Sales of industrial chemicals

Sales basics and techniques for industrial chemicals

Comment

Hey, selling specialty industrial chemicals, that's what I did for over 20 years ! Had a ball !
Well, sometimes I got involved with machinery and specialty scientific equipment but industrial chemicals was my playground.

What I have said in many of these posts applies.

Selling in this market is about repeat business. That means after sales service and building a relationship with the client is paramount (if it isn't paramount in every market).

Elsewhere on the site I have mentioned that I often told new prospect's that my job was "to grease the wheels" (I had no title on my business card - intentionally) and went on to explain to them that my job was to make things flow smoothly BECAUSE that's what the purchasing agents wanted. They had enough problems in their life without dealing with late deliveries or incorrect invoices or running out of stock.

I always monitored the first few deliveries to a new customer and made sure it all happened. I also had systems in place to make sure we never ran out of stock (we used to import our chemicals which meant we had a n 8 -12 week lead time). I monitored ALL my customers use of their raw materials and alerted them if their use was escalating so we could place a new order BEFORE they ran out.

I used to consider holding on to business I had already won was my #1 priority.

This level of service I offered made me TRUSTED. I then became the "go-to man" when my customers had a new product they needed to source and that meant I was at the forefront of new problems they were dealing with or new products they were looking to manufacture.

There are some differences in selling specialty chemicals as distinct from commodity ones but I cannot go into that here.

So, do what I say elsewhere on this site:
have the best interest of your prospect in mind
know your product and market(s)
build rapport, show respect, be polite
listen & learn what's important to them
learn how to speak their language
learn how to deal with sales objections
grease the wheels
AND
become a trusted resource for them.

Hope this helps, Greg