It is no secret that the economic climate over the past several years has taken its toll on in-home sales of water treatment systems. While externalities are often beyond our control, as sales professionals we must focus on what is within our control. The one constant remains that when done properly we have one of the most compelling sales presentations in the in-home sales market.

Utilizing your water tests to their fullest extent allows our household sales teams an opportunity to touch on each of the five human senses: Sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. While for many of you this may seem like commonsense, remember the old adage about commonsense is that unfortunately it is not that common.

If you are able to appeal to all five senses, closing percentages increase exponentially.

If you don't, however, you risk decreasing your odds of closing the sale. You may think four out of five is good, right? That is 80 percent.

But, what happens if the one you miss is the sense that is most important to your customer? Are you willing to take that chance? Do you want your employees taking that chance? I didn't think so.

Hearing is obviously the easiest of the senses to address. We make such a persuasive argument, how can my customer not agree, right? Wrong.

We are asking our customers to give us complete trust by appealing to only this sense. Trust simply isn't given all that easily. So, if your skeptical customer has trouble believing their ears, perhaps they will believe their eyes.

Flask test and the other senses

The soap flask test is undeniable evidence to the benefits of soft water, while incredibly visual. A hardness test conducted side-by-side as the hardness tubes turn different colors is very visual.

When you have chemically softened the water to determine how many gpg is in the water, do you add a few drops of tap water to make it turn red before their very eyes indicating the increase of hardness to the water? Do you let your customers conduct their own TDS tests, and do you gauge their reactions when they see the difference? If we, as salespeople, haven't appealed to the sight sense, it's an opportunity lost.

Touch can also be obtained very easily. A simple hand wash test when executed and explained properly will satisfy the sense of touch. Hand wash tests are crucial to success. They completely eliminate the "I don't like that feel on my hands" objection when the customer is properly educated.

Also, it is important to point out, by not doing a hand washing test and not completely pointing out the skin benefits, the feeling of soft water can be a major objection after installation to the uneducated customer. Skipping this is a definite path for failure.

Smell can be a little more difficult to appeal to, yet not impossible. Obviously, untreated water can have certain odors, chlorine being the most prevalent, but there is another way to appeal to the sense of smell. If you have conducted a good hand washing test, your customer will have soap residue or soap curd on their skin. The hand washed in tap water will have a soap smell, while there will be no residue on the treated water hand.

One would think that taste goes without say, yet after almost 20 years in this industry, I still see household sales reps going to appointments without samples of water for their customers to taste. This is a critical error because every taste test should immediately follow the TDS test with your customer testing the best water first for comparison.

If done correctly we have not only eliminated all objections, but also did so while appealing to all five senses.

David M. Silver is the national marketing director for Puroserve Inc., OEM of whole house reverse osmosis technology. David is also the sales manager for RWS Corporation, a Los Angeles-based sales and service organization offering a wide variety of water treatment equipment. David has over 20 years of experience in residential water sales and has provided sales training throughout North America. He can be reached at 818-274-9094 or by e-mail at dsilver@raynedrops.com.