Add run details section to tag the run with a study name, region, and prepared-by. This makes it easy to find later.
- Review Executive Summary — the tool lands here by default after a run completes. Use the metric tiles to filter the dataset to Above / At / Below / Critical products.
- Focus on Priority Actions — the top-ranked overpriced products. Bring these to your next price-correction discussion with ICP.
- Drill with Appendix — use the Dashboard search box to look up any Baker model, competitor model, customer name, or competitor brand.
- Export — click ⬇ Excel Report in the nav to download a formatted spreadsheet with per-tier sheets and conditional formatting.