7 Water Treatment Sales Strategies (That Actually Work)

It helps to have the right tools in place to give you a bird’s-eye view of your commercial and residential water treatment business.  But you have to employ the right strategies at every step, from sales to delivery to collection if you want to see the desired results. 

Commercial and residential buyers want to have long-term relationships with water treatment service providers that can give them good service reliably and consistently. Your job is to facilitate the right communication, marketing and sales strategies that exemplify the values customers want. 

Below we’ll go over 7 valuable sales strategies that will drive revenue, build confidence, and help you build partnerships for the future.

7 Important Water Treatment Sales Strategies

From better marketing efforts and outreach programs to problem-solving and strengthening your existing clients, here are 7 key sales strategies that actually work for commercial and residential water treatment service companies. 

Ensure you understand your current customers, marketplace, and opportunity to grow

You should be leveraging your data of existing customers to understand what your customers want and to get a better idea of what markets are most profitable to you within your region and scope. The data will give you the insight to decide what segment of customers to focus on, whether that's commercial businesses, public sector, or residential homeowners. 

While it might seem like a good idea to go after all of these markets, it’s very easy to stretch your marketing and sales efforts thin. It’s better to have a focused, data-driven approach to the kind of customers you should be reaching out to based on your location, available markets, the local demand, and your resources to service these. 

Fine-tune your value proposition

The commercial and residential water treatment industry is highly competitive, so it’s crucial to define and back up your value proposition. Do you have any unique or patented purification processes that you can highlight to customers? Are you relying on an advanced route delivery system that can ensure customers quicker and more accurate deliveries, or access to online bill payments, easy order placement through a web store or other features? 

Find out what your niche is in the space and how you can improve the customer experience, then lean on those benefits when selling to your customers. 

Educate the buyer

Part of the challenge for any business is educating the consumer. For water treatment and conditioning service companies, there are a few things you can highlight when reaching out to customers. Here are some examples:

• Talk about the taste: Most customers may not know that taste and odor control play a huge role in the water purification process. Inform your buyer of your process, why it works, and why it's an important consideration.

• Talk about customization: If you have multiple water treatment and conditioning systems that fit the varying needs of customers, highlight your customization capabilities. Customer water treatment systems can meet process-specific conditions for different purposes, so inform your customers of those purposes and what each system can do for them. 

• Discuss convenience & energy savings: Do you have energy-efficient practices that can save your customers on energy bills? Discuss those savings and the benefits clients would gain from implementing your system. 

• Talk about extending the lifetime of your plumbing and appliances: Water conditioning helps to extend the lifetime of plumbing and appliances by reducing the concentration of scale and mineral buildup, which can clog your pipes, reduce water flow  and cause water turbulence that can be abrasive and cause damage to the walls of the pipes. This mineral accumulation can also compromise the functionality of plumbing fixtures such as toilets, showers and faucets.  Educating the consumer on how your services are an investment in the home or business can help the consumer evaluate the cost benefit of what you are offering. 

Develop a problem-led sales pitch

The best way to demonstrate value to potential customers is to offer them solutions to their problems. Whether you are claiming to improve the efficiency of water heaters and appliances, reduce cost of maintenance in the home, improve quality of living, offering more effective and reliable delivery and service routes, you can lead your pitch by identifying and subsequently solving a problem. 

Use online channels

Google ads, email marketing, social media platforms, affiliate partnerships, and other online channels are great ways to reach out to your customers. More and more customers are shopping for goods and researching to find vendors online. Regardless of the industry, online marketing and sales efforts should be a part of your strategy. 

This point goes back to understanding and segmenting your audience, so you can meet them on the platforms and channels they use. You can create content, interact with online users, and create an online presence to meet your customers on their preferred channels. 

Don’t shy away from cold calling

Cold calling, even in 2023, is not dead. A study by the RAIN Group found that nearly 60 percent of executives prefer to be contacted by phone, and 82 percent of buyers accept meetings with sellers who proactively reach out. 

The best way to meet your customers is to take a focused, holistic sales approach that narrows down your target customer, identifies the appropriate channels (online, email, phone, mail, etc.), proceeds to reach out to that customer until you’ve generated sales and contracts. 

Nurture existing accounts for future selling opportunities

Your existing clients and accounts are opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, and renew contracts. You can ensure your existing clients and customers stay with you by:

• Sending them perennial thank-you notes
• Checking in on them with a transparent line of communication
• Inviting them to your future events
• Rewarding their loyalty with renewal discounts or other benefits
• Meet deadlines and ensure you’re providing quality service

Characteristics of successful water treatment salespeople

There is a big difference between a water treatment service salesperson and a water treatment service professional. All of your water treatment salespeople need to be privy to water treatment technologies, but not all of your water treatment professionals have the skills to drive sales.  Ideally, if your residential and commercial route service drivers are using software like Prism's which gives route drivers the tools to take sales orders during a job, you want your service drivers to possess some sort of sales and customer relationship training.  That way, your customers are serviced promptly and efficiently.

Here’s what to look for in a water treatment salesperson.

• Intimate knowledge of the technology, system, and knowledge of what you do, but also the ability to communicate your operations in a cogent and convincing manner.
• Someone with a high EQ who can understand and empathize with customers, so they feel heard and understood. 
• A positive attitude, so they leave a good impression on your customers. 
• Someone who is confident in their ability to represent and sell your services. 
• Someone with a competitive spirit, so they can be convincing, ambitious, and determined when interacting with customers. 

Final thoughts: Using field service software

Residential and commercial water treatment service companies can also drive sales and manage their water treatment service routes with cutting-edge software, like Prism's Route Accounting Software. 

Prism can simplify and automate the business' day-to-day operations, ensuring customers experience fewer service mistakes, quicker deliveries, and more custom-catered service. Customers want a seamless experience, and the right software can help you provide a better service from the moment the sales call is made.