Looking for more sales…Revisiting temps…
Looking for more sales…In all the right places
Okay so you’re thinking about the plans you made for a great 2024. That probably includes closing a couple of really juicy prospects and a few more in the mid to even small size. So far so good. But what about the lower hanging fruit that could deliver a ten percent sales increase – and not require even one cold call, or any additional service visits?
Of course it’s your current book of customers and all the business of theirs that you don’t have. When most of us think about that unsold penetration, we of course think of the laundry or even floorcare. And that’s fine and totally appropriate. But what about all the unsold ancillary products that are even lower hanging and easier to pick fruit?
Like oven cleaner, kitchen degreaser, tabletop sanitizers, stainless steel polish, deep fry boil out, pot and pan detergent and flatware presoaks, etc. While they aren’t earth shaking, they are game changers.
That case of oven cleaner that repeats every other month, the pail of degreaser that you’ll ship every month and any one of the others that repeat a few times a year are big. To your sales, the’re what compound interest is to your savings.
Selling an additional $100 a month to a current $5,000 per year customer represents more than a 20% gain. Do that in ten more accounts and your annual sales just grew $12,000. Come to think about it that’s very likely equal to one of those juicy targets on your prospect list.
Next up: A case for that case.
Revisiting temps…And concentrations
We ordinarily think of wash tank temperatures as a matter that only affects cleaning. As we learned on day one, the principles of cleaning (WATCH) place heat number five among water, action, time, chemical and finally heat. In truth, all five are pretty much equal in the cleaning outcome. But heat can affect more than cleaning. It’ll also change the detergent concentration.
Just as heat affects cleaning efficiency, it also affects how easily electrical current passes through water. Remember, the dispenser measures electrical resistance. As the water heats that dispenser senses less resistance because conductivity improves with the increased heat of that water. In turn that lessened resistance is interpreted by the dispenser’s circuitry as a lower detergent concentration. That can result in it dropping below your targeted level.
If we set the concentration at .15% with 120F fill water and it increases to 155F after the tank heater comes into play, that targeted concentration drops. If that happens, we’re being hit by two of the four principles going in the wrong direction!
BTW that also means if that tank heater falls behind during the lunch rush and the wash tank temperature drops, the concentration increases.