TEMP - I want to have one entry here classified as a Tool/Calculator. So here's a calculator idea we could do that never uses Clark's rates. It calculates the prospect's own in-house cost from their own inputs. So your cost structure never appears, and the output is a number the prospect can compare against any quote, including Clark's.
That also reframes the sales conversation. Most companies running their own warehouse have never calculated their fully loaded cost per pallet position. When they do, it's higher than they assumed.
What the user enters
Six short sections. Every field is something an ops or plant manager knows or can find in ten minutes.
Space
Square feet occupied. Lease rate per square foot per year, or monthly rent. CAM, property tax and insurance if billed separately.
Labor
Number of warehouse FTEs. Average fully loaded annual cost per employee, meaning wage plus burden, not just wage. Temp agency spend per month. Overtime hours during peak.
Equipment
Monthly cost of forklifts and pallet jacks, lease or amortized purchase. Annual maintenance. Racking, if they want to amortize it.
Systems
WMS or inventory software per month. Scanners and hardware. IT support if it's a real line item.
Overhead
Utilities. Building and inventory insurance. Supervision, entered as a percentage of a manager's time rather than a salary.
Volume
Average pallet positions occupied. Peak pallet positions. Pallets received per month. Orders shipped per month.
Twenty fields is the ceiling before people abandon it. If that's too many, the space, labor and volume sections alone produce a defensible number and the rest can be optional under a "more detail" toggle.
What it gives back
Total monthly cost to run your own warehouse. The headline number, fully loaded.
Cost per pallet position per month. The number that compares directly to any 3PL quote, which is how the industry prices.
Cost per order shipped and cost per pallet handled. Useful for anyone whose volume is order-driven rather than storage-driven.
Fixed versus variable split. How much of their cost continues whether or not a single pallet moves.
The cost of unused capacity. This is the one that does the work. Peak positions minus average positions, multiplied by cost per position, annualized. It's the money they spend every year carrying space for a season that lasts eight weeks, and almost nobody has ever put a number on it.
What a 3PL would have to beat. Their own per-position number, stated plainly, with a note that a 3PL quote covers space, labor, equipment and systems in one line.
No Clark rates anywhere. No industry benchmarks presented as fact.
What I need to build this
Concept sign-off
A reality check on the inputs. Shane - which of those fields can a plant manager can answer vs which will stall them.
Conversion ratios, only if you offer defaults. Square feet per pallet position including aisles, dock and staging. Pallet positions per warehouse FTE. These let someone who only knows their square footage get an estimate. If Mike would rather not publish rules of thumb, skip defaults and require real inputs.
What gets captured and where it goes. My recommendation: show the result immediately with no gate, then offer an emailed PDF summary in exchange for a name, company and email. Gating the result kills completion. Offering the takeaway converts better and the lead is warmer.
Where submissions land. Mike's inbox for now, same as the other forms.
One decision: does the result page include a "request a quote and compare" CTA that pre-fills their volume? That turns a calculator into a qualified inbound lead, and it's the whole reason to build it.
Two things to flag
This requires that i build a custom interactive component in Framer, not a CMS entry with text in it. But this doesnt have to live for launch day / could add it a week or 2 later.
Another calculator option is a pallet position sizing calculator… takes four inputs, produces one number, exposes nothing, and could do this in an afternoon. If you want a Tools & Calculators entry that actually works at launch, that's the one. The cost comparison tool is the better asset.
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