COMMENT & OPINION
GIVING CUSTOMERS THE RIGHT TREATMENT
Marsh managing director Steve Boyer: why builders merchants should be selling small sewage treatment plants instead of septic tanks.
OFF-MAINS DRAINAGE is something of a mystery to many merchants, and because it can seem quite technically daunting, many are happy for it to remain that way. But since the market for sewage treatment plants and off-mains systems was worth an estimated £23 million last year, many merchants are missing out on some substantial business, mainly because they are unsure about how to sell them. Because sewage treatment plants are quite technical, quite complex and not an everyday stock item, counter staff tend to not want to get involved with them. We often find that merchants have lost out on big orders because counter staff aren’t confident enough to ask the right questions. This is a shame since not only does the sale of the system represent a good profit opportunity, it is also a missed chance to sell on lots of other products like aggregate, pipe work and risers for example.
No to direct sales Instead, merchants’ customers are going straight to manufacturers who, unlike Marsh, sell direct. Or they are even buying online. This is, of course, fraught with risk for contractors. Not only the risk of ending up with unaccredited or inferior product that does not meet local building regulations/ environmental consent standards. But also, the distinct possibility of finding themselves with little or no specification support, no technical back up and no recourse if anything goes wrong. In addition, a septic tank may simply be the wrong product to
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much easier to confidently up sell if you know what you’re talking about, and training is a key element in a successful sales strategy. With competition remaining fierce in the building materials market, it is vital to be well-informed when dealing with customer enquiries, as well as provide the best value for money. Marsh offers a full programme of training courses, either at its own training centre, by taking training facilities to a merchant’s headquarters and branches, or through its online e-learning offering. The most successful of our merchant customers tend to appoint a ‘product champion’ for sewage systems – a single point of contact with sufficient product knowledge and confidence to ask the basic questions that are the gateway to a sale. They can then use Marsh’s expertise to fill in the gaps, price up a system and win the contract.
Domestic plant
sell, even if the customer believes that that is what they need. A septic tank could fail to meet the latest effluent standards for the quality of the water leaving the system. The outflow from a septic tank can never be discharged into the water course because of requirements for total suspended solids (TSS) & biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels. This means that a septic tank actually has a much more complex and costly installation process than a treatment plant if it is to meet these standards. Sewage treatment plants solve this problem by aerating the liquid so that it is clean enough to be discharged into surface water, rivers or ditches. This makes installation much easier on site. Marsh offers a full technical and design team to support merchant sales. They can carry out site visits, assist with design queries and
even help with getting approvals from building control if necessary. The company also has an expert Contracts Team who can assist merchants with quotations, letters and technical queries. This means that selling sewage treatment plants is a simple and straightforward process for merchants who ask their customers the right questions: who, where, why, what? • Who? Who will be using it? Numbers of people / properties • Where? Where’s it going? • Why? Why is it being installed • What? What’s the installers’ contact details
Armed with just that basic information, our contracts team, who are fully conversant with all the standards, water regs and other technical details are always on the end of the phone to specify the correct system. As with any product, it is so
Perhaps our most commonly sold products through merchants is our range of domestic sewage plants, particularly the ENsign range for discharging into a watercourse, ditch, or land drainage bed. The range is designed to be unobtrusive, easy- to-install, and cheap to run for domestic, leisure or commercial off mains drainage projects, making it the perfect merchant sale.
There are ten products in the UK-manufactured ENsign range suitable for serving from 6-60 people so they can be used for a variety of projects from single dwellings to apartment blocks. Fully tested to EN12566-3 and CE marked and certified to 12:19:09 effluent quality Ensign units are backed with a 25-year structural guarantee. So, selling a small water treatment plant instead of a septic tank is simply better for the customer, better for the environment, and better for a merchant’s business. Merchants can make more profitable sales on systems that will give their customers the quality results they need, and Marsh can provide merchants with all of the tech backup and support they need to make that sale. BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2018
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