The exterior of a facility often provides a reflection of a company’s image. As a result, companies will often focus on sprucing up their exterior with florals and greenery. But during the spring and summer months, popping up in flower beds, creeping up through cracks in walkways and growing in grass are unsightly weeds.

Facilities often outsource the maintenance of their green space around their facility to landscaping companies. But for those who don’t, facilities are in charge of purchasing weed control products.

Jan/san distributors like Glenn Rothstein, president of Bio-Shine Inc., Spotswood, N.J., say offering weed control products such as herbicides and pesticides to facilities with in-house personnel in charge of grounds care is a way to penetrate existing accounts and gain more business.

But he advises distributors to focus on select customers. Instead of focusing on large accounts like universities to sell weed killers to, Rothstein says his company has had better luck selling to customers on a smaller scale.

“Larger customers like universities and municipalities tend to buy weed killers from their landscape supply company,” says Rothstein. “That kind of product is being bought from the supplier that’s selling him seed and fertilizer.”

Getting smaller companies to purchase this product line, Rothstein says, distributors can bundle items such as herbicides and pesticides with other exterior care product categories. When selling herbicides and pesticides, however, distributors say it is important that customers in certain states recognize and abide by the laws of application as most state governmental regulations require facilities to have licensed personnel apply herbicides and pesticides.




POSTED ON: 9/29/2011