Question

Topic: Advertising/PR

Professional Carpet Cleaning Tools

Posted by Anonymous on 8/21/2008 at 2:58 PM ET 250 Points
I am looking to market some carpet cleaning tools we make, this product is for the professional carpet cleaner.
We need to market these products to the manufactures who make the actual machines, and to the end user, the carpet cleaner. We need to reach them by emarketing and direct marketing , Anyone have any ideas I could use
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RESPONSES

  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 8/21/2008 at 3:10 PM Accepted
    The industry standard is https://www.iicrc.org, They are the cetifying board for professional carpet cleaners. I think you should also go to the carpet manufactures for endorsement. Machines like the popular Dyson have created many claims that slowly, retailers are putting up signs reminding them not to use that vacumn. Some carpet warranties exclude types of vacumns.

    If a carpet manufacturer has a claim they will only use iicrc certified cleaners to potentially rectify. It may seem unlikely a claim would be made for cleaning to the manufacture-- but it happens everyday. A carpet mill has a warranty for "stain free" carpet-- and the consumer (thru their dealer) has a stain they can't remove. The mill will call in a certified cleaner-- and if the stain comes out, the problem is solved.

    These products are also sold in retailers. Get involved with buying groups like Global Partners (Prosource, Carpet One, Etc), or Abbey (also Floor Club).

    Dealers and manufacturers know most claim (warranty) issues are because of maintanence. As a rep for the flooring industry (independent manufacture rep) dealing with this keeps Lady Clairol in business covering my grey hair!

    Sell Well and Prosper tm
  • Posted by wnelson on 8/21/2008 at 4:10 PM Accepted
    Vernon,
    For the direct sales part, you may try https://www.rephunter.net/

    You might be able to find a rep who already calls on the industry and you could sign them for this product line too.

    I hope this helps.

    Wayde
  • Posted by michael on 8/21/2008 at 5:05 PM Accepted
    Or www.replocate.com

    Neither market is difficult to reach. If it were me, I'd have a midnight sales staff.

    Michael
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 8/21/2008 at 5:09 PM Member
    The idea of an independent rep serving the OEM market is a good one. The cream of the crop of reps are members of MANA, you can view them on manaonline.org. There is also a great check list there on what you need to support a rep.
  • Posted on 8/21/2008 at 7:19 PM Accepted
    My suggestion would be to try approaching the independent commercial carpet cleaners in each major market ... one or two at a time. Pick 4 or 5 major markets, get the list of the key players in each market, and actually call on the owners/operators personally. You'll quickly learn what it takes to get their attention.

    In fact, you might want to begin with 3 or 4 information interviews to find out what keeps these people awake at night, how they make decisions, what their needs are, how they think about equipment and investment, etc.

    I have worked in the industry -- carpet manufacturing, branding, marketing AND commercial carpet cleaning. There may not be a good way to reach the carpet cleaning audience without face-to-face sales calls. These folks don't have a lot of time for email or snail mail communication. Typically they're very hassled and are fighting alligators from early morning until they collapse at night.
  • Posted by CarolBlaha on 8/22/2008 at 11:22 AM Member
    As someone also in the field-- Goodman is right that you are going to have to market this face to face. These guys are rarely techies-- some of my clients in this industry still don't have fax machines-- much less email.

    But going the OEM route means the machinery distributors will be doing the face to face selling. You focus on building awareness and credibility. Look at firms like Capture, the dry cleaning solution. Its marketed to the consumer strictly via the retailer. Even though the carpet & rug industry (and most warranties) recommend hot water extraction. Its in Carpet One's core package-- the dealer is incentized to market it by the rebates the buying group pays.

  • Posted by obrewton on 8/24/2008 at 5:30 AM Accepted
    The approach I would take is to find carpet cleaning franchisee in a 100-200 miles radius and let them try the tools for free. If your tools are better than what they are currently using and are priced reasonably they wouldn't have a problem purchasing from you, as well as referring your product to other franchisees.
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