A special keynote speaker will attend all four events. See story on pages 4-5.
A SPARKLING NEW BUILDING IN TURKEY. SEE PAGE 2
HALL OF FAMER MAKES HISTORY IN TEXAS. SEE PAGE 6
NEW RAINSOFT WEBSITE AND PRODUCTS. SEE BACK PAGE
Earlier this year, Selim Erdogĝan opened a new branch office in Ankara, Turkey’s capital and largest city that is teeming with potential. He hopes the beautiful new building will help his plan to increase business in the region and make RainSoft a prestige brand with local residents and businesses.
“Our employees here are very happy,” says Selim about their impressions of the new office space. He employs 25 people in Ankara but his goal is to increase business to the point where he can double the workforce in the city of about five million people.
RainSoft Turkey also operates an office in the western coastal city of Izmir. It is located 400 miles from Ankara and is the country’s third most populous market with nearly three million residents.
The new construction was completed in January and replaced an older building. Measuring 7,000 square feet, it features plenty of floor-to-ceiling glass that allows natural light to filter throughout the building. Customers who visit have plenty to see with various RainSoft products on display.
“Ankara has a water quality of 10 grains of hardness per gallon, so there is an opportunity to do beautiful work here,” says Selim. “The new office space gives all of us new excitement and motivation. I hope we will see good days here.”
From
during weeks with a low number of (appointment) sets, demos or sales,” he said.“I like the competitive nature, including the “Telemarketer of the Week” or “Pipeline Competitions” and other contests. It is also a blessing to have the opportunity to support my family while in school.”
school were starting a water treatment company. The first day of training, I saw the demo and was blown away. I knew I would never do anything else career wise.”
After talking with Chris Barnard, you are left with the impression it was ordained that he wound up working at Florida Energy, Water & Air’s Altamonte, Florida office. Espousing the benefits of RainSoft products is what he’s currently doing as a telemarketer, but he has bigger plans once he graduates from the seminary in 2020.
“Since my sophomore year of high school, every decision I make is in pursuit of the ministry under the oversight of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. So far, I have completed one year towards my Masters of Divinity at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando,” says Chris, the middle of seven children in his family who was homeschooled through his high school years. It was because of school that he connected with FEWA.
“Prior to working for them, I was a poor college student living with seven roommates. I heard about the job from the technician who came to test my water shortly after I moved to Orlando. I was intrigued because I had never worked in sales and had only ever worked in construction. It was scary at first but I was encouraged by the product sold to me, and the opportunity to help others make the same decision.”
FEWA’s Peter Fantino said Chris caught on quickly during training and has excelled in the job. He will celebrate his third work anniversary in September.
“The company has prepared me well for dealing with customers, so the hardest thing to do is probably staying motivated
His immediate family is wife Lisa and their eight month old daughter. Chris indicated they fill the gaps of whatever free time he has between job and school responsibilities. “I enjoy going to the park with the family and our dog, and we travel whenever possible.”
Randy Williams has never been your typical sales guy or dealer. His first real sales job was selling automobiles, and he experienced success when Nissan offered a first-time buyers program. Lessons learned are still paying off today for the President of RainSoft of Huntsville – Pure Water, Inc. in Alabama.
“I was selling teenagers on how to get their first car without needing their parents. I think I sold 30+ cars that month,” recalls Randy, who said the short-lived program ended a month later for obvious reasons. “I then went into home improvement selling siding and windows using what I learned from generating leads on Nissan sales. That’s when I heard some guys I knew from high
He got a taste of the future after friends moved on and started their own dealership. “I was left to manage the office. Then I thought, why not get my own dealership?,” said Randy, who recently was profiled in the May issue of Water Conditioning & Purification magazine: www.wcponline. com/2019/05/15/all-i-know-how-to-dowas-sell.
“I asked my wife, Lisa, and once we got to Huntsville and she realized how committed I was to the business, she decided to
work with me. My first month, I canvassed 11 installations. The exposure I got from the Nissan program was still paying off.”
Twenty-four years later, it still is. “I still sell on a regular basis and we currently have 18 employees, including six sales reps. All but two have been with me for many years, and my training requires an initial eight days in class.”
Randy says there is plenty of opportunity for growth in the Huntsville market due to the area itself, and with The Home Depot and Sam’s Club programs.
“We are blessed with a population of about 170,000. It is growing and the job market is good. The water quality is average, about eight grains per gallon and 95 percent is municipal water. The relationship with The Home Depot and Sam’s Club has helped us. The Home Depot is a great lead source and we have three people who work the stores. Water awareness among residents here is getting stronger.”
There are many good reasons why you should attend your Regional Convention. And it’s especially true this year with the lucrative Crack The Vault contest at stake. After five months of intense competition, 12 Grand Prizes are on the line and who will win the top three prizes of $25,000, $10,000 and $5,000? Will it be you?
Conventions are a great time to take a break from the daily grind, re-energize and learn from others what works for them that you can apply. Over the course of two days, you can experience breakout sessions, hear from successful guest speakers, network with others and celebrate at the Awards banquet.
Our keynote speaker at each Regional Convention is a successful businessman from Ohio. Robert Quillen is the president of Quillen Brothers Roofing & Windows and he comes highly recommended.
“I saw Bob speak at an event that I attended earlier this year,” says Peter Rushmore, RainSoft’s Central Region Director. “He was very good and had some interesting things to say. I thought it would be appropriate for him to talk at our Regional Conventions.”
Make sure to check the RainSoft app daily for the latest news and schedule updates. We’ll see you soon!
August 10-11
The Rosen Centre Hotel – Orlando
August 17-18
The Renaissance Addison Hotel – Dallas
April 2019 was an incredible, recordsetting month for Richard Brouse’s team in Texas. He’s optimistic that by the time you read this story, history will have repeated itself.
Between the three offices – Austin, the capital city in the middle of the state, San Antonio and the Rio Grande Valley in the southern portion – Sweetwater Home Services reached breakthrough status for the month with 174 installations. The majority of sales involved their primary package of an EC5, QRS Carbon and Reverse Osmosis, but there were also several CleanStart® laundry system and air product sales factored into the equation.
With water hardness levels ranging from 6-10 grains per gallon in Austin to 12-14 grains per gallon in the San Antonio and Rio Grande Valley territories, Richard believes they are all good water markets for educating the public about water quality.
“Naturally our success belongs to our people who worked hard to put together a great month,” he said about all 94 employees. Richard began the business in 1987 and was inducted into the RainSoft Hall of Fame in 2018.
“Every once in awhile, we manage to hit on eight cylinders. Our marketing department did an outstanding job. Lead
sources were strong; our inside reps did an excellent job of converting these to appointments. Our outside sales reps were motivated and stepped up to the opportunity.”
Richard said many people provided above average production. He singled out two people who were responsible for outstanding sales results.
“Gina Acree took 43 appointments, did 36 demos, had 22 sales for a 61 percent closing rate, and installed 20. Trevoughn Lott generated 82 appointments, which resulted in 49 demos, 20 sales and 16 installs. Who would not love that type of production?
While sales are the lifeblood, Richard acknowledged the other cylinders are key to their success.
“To push for the higher volume, all departments had to go above and beyond to ensure customer satisfaction. Our installs take an average 4-8 hours with a crew of three or four guys digging through rock. Each crew worked harder and longer hours to get each customer completed.
“Our finance department was stretched,” he continued. “They processed over 200 applications yet made everything come together. Dealing with state and local municipalities with the volume of permits was another challenge. The Service department was busy ensuring customer satisfaction with any small, after installation issues. Simply put, every department contributed to our success.”
Business is good in Texas and Richard said the push is on for more. “There is one additional factor I don’t believe we can ignore; we are in a booming economy. Consumer confidence is at an all-time high, unemployment is at an all-time low, and people have more expendable income. It doesn’t get any better than this, plus we have the added benefit of a new bar to reach. We plan to have a new best month shortly.”
Jim Downs is one of the unsung heroes in the Engineering Department. As a product engineer, he’s involved in all aspects of new and existing product design projects for RainSoft and other Aquion divisions. He recently was feted with a coveted Innovation Award for developing the Manifold Project.
“Was I surprised? Without a doubt after discovering what other entries were submitted,” admitted Jim, who joined the company 12 years ago. “I was extremely honored that my Manifold Project won. It was my second drinking water system after the Ultrefiner II that was designed specifically for our Commercial Hospitality business.
“Manifold is for the Optipure division and is based on one custom molded head,” continued Jim. “Using mold inserts, it can convert into three different filter heads that channel water flow. In addition to reducing the complexity of the assembly and the cost of the product, it allows for new and larger filter systems that could not be produced before. This manifold makes the filters line for the QT product extremely adaptable to any filter system requirements that may be needed.”
Now he’s hoping for the same level of success with his next project. “I’m currently working on the newly designed EC4 and TC enclosures, and
the newly designed boards to go into them. If all goes as planned, the product launch will happen later this year. I’m also working on the finalization of our EC5 Oxytech program and updated RainSoft Remind app that we are working on with our app vendor.”
Jim joined RainSoft after his previous employer was expecting to relocate him out of the Chicago area. “I was newly engaged and my wife and I had little interest in moving.”
Away from work, Jim makes the most of his free time with wife KC, daughter Katie and son Conor. “I enjoy coaching sports for my kids and taking them on vacations. I also play golf and ice hockey in a Sunday night recreational league. I’ve played all of the positions but have spent more time play defense this season, and I’m the back-up goalie.”
Jesse Young sold the last 22 demos in a row. Incredible! He tells me he says one phrase over and over in the demo, dripping with sincerity from his voice and heart and eyes: “Mr. and Mrs. Jones, you will not only have softer, silkier hair and smoother skin and spotless glasses for the next week and the next month, but also for the rest of your life.”
Taking into consideration the enormous success Richard Brouse’s Sweetwater Home Services accomplished in April, it makes sense to reinforce some valuable lessons and advice Don first penned nearly 20 years ago. Here is part one of what originally appeared in the November 1999 issue of Pipeline:
Assuming the demo is awesome – not just okay – simply go to the next close with an air of expectancy about you. You have that right because of your awesome demo, your skills in closing (after you read this terrific column), and your confidence of being armed with many extra closes!
The best close is a complete, on-script, enthusiastic demonstration of what RainSoft water can do.
Remember in your demo that only seven percent of communication is words. The rest is voice inflection and body language.
Remember in your demo that only seven percent of communication is words. The rest is voice inflection (38 percent) and body language (55 percent). If money is the only reason prospects don’t buy after a good and powerful, on-script, enthusiastic and complete demonstration, why not go through a series of closes until they understand that it’s the same money?
Factoid: The average sale around the world is made on the fifth closing attempt! So we must know 10 closes to rise above mediocrity. We must set a new standard for ourselves and never, ever leave the home again without AT LEAST eight to 10 professionally delivered logical closes. So, how to do it? Imagine extending the railroad tracks to success past the end of the demo and onto eight proven, professionally delivered, well-rehearsed logical closes. Eight in a row. Since the objection is ALWAYS THE MONEY, you can lay out eight closes in advance and deliver them one or two at a time – one on the heels of the other for extra power – then ask for the order or assume the sale again.
What are the eight closes? Read all about them in the second part of this story in the next issue of Pipeline!
Miller Time with Don Miller
The all-new RainSoft.com website went live in May, coinciding with the Gold Circle dealer meeting. The improvements are strikingly noticeable both online and if viewing on your phone, making for an enhanced user experience.
“One of the first things people will notice is the navigation and presentation, and how fast it is to find information,” says marketing director Rich Verson. “We invested in these changes to maximize the ability to drive leads to our dealers. With the improved speed, pages are now loaded instantly for a frictionless process.”
One look at the website and you’ll notice the differences. Among the many improvements include open call-to-actions on both home and sub pages, a better story-telling component, and added instructional videos for homeowners to connect the RainSoft Remind app to their EC5 conditioning
system. The Find My Solution section on the former website also received an upgrade.
From a mobile phone perspective, users have a fast and intuitive process to learn more about RainSoft. It runs on appbased navigation, mirrors key functions and functionality of the desktop site and provides open forms. It’s also pinkyboundary compliant.
The new Filter Link system is aligned with our philosophy to help homeowners make their homes smarter and provide them the ability to control their equipment from any location.
A valve-controlled backwashing filter system, it can be paired or linked via a control cable to the EC5 control board. Product engineer Jim Downs says it does not require a PCB board or mechanical control of the filter valve. By connecting it to the EC5 conditioner, dealers will get a backwashing filter and softener combination systems – two tanks –connected to one PCB.
“The benefit is flexibility of a filter system that can be ordered separately from the main EC5 conditioner, and installed or not installed in each house,” says Jim. “Backwashing a whole house filter valve compared to a non-backwashing filter valve is for longer media life and rinsing of the bed of any debris that might have been trapped by the water. Alternate filter media types that require backwashing can also be used.”