Treatment Equipment Vendors Articles

1. Why Relying Heavily On Sales Reps Is A Big Mistake 11/17/2022

   If you are a treatment equipment vendor grappling for stronger growth numbers, it is important to diversify how you approach the market, how you reach prospects, and how you build awareness of your products. Although it sounds counter-intuitive, one of the best ways to do this is by providing content directly to the water and wastewater market that educates them generally about their needs, rather than promotes the specifics of your latest pump.

2. Take Advantage Of BABA’s Transformational Opportunity 11/17/2022

   In 2021 the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IJJA - aka, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law - BIL), was passed which provides an unprecedented level of federal investment in American water infrastructure. BIL provides broad eligibilities for drinking water and clean water projects through Clean Water State Revolving Funds (CWSRF).

   In its Decision Memorandum, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says it is honored to play a leadership role in implementing these provisions and is proud of its nearly decade of successful implementation of American Iron and Steel provisions in its SRF programs. Through these efforts, EPA will support efforts to catalyze domestic manufacturing, resilient supply chains, and good jobs – while successfully delivering a wide range of infrastructure projects.

   Alongside BIL and CWSRF is the Build America, Buy America Act (BABA) act, which establishes strong and permanent domestic sourcing requirements across all federal financial assistance programs. The basic requirement being that 55% of all iron, steel, manufactured products, and construction materials must be domestically produced for a project to receive and used federal funding.

3. How To Be Recognized As The Industries Best-In-Class Principal 9/27/2022
4. Be Ready For The Coming Wave Of Industry Growth 9/27/2022

   To capitalize on this projected growth, treatment equipment vendors must take a different approach to marketing and fostering prospects. They must take an approach that makes them stand out as thought leaders and trusted vendors in a very noisy and crowded vendor space. One way to do this is by moving away from reliance on product-centric outbound marketing efforts to affect the bid process at the end of the sales cycle to building brand awareness, recognition, and trust in the minds of customers ahead of the bid process.

5. Ride The Coming Wave Of Industry Growth 9/8/2022

   Many treatment equipment vendors put great effort into developing quality products, designing informative spec sheets, showcasing new products at trade shows, and incentivizing independent sales reps to introduce their products to utilities. And yet, growth seems to flatline. Win a few bids, lose a few customers, status quo. Well, according to two independent market reports, all that is about to change – for better or for worse – with the projected 4% to 6% expansion of the market.

6. 5 Ways To Meet Your Sales Rep’s Needs 7/27/2022

   Many manufacturers in the water and wastewater industry contract independent sales reps to bring their products to market. Rep firms provide the local connections, project awareness and ability to build proposals across multiple vendors that equipment suppliers can’t create alone. Because sales consultants work with multiple principals, it’s imperative to maintain a productive and healthy relationship with your sales network or risk losing their focus on repping your product line over other product lines they can prioritize. Here are your Sales reps' 5 requirements of a Grade-A principal.

7. Aren’t Utilities And Vendors Wanting The Same Thing? 5/28/2019

   I was recently at a conference that featured a series of panels containing senior managers from large water and wastewater utilities. In attendance were many representatives of manufacturers and solution providers eager to have said utilities adopt their products. A number of the panelists were asked what they look for in a vendor.

8. Three Ways To Brag About Your Treatment Equipment Without Being A Narcissist 11/8/2016

   Many talented people find talking about their successes in a job interview difficult. Some of our best character traits, such as honesty and humility, make selling oneself feel awkward. In her recent article, “How to Brag about Yourself without Being Obnoxious,” Vanessa Van Edwards pondered the question: How do you toot your own horn without blowing it?

9. Common Sense Marketing For Water And Wastewater Equipment Manufacturers 8/5/2016

   I wrote recently about the Holy Grail of Marketing and the age-old quest to tie each sale back to a lead. Since that post I’ve had a number of conversations with sales and marketing executives who are trying to find a footing in the ever-changing quicksand of digital marketing. What I want to write about today is what I would call “Common Sense Marketing” in the business-to-business (B2B) world of the water and wastewater industry.

10. Building Trust As A Treatment Equipment Vendor 8/2/2016

    I recently read an article about building trust in the workplace. It focused on a couple of recent studies that found that one in three employees don’t trust their employer and that only 49% of employees trust their boss/team.  It made me think about trust between vendors and end users in the water and wastewater industry. How much trust is there in our industry? How do you prove your company’s trustworthiness?