Retailing spotters?

[Rex Tyus]

I know many use them (spotters) as a give away as part of a marketing program. Does anyone have an effective retail program comparable to the Franchises? If so would you care to share your source for product?

 

[Rex Tyus]

No one is retailing say a 16 or 32 oz spotter or odor control product?

 

[Jim Martin]

Sorry Rex I missed your question...

http://www.spottingsolutions.com/

we pay $6 per bottle plus shipping and we sell it for ...$11.95....so we make a little over $4 per bottle....

The pet stain and the general spotter sell the most and ( I have never messed with them that much ) but the people that buy it seem to like it...We are not getting rich off of it but if I would push it more I think we would sell more....

 

[John Watson]

Jim has it, http://www.SpottingSolutions.com I also don't push as I should.
Retail at $15.95 same as on their web site if client orders direct. We deliver for 19.95 unless in the area already... Great stuff!!

 

[Larry Cobb]

Rex;

We have a lot of customers private-labeling both Spot Removers & Enzyme Deodorants
in 16 oz. bottles w/4 hole spouts.

Cost is ~$2 each for 48.
They retail them from 2X to 4X ($4 to $8).

Larry

P.S. Stanley Steemer sells lots of Pet Treatment in the high teens.

 

[-JB-]

Just don't forget the MSDS T!

 

[John Alzubi]

I give a way this spotter. It's very cheap $1.79 and you can order them with your logo and phone number on them

it's called Home Pro by Bridge Point you can get from interlink supply
http://www.interlinksupply.com/index.ht ... m_num=CS02

 

[Steve Toburen]

Rex,

When I owned a four TM, 16 employee carpet cleaning/restoration business we used to sell quite a bit of carpet spotter ... and groomers ... and vacuum cleaner bags ... and entrance mats ... and pet deodorizers ... and furnace filters and ... etc, etc, etc. Then one day I took a hard look at the books and found that the total profit from all our "add-on" sales of this type was less than 1/2 of 1% of our total profit but the down side we had a lot of money tied up in inventory that many times got ruined driving around long before it was sold.

Then, when we took a long hard look at our technicians we found that they didn't want to sell this stuff since since our profit margin was so low we couldn't afford to give them much of a commission. Even worse, we found that the plethora of up-sell items we offered confused both the techs and our customers so much that our two really BIG profit producers, Scotchgard and our residential maintenance program (we called it our "Stay Beautiful" plan) got neglected and overlooked.

So we tossed all of our upsell items except for the SG applications and the SB plan. We started giving away a lifetime supply of free carpet spotter to all of our customers and focused the techs on upselling our two profit centers. The result?

1. Our customers LOVED the free Lifetime Spotter concept. It made for a huge positive Moment of Truth with everyone, created huge buzz among all of their friends and helped the home owner remember our name every time they took a spot out of their carpets. Even better, the free lifetime spotter added greatly to the desirability of my company when it came time to sell since I literally had over 10,000 logoed spotter bottles out there in the community. All for a cost of about a buck a bottle!

2. We doubled our commision to the techs on both the SG application and the Stay Beautiful program. So now they started really selling these two items and both they and we made a ton more money.

3. By signing people up on the Stay Beautiful program the tech received the first month's payment as a bonus. (Usually between 30 and 50 bucks for about 15 minutes talking and filling out a form. Not bad!) But the company recieved guaranteed cash flow and yes, once again, a much higher price could be justified when I sold the business since I had over 200 SB contracts to guarantee the cash flow for the future owner.

So Rex, sell the spotter if you wish. In fact, Jon-Don has a great custom logo program for exactly this scenario. But I wanted to play Devil's Advacate on why we dramatically scaled back the number of items we sold in the home and by so doing greatly increased both our technician's take home pay (always a good thing) while at the same time we both increased company net profits and also created guaranteed customers for the future.

Respectfully submitted,

Steve Toburen
Director of Training and originator of the Lifetime FREE Spotter concept
Jon-Don's Strategies for Success
http://www.StrategiesForSuccess.com

PS Folks, I just can't stress how valuable the Lifetime FREE Spotter concept is. It is cheap, targeted, long lasting marketing at its best. Go with Scotty Warrington and BP if you must (even though Jon-Don has a great and very cost effective custom logo free spotter program) but at least try it.

 

[Rex Tyus]

Thanks guys. I have and use the home pro spotter bottles for give aways. I was really looking for the link Jim posted. I had seen it sometime back just forgot where I saw it and who it was.

Larry, I think yours is attractive also. I had forgotten about your private lable program.

T club soda is an old wives tale. Distilled water works better. IDGAS about that. The profit margin of $4 on $11.95 is 33%. Not bad for a 30 second upsell 3 to 5 times a day on perhaps 3 to 5 different products. That will pay for the gas increase sure to come this summer. Customers are going to buy spotters somewhere. I have no problem selling them a quality product at a profit. I am a capitalist after all. I don't have a trust fund. But thanks for your input.

Steve, I have entertained many of the thoughts you have described. I have no intentions of having a rolling retail store. I agree it is easy to tie up inventory quickly. Spotter bottles are simple and seem affordable to stock. This is a value market so the perks of the posh packages in this poor rural market are a concern as well. But I truly appreciate the consideration.

Again Thanks everyone for the input.

 

[Jack May]

I was unable to find a reasonable priced unit for my market in New Zealand and so I looked into the whole thing extensively and rather than not do it at all, I decided to go straight ahead with a program in house.

We buy the chemical, bottles, triggers etc and do the whole thing ourselves.

Probably the only negative is the labeler which is a thermal so I can only do black/grayscale on white. But at the end of the day, I'm pretty happy with the results and feedback.

We're about 150 units into our program and can't see us not continuing.

I've got my cost down to $2.30/bottle from memory.

John

 

[Able 1]

I give a way this spotter. It's very cheap $1.79 and you can order them with your logo and phone number on them

it's called Home Pro by Bridge Point you can get from interlink supply
http://www.interlinksupply.com/index.ht ... m_num=CS02

I was using Home Pro but since they are more interested in making money over standing behind their product they can SMD! Jon Don is very professional and will put your logo on your bottle... Personally I would go with a company that stands behind the products they sell over a company that sells out and wants nothing to do with the repercussions of screwing over us little guys...

 

[B&BGaryC]

http://www.interlinksupply.com/index.ht ... m_num=CS02[/url]

I was using Home Pro but since they are more interested in making money over standing behind their product they can SMD! Jon Don is very professional and will put your logo on your bottle... Personally I would go with a company that stands behind the products they sell over a company that sells out and wants nothing to do with the repercussions of screwing over us little guys...[/quote:2eqary9r]

Man, interlink is getting a huge black eye. Aren't they gonna make this right? Or do they not care about what's said on the boards?

 

[XTREME1]

I have been trying to get a spotter progtam going and am looking into Jon-Don. Right now I have ask a couple questions of a few to find out who is responsible legally if I sold the product and there was a liabiliy issue later.

I have a venue to sell a ton of spotters nationally and am trying to put the deal together

 

[Rex Tyus]

I have been trying to get a spotter progtam going and am looking into Jon-Don. Right now I have ask a couple questions of a few to find out who is responsible legally if I sold the product and there was a liabiliy issue later.
I have a venue to sell a ton of spotters nationally and am trying to put the deal together

Generally speaking it would be the company that had the most money or the largest most inviting insurance policy. Nothing to do with right or wrong. The beauty of our court system.

 

[John Watson]

Nothing wrong with JD,

http://www.SpottingSolutions.com I would also check into..

 

[Ernie G]

Rex, we have some stuff on our web site, check it out. We sell several different products, even something for the tree hugers. We sell a fair amount of products.