Progressive Distributor

Soapy sales

Looking for add-on sales opportunities? Try soap.

by Richard Vurva

If youve never considered yourself a soap salesman, instead focusing exclusively on cutting tools and abrasives or other engineered products, you may be missing out on add-on sales opportunities. So say manufacturers of soaps and skin care products designed for use in industrial facilities.

Dick Krummeck is a skin care specialist who trains distributors how to conduct skin care safety seminars and how to perform a site analysis for customers. He notes that end-user customers who work in machine shops or other manufacturing settings frequently come in contact with cutting tool coolants and various lubricants. That makes them likely sufferers of contact dermatitis, an inflammation that occurs when an irritating substance comes into contact with the skin, causing red, swollen, tender, hot, painful or itchy skin.

And since a growing number of customers are consolidating their supply base trying to buy as many products from as few distributors as possible theyre looking to existing distributors to bring them the products they need that most distributor salespeople might not usually think to sell. Like soap.

Customers previously purchased products like this from a janitorial supply house, Krummeck says. Now that theyre attempting to consolidate purchases, theyre generally looking to the industrial distributor.

Krummeck says salespeople can be most effective by positioning themselves to customers as promoting a four-part total skin care system, as opposed to selling soap. The product and the dispensers are a given, he says. But by adding the site analysis and the safety seminars, it becomes a nice total package to present to customers.

According to Michael Lapides, vice president of GOJO, 60 percent of skin care products business to manufacturing customers is sold through MRO distributors and safety supply distributors. The remaining is sold through janitorial, sanitary supply houses and paper distributors.

The important thing for the distributor sales rep is to examine those accounts where they have a friendly environment and then work to expand their market basket, Lapides says. They often overlook skin care as a potential item for that market basket.

He says salespeople should consider the long-term benefits of selling consumable items such as skin care products. At an average cost of $15 per person, a sale to a company with 500 employees generates $7,500 in annual revenue. When you consider that the average life of a program is five to seven years, selling skin care products can reap long-term sales success.

Wash your hands
About 80 percent of all common infections are spread directly by hands and touching, not through the air, according to Elaine Larson, dean of the school of nursing at Georgetown University.

The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) notes that allergic and irritant dermatitis (contact dermatitis) is overwhelmingly the most important cause of occupational skin diseases, which account for 15 percent to 20 percent of all reported occupational diseases. Estimated total annual costs (including workdays and loss of productivity associated with occupational skin diseases) may reach $1 billion annually.

Contact dermatitis usually affects the hands. Harsh cleansers are a culprit because many workers are required to wash their hands frequently, says John Fowler, industrial skin care category manager, Kimberly-Clark Away From Home Sector. The challenge is to combine the powerful cleaning effectiveness industrial workers need with a skin cleanser thats mild to the skin.

Lapides says salespeople also should expand their thinking in terms of who to talk to in the end-user facility.

The typical distributor salesperson calls on either the purchasing agent or the maintenance supervisor, Lapides says. But what about the safety director? What about the occupational health nurse? Or the risk reduction manager? What about the general manager?

In order to capture their attention, you need higher-level solutions. Successful salespeople address the subject of skin care in the workplace as opportunities to reduce costs and improve wellness.

You need to approach it from the standpoint that soap is a safety issue just like eye protection or body protection, says Andy Daca, business development manager for DEBUS/SBS. Skin care is a safety issue, regardless of whether its barrier creams, medicated creams or properly washing your skin.

He suggests that salespeople ask questions to determine if employees regularly come in contact with contaminants, find out what type of soap is being used or whether barrier creams or medicated creams are made available to employees.

Then put together a program that will benefit the employees, Daca says. If it benefits employees, it will ultimately benefit the employer, who no longer has to worry about losing key people to skin care problems.

Adds Lapides: When selling soap, you have the same kind of cost issues as in selling cutting tools.

The number of holes you can make with a cutting tool is more important than the cost of the tool. Its the same with skin care products.

Its less important how much the case of products costs, Lapides says. Whats more important is, what kind of dispensing system assures that you dont have any waste, Lapides says.

Hey, this isnt rocket science
You dont have to be a skin care expert to spot potential sales opportunities. Just use your eyes. Daca tells the story about a plant in Minnesota where workers tore down auto engines. It was a greasy, grimy job and their hands came in frequent contact with grease, oil and gasoline. Compounding the problem, employees used an abrasive, powder-based soap to wash their hands.

Not surprisingly, many of the workers had dry, irritated skin.

When I first walked in, I saw guys who couldnt even bend their fingers because their skin was so dry. When they did bend their fingers, they would actually bleed, Daca says.

He put them on a three-part program of barrier creams, mild lotion soap for washing and medicated creams to apply after work.

When I came back about a month later, the difference was amazing, he says. Guys thanked me. You dont know how much better my hands feel. Now when I go home at night, my wife even comments about how nice my hands are.

What about customers who arent interested in talking safety? Or what if you simply dont have the time or the desire to sell a complete skin care system? There are simple ways to pick up add-on sales, particularly in products designed for cleanup away from the sink.

Paul Taylor, business unit manager for ITW Dykem/Dymon, manufacturer of a waterless hand cleaning towel, says the product can be remarkably easy to sell and doesnt have to be the focus of a dedicated sales call.

One of the best jobsite techniques is not to talk about the product at all, but just bring it along, he says.

For example, say a salesman is demonstrating a diamond blade at a construction site or a cutting tool in a manufacturing plant. When hes finished with his demo, he pulls out a towel and starts cleaning his hands.

What invariably happens is people are intrigued by it, Taylor says. The next thing he knows, everyone is trying it and hes selling them. They dont need to make a dedicated sales effort.