By Mike Preuit
It is estimated less than a quarter of all residential swimming pools in North America are equipped with a safety cover. This means there is a huge opportunity for dealers to sell safety covers to existing pool owners who do not have a cover, or use a tarp and water tubes in the winter, which does not offer any safety benefits.
With the benefits ranging from increased safety (and reduced liability) for children and pets, and cleaner water and simplified spring pool openings to beautification of the backyard during the winter months, there are numerous reasons why homeowners are willing to add a safety cover to their pool.
Pool professionals who regularly work on uncovered pools are in the perfect position to sell safety covers. Unfortunately, many are missing out on these sales opportunities because they do not have a structure in place for selling safety covers on every service call they make. This article will provide some useful sales and marketing tips to help pool professionals sell more safety covers.
Recognizing selling opportunities
When is the best time to sell a safety cover? Everyone assumes safety covers should be sold at the end of the summer, when pools are closed. However, the best time to sell them is in the spring, during pool openings.
Most pool professionals will say they are too busy during the pool opening season and simply do not have time to sell safety covers. What they are actually overlooking, however, are the additional profits that come from the sale and installation of safety covers.
Selling a safety cover in the spring is easy as the swimming pool itself will do most of the selling. When a homeowner can stand beside a pool professional and see the swamp-like conditions of their pool water, this becomes the best time to explain how a safety cover would make opening their pool next spring a lot faster. This also translates into shorter service calls and reduced pool opening costs, not to mention the increased safety benefits.
Installing a new liner
Measuring a pool for a new vinyl liner also provides a great opportunity to sell a safety cover. Service technicians who are on the job site recording measurements for the liner can also take the dimensions for a safety cover. In some cases, the liner dimensions are all that is required. Further, the homeowner will also save money by not having to pay for an additional service call.
Owners and managers of swimming pool retail stores should provide sales training for their service technicians and offer incentives to help them sell safety covers. For example, many manufacturers offer cash rebates to consumers, and additional discounts to pool dealers, if the cover is ordered in the spring and/or a vinyl liner is ordered at the same time. Sharing these savings with the service professional can help motivate them to sell safety covers on future service calls.
Revisiting new pool owners
A safety cover that is not sold at the same time the pool is built often has to do with the homeowner who is enchanted with their new pool and cannot imagine why they would want to cover it during the winter. After a year or two, however, this feeling typically wears off and the reality of pool water maintenance sets in. This becomes the perfect time for pool professionals to revisit these customers, especially if they are not already regularly servicing the pool.
Pioneer Family Pools in Burlington, Ont., for example, provides their customers another chance to order a safety cover in August, shortly before they book their pool closing.
“On average, we sell more than 700 safety covers to existing pool owners through our service department,” says the company’s sales manager, Cameron Brown. “Never overlook the power of your service professional; they are a retailer’s link to the homeowner and are great at selling the benefits of safety covers.
“Additionally, many of those who have purchased a safety cover through our service department have also heard about them in the marketplace or saw one in their neighbor’s backyard.”
