In a sense, floor mats and matting are meant to be ignored. Usually found in entryways and areas with heavy traffic, their main purpose is to prevent slip-and-fall accidents — not to accentuate the interior design of a building. Most facility managers are simply concerned with limiting the amount of dirt that comes into a building, and taking steps to prevent slip-and-fall accidents.

What about distributors? How do they view the sales potential of floor matting?

“In my opinion, the role of the distributor is to find opportunities to solve the problems customers are experiencing,” says Mitchell Saltzman, owner and president of Creative Flooring Concepts in Plainview, N.Y. “Matting can address several issues that customers are facing, not just slip-and-fall accidents.”

All of the matting manufacturers SM interviewed for this article were strong proponents of the property survey as a sales tool. A property survey allows a distributor to sit down with facility managers and cleaning contractors and ascertain how various matting options will affect the aesthetics and functionality of a building. A series of questions enables the distributor to determine where matting should be placed, what material should be used, and the optimal method of maintaining the matting. Questions include: Where is most of the foot traffic in the building? What is the décor of the facility or the room? Where are the likely spots for most slip-and-fall accidents? Should the matting incorporate a logo or design that represents the facility?

“The thing that will separate a distributor from his competitor is doing the building survey and really learning about what each [customer] needs,” adds Jim Rife, national training manager for Superior Mfg. Group, Chicago.

“We teach them how to go through the survey with their customers, and if they want a representative from Superior to come and help [with the sale], then we’ll be there right away. So far, we’ve had tremendous results.”

The survey questions help distributors work with customers as individual facilities rather than a one-mat-fits-all sales approach, says Saltzman. “Would you rather have a custom-tailored suit or a suit that you pull off the clothing rack and someone just hems the pants so that it sort of fits?” he asks. “Of course, everyone would say they want the custom-tailored suit — it’s the same with matting. When we hear that a building needs some entryway matting and we just send over a square floor mat in a box without looking at the building, that’s not good enough.”

Entryway Art
Whether or not aesthetics are a primary concern for sanitary supply distributors, many facility managers are concerned with the way floor matting looks in a building. “The ‘Class A’ buildings that distributors want to do business with — hospitals, universities, five-star hotels — these facilities have already paid millions of dollars on architects and interior designers so that the building looks a certain way,” says Saltzman.

Golden Star, a Kansas City-based floor matting manufacturer, helped a distributor land a lucrative account with a hospital in Ohio that was concerned with design. “The situation was that the largest children’s hospital in Cincinnati had just built a brand new wing, and the wing had a natural stone floor,” says Doug Leaman, national sales manager for Golden Star. “They didn’t want to put down any matting because they really liked the look of the floor.”

Unfortunately, the hard stone surface was louder than designers expected. “There were so many kids going through the wing, that the noise of them walking on the stone floor really got to be a problem,” adds Leaman. “But they didn’t want to just put down any old runner. We worked with the distributor and designed a very unique starburst color design that used six colors and was 6 feet wide by 24 feet long. We placed them in the hospital wing, and they liked them so much, they ended up purchasing 100 more of them to go throughout the hospital.”

The total sale was well over $100,000, and it happened because the distributor saw how critical interior design factors were to the hospital purchasing agents. Then, the distributor took action and worked with the supplier to create a colorful, interesting design that worked well for a children’s hospital.

“Now, that hospital is talking to other facilities in Cincinnati about what the distributor was able to do for them, and it’s led to more business for them,” says Leaman. “Most buildings didn’t even know that they could put a logo on floor matting, because their distributor never mentioned that option to them.”

Golden Star has more than 6,000 different types of logos and even more logos can be created. Most other manufacturers can put logos and other designs on floor matting as well. But helping end users implement an artistic matting approach could be as simple as helping them choose the right color.

“One of our distributors, Strauss Paper in Port Chester, N.Y., has a customer with dozens of high-level office buildings downtown,” says Saltzman. “The facility manager really wanted a certain color that went with the building, and we helped Strauss find one that the manager just loved. It was just a simple matter of finding the right color to go with the interior of the building, but it enabled us to make a great partnership with dozens of buildings.”

Similarly, Leaman helped a New York distributor work with a customer that was elated to find a shade of green matting that matched the décor of the customer’s office building. “The floor was Terrazzo and it had these speckles of green,” says Leaman. “They really wanted a matting program to match those speckles and we found them a forest green that they thought was the greatest thing since sliced bread.”

Laying the Groundwork
In an industry that relies on timely delivery, many distributors need help learning how to take the time to learn about each building’s matting needs, while also providing expedient service. Because of this dilemma, a whole new approach to matting training has recently blossomed in the sanitary supply industry.

“Five years ago, you never heard of a matting manufacturer having a national training manager,” says Rife. “We’ve picked target cities throughout the country, and we send a formal invitation — much like a wedding invitation — for the distributors to learn about matting materials, matting sales, design, and how to show the cost-savings of buying vs. renting matting.”

Salespeople, sales managers, customer service representatives and even presidents and CEOs come to the matting seminars organized by Superior. In Chicago, 100 distributors attended. In Denver, Rife expected 35 distributors to attend. In Philadelphia, 50 distributors learned about matting sales and innovations.

Manufacturers stress that matting is not only for the front and back of a building, but that it should be used throughout the building in areas where it will protect the facility from wear and tear. “You have to look at where the areas of heavy traffic are in a building,” says Saltzman. “People often lay down straight runners from a doorway, but is that really the direction that traffic is going? Often times, traffic cuts corners and goes diagonally because people are walking to specific destinations. They don’t always walk in a straight line, so the design and implementation of the matting should reflect that.”

Matting Battle
With many facilities facing purchasing budget cuts, some have turned to suppliers that rent matting for a finite period of time. These rental companies have cut into distributors’ businesses significantly in recent years. “I think it’s fair to say that distributors are losing out to renters when it comes to matting, but they don’t have to,” says Leaman. “Matting should be part of their intricate sales proposals because it’s part of any floor care program.”

By learning how to purchase quality mats that are made with quality material, and combining that with excellent maintenance training, distributors can pass that knowledge on to their customers and convince them of the long-term benefits that come with a matting purchase.

“All of our mats can be easily laundered, even if they are 24 feet long,” says Leaman. “Most hospitals and commercial buildings have giant washers and dryers already; it’s just a matter of making sure the matting material can be laundered.”

Research has led to several new kinds of fibers that can stand up to constant foot traffic. Most manufacturers who spoke with SM preferred nylon fibers that have strong crush-resistant properties, but also retain enough dirt and soil to help keep a building clean.

“I think the new nylon matting technology is really going to be the way of the future, and it will help distributors earn more accounts,” says Rife. “It’s absorbent enough to get the dirt and soil but it won’t break down over time.”

Most customers don’t realize the effect that a proper matting program will have on dirt removal unless distributors take the time to explain such benefits. “You have to keep in mind that between 80 and 85 percent of dirt in a building is brought in on people’s shoes,” says Rife. “We try to get distributors to sell at least 15 feet of matting at a time in order to remove that dirt and soil.”




POSTED ON: 8/1/2003