The New Box Store

Remember the good ole’ days when all we had to do was worry about was the discount box stores selling inexpensive water treatment equipment? I believe it is necessary to have the box stores because I think they help hold those of us that sell a higher quality product accountable. Box stores force us to provide better service and to become more professional. Now we can add Amazon and other online retailers to the challenge. But my premise still remains. I think they can help us as an industry if we let them.

This may freak you out a little, but I truly believe that there is not a water softener made by ANY manufacturer that is worth more than $1000. Not that I’ve seen anyway, and I have had the honor of selling pretty much every single one of them in the home from every corner of this great country. Yet, when I have been in the home training someone to sell, I am usually charging at least twice that much and usually 3 or 4 times as much. My point is that it is NOT the tangible water softener or other water treatment product that makes up the vast majority of the value.

Take your top of the line product and give it to a crappy installer or typical call center clerk and it actually becomes less valuable than the piece of equipment someone can buy off of Wal-Mart.com. What makes your product worth $4500 is the professionalism, the knowledge, and the superb service. Without that, you are just selling an online product at a dealership price even if that product is made by a good manufacturer.

Our industry has spent decades tolerating and in some cases even promoting pushy and sometimes unscrupulous sales tactics. Unfortunately as the environmental and socially moral need for the products our industry offers  increases, the willingness of our customers to subject themselves to these traditional sales tactics is decreasing. I think we (alongside other industries) have forced people to go online or to a box store where they can avoid the typical sales people. I’m in sales and I can’t stand typical sales people.

Ugh!

But here’s the good news. A $500 water softener purchased online or at a box store is more likely to be installed wrong or to be put on water it has no business trying to treat. While certainly not in every case, the person who wanted to avoid sales people and save money will more likely soon find themselves frustrated and looking for someone to comfort them. When they come back to you, don’t rub their mistake in. You don’t need to say “I told you so”. They know it. That’s why they are coming back to you in the first place.

Instead, give them a symbolic hug. Be empathetic and impress the heck out of them with your knowledge and your professionalism. Don’t be pushy. Don’t judge them. I mean do you seriously never buy anything from a box store or online?

So here’s the bottom line. We are not going to stop people from buying from these places. I don’t think we should. They are not the enemy any more than the motorcycle shop is the enemy of the Mercedes dealership. I think the key here is to recognize why some people are choosing to go the route of box stores or online and then focus on what we can give that they are not getting from those purchasing options.

Make yourself an expert and a professional, even more so than you already are. If your customers say something like, “I got the same exact thing online for half the price” then you either need to offer more intangibles or do a better job of promoting the intangibles.

It’s funny to me. Every brochure, digital or paper, for every softener regardless of the manufacturer claims to be the best at efficiency, capacity and blah blah blah. They all have a picture of a baby taking a bath, or a mom or kid happily drinking water and there’s probably a dog picture as well. If the description for the equipment you sell at your dealership says the same stuff as the one you see on Amazon, no wonder customers are going to Amazon.

My suggestion is to set yourself apart. Focus on what Amazon cannot provide. It’s my understanding that you can sometimes add “professional installation” to your Amazon purchase. We all know how that works, right? It’s a local plumber that is not WQA Certified and while they may do a decent job putting it in, they don’t know how to set it for a specific water supply and good luck getting them to come back out to your house if there’s a problem. Your business doesn’t outsource. You rely on your customer’s satisfaction for continued success. Referrals matter to you. These things matter to your customers and they are worth paying for.

Embrace the things Amazon can’t do, fellow water treatment professionals. We have an opportunity to make ourselves look really good in comparison.

Kelly Thompson MWS, CI

Moti-Vitality, LLC