Sunday Sales Blast 7/16/17

5 Rules Movie Assassins Follow Religiously That Entrepreneurs Should Too

Lesson 1: Assassins are prepared for any and every eventuality.

Great assassins, without question, are always prepared. Of course, no one can prepare for being double-crossed by a trusted partner, like what Alec Trevelyan (Sean Bean) did to James Bond (Pierce Brosnan) in Goldeneye, but by-and-large preparation separates a good assassin from a dead assassin.

As an entrepreneur, this means doing your homework scrupulously before any meeting you take, making sure you have an answer to any question (and, if you don't, getting back to the asker as soon as you do,) and always being early. And, yes, even little things, like always having an extra pen.

Lesson 2: Assassins always practice great tech hygiene.

Having the latest tech is great, but more important is keeping the tech you currently have in top condition.

The first question Jason Bourne (Matt Damon) asked Marie (Franke Potente) when they agreed to drive across Europe together in The Bourne Identity was if she kept her old car in good repair. Did she change the oil, rotates the tires, etc? She did and later, when the going got tough, Bourne was able to drive them both to safety using a car that most definitely wasn't designed for evasive maneuvers.

Sure, new tech is cool, but you know what's cooler? Giving yourself another week of financial runway because your current iWhatever still works great, and you don't waste money upgrading simply because you can.

Lesson 3: Assassins understand the difference between business and personal reactions.

While almost every great movie assassin has a personal story behind why they do what they do (Martin Blank in Grosse Pointe Blank is a loner who was recruited out of the army, John Wick's wife and dog were killed, etc.) they always try to maintain a balance between personal and professional.

In other words, their personal reasons might be driving what they do, but their professionalism shows through first and foremost. They never make bad decisions out of anger, they follow their plan and they're constantly checking themselves to see if they're missing anything. Their skills, professionalism and training guide them in completing their task, even if their motive is personal.

For all five go to:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/296540

ISSA, Las Vegas - Sept 11th-15th

The ISSA show is less than 60 days away, are you coming? Bullen will be exhibiting for our 70th year.

Click here to take our 20 second survey so we can be sure have our booth property staffed.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TNPN3GR

Have a great day and a even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 7/9/17

Three minute history of Bullen is now up

5 Nightly Rituals of the Most Successful People

If you don't do these things before bed, you won't wake up ready for success.

Achieving great accomplishments on a regular basis requires that you build a set of habits around the things that make you successful. When you distill the success of elite entrepreneurs, or any elite performer for that matter, you realize just how much they rely on their habits for their success.

The evening is one of the best times to create habits that yield sustainable success. More specifically, the things you do before bed will have a direct impact on your next day. If you want to win the day, you need to win the night before.

1. Plan your day

This is obvious, yet crucial. You should have a good idea of what your next day looks like before you turn off the lights. Take the time to schedule and optimize your day, isolating the most important objectives so you can ensure they get done.

2. Pick out your clothes

There's a reason successful people wear the same things every day. The goal is to reduce the cognitive energy required to make a decision about your clothes. While you may not want to wear a hoodie every day, it still helps to set aside your wardrobe the night before.

3. Go to bed at the same time

Make a point of going to sleep and waking up at the same time each day. This helps you set a rhythm your body will naturally follow that helps you get to sleep more quickly and feel more rested when you wake up. 

You can read the rest at: https://www.inc.com/andrew-thomas/5-nightly-rituals-of-the-most-successful-people.html

The Science of a Ripe Watermelon

Can you really tell if a watermelon is ripe by tapping it? A physicist explains

The tapping test depends on the fact that no solid object is perfectly rigid. They all have some elasticity (with limits, as anyone who has ever dropped a glass knows), and that means if you tap them, they will deform ever so slightly. But they rapidly spring back, overshoot and become a new deformed shape—and so you’ve started an oscillation.

The first test for watermelon quality is whether it has an unwanted air gap inside it. When you tap on a nice, clean shape like a mug, what you hear is close to a pure note—the structure is symmetrical, and it rings like a bell. The same is true for watermelons. If you get a note with an identifiable pitch, the fruit is probably solid all the way through. A dull thud indicates that it’s asymmetrical on the inside, and best avoided.

The next question is ripeness. As watermelons ripen, their flesh becomes more dense but less elastic, and the combination means that a riper watermelon will ring with a lower note.

Here is the full article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-science-of-a-ripe-watermelon-1498828907?

Have a great day and a even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 6/26/17

10 Qualities Separating the Extraordinary Salesperson Apart From the Pack

1. PRODUCT KNOWLEDGE

An exceptional salesperson always starts with knowledge. They are knowledgeable, down to every detail, on the products they sell. They are experts on product uses, mechanics, systems, and operations.

2. PASSIONATE

When a salesperson believes in what they are selling, it is more exciting for them to sell. It gives them opportunities to show off a product they are proud to be involved with.

3. ORGANIZED

The more organized a salesperson is with customer information, the more notes they take on what products or systems have been sold/installed, where the problems have been, and what issues are still open or have been escalated, the better able they are to keep their customers happy long-term.

4. WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Because sales can be an all-consuming 24-hour-a- day career, the best salespeople make sure to live with a healthy work-life balance. They are able to distinguish needy customers from those who are truly in need of troubleshooting, and are more than willing to work on issues in need of urgent care on their down time. They make sure to get away for long weekends, to take the necessary time to enjoy their families and to shut down their electronics in an effort to recharge.

For all 10 here is the link: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/295797

A Chicken Sandwich Hitches a Balloon Ride to the Stratosphere

An Arizona company, World View Enterprises, plans to send tourists on balloons into the stratosphere, high enough to see the curves of Earth and the blackness of space.

But its initial passenger will be a tangy fried chicken sandwich.

The company said on Tuesday that the first flight of a fully equipped high-flying balloon would take off as soon as June 21, with a payload of fast food.

Perhaps you’ve seen the KFC television commercial where Colonel Sanders, (played by the actor Rob Lowe), riffs on John F. Kennedy’s 1962 “We choose to go to the moon” speech.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/13/science/world-view-stratollite-balloon-kfc-sandwich-space-stratosphere.html

This is an example of great marketing and thinking out of the box. What have you done lately to make your company stand out?

Have you seen our new BYOB ad? What do you think?

http://www.bullenonline.com/byob

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 6/19/17

Happy Fathers Day!

Father's Day is a celebration honoring fathers and celebrating fatherhood, paternal bonds, and the influence of fathers in society. In Catholic Europe, it has been celebrated on March 19 (St. Joseph's Day) since the Middle Ages. This celebration was brought by the Spanish and Portuguese to Latin America, where March 19 is often still used for it, though many countries in Europe and the Americas have adopted the U.S. date, which is the third Sunday of June.

Father's Day was not celebrated in the US, outside Catholic traditions, until the 20th century. As a civic celebration in the US, it was inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day by celebrating fathers and male parenting. So if it was not for Mothers Day we would not have Fathers Day.

Since I am a dad and supposed to take it easy today thats it for the Sunday Sales Blast.

Great golf today with there US Open being finished up from Wisconsin.

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 6/11/17

Alex and I jumped off the Cape May, NJ to Lewis, DE Ferry last Sunday to start off the summer season of triathlons. Alex did the olympic course, 1 mile swim, 22 mile bike and a 10K run and I did the sprint, 1/3 mile swim, 11 mile bike and 5k run.

Exercise is like other good business practices.

The reason I bring this up is too remind you to take exercise very seriously just like you do your business. If you don't not do some form of exercise on a regular basis it is just like not following up on a sales call or email campaign. You will get out of shape or lose sales and both are hard to recover from.

6 Innovative Ways to Attract New Customers

1. Have friends with benefits

"We form strategic alliances with businesses related to but not directly competing in our space who can refer us customers.

2. Cover all bases

"We've found that a comprehensive, multichannel marketing strategy is mandatory in today's fragmented media environment.

3. Always listen

"In an environment rife with gimmicks and teasers, consumers are looking for products and services that embrace honesty. The best way for us to attract new customers is to listen to our loyal ones.

Here is the link for all 6 of the tips:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/292748

Where do we get these great articles and tips?

Aside from just reading the news I like checking out a lot of magazines. The trick is I don't buy them. I pay $10 per month for access to over 200 different ones on www.texture.com. You need a iPad or tablet but after that you can read as little or as much you want and you don't have to drag around al of them with you since they are digital versions. You can try it our for free for 3 months. (this is not a paid ad placement, I actually use this app).

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 6/4/17

The Best Time Of Day To Do Everything At Work

Timing really is everything. Expert advice on when is the best time to send an email, schedule a meeting, make a decision, and more.

BRAINSTORM NEW IDEAS

If you’re a morning person, you might think you do your best work first thing in the day, but a study from Albion College and Michigan State University found that when it comes to being creative, waiting until later in the day yields better results. Asking students to solve six different problems at various hours over the course of the day, the researchers found the best creative thinking was done at 6 p.m., when students were tired. For night owls, the converse is true; morning was the time they had their best ideas.

SCHEDULE A MEETING

Monday-morning meetings are a staple at many companies, but if participation is low, there’s a reason why. Only one in three employees is likely to attend, according to a study by the online scheduling service WhenIsGood.net: “If you have a meeting at 9 a.m., employees will need to prepare the day before, or turn up underprepared,” research coordinator Keith Harris told Inc.. If they’re not prepared, they won’t come up.

Get more participation by holding meetings at 3 p.m. on Tuesdays, the company found. Tuesday afternoon stands out “because that is the furthest you can get from the deadlines at the end of the week without bumping into the missed deadlines from the week before,” said Harris.

MAKE A TOUGH DECISION

You probably know that you should never go to the grocery store hungry. Turns out you shouldn’t make an important decision on an empty stomach, either, according to a study from Columbia Business School. Researchers found that judges who were hearing cases made consistent decisions first thing in the morning and again right after lunch. Since eating replenishes energy, the judges were refreshed and ready to tackle decisions after eating.

If you’ve got a tough choice to make, it could be in your best interest to postpone your decision until after you’ve eaten.

Here are some more:

Ask for a raise

Interview for a job

Best time to send a email

For the full article click here:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3047586/the-best-time-of-day-to-do-everything-at-work

Insights from MailChimp’s Send Time Optimization System

The easy answers

For all the readers who want the high-level, easy answers about when to send, here I’ll lay out what EGP’s several billion email addresses have to say. I’ve separated time of day and day of week to make the results easier to read, but even when merged into single week graphs, the results are the same.

Not content, but audience

We’ve got our easy answers out of the way (send during the work week in midmorning), and we’ve seen how these answers shift a bit in terms of weekend preference and evening preference based on content type. These content-type dependencies are the first indication that our monolithic answers are disguising more nuanced truths deeper in the data.

When you think about it, is the type of content you’re receiving the main driver of when you open and read it? For me, that’s not true. I’ll read retail stuff at work (sorry, boss!), and I’ll read data science content while I’m at home on the couch (sorry, lovely wife!).

The primary driver of when I engage with email (donning my Captain Obvious hat right now) is my life

https://blog.mailchimp.com/insights-from-mailchimps-send-time-optimization-system/

When you are reading this Alex and I are jumping off the Cape May to Lewis Ferry for the swim part of the Escape the Cape Triathlon. Wish us luck!

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 5/28/17

Happy Memorial Day and the official start of the summer.

Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May. It was formerly known as Decoration Day and commemorates all men and women who have died in military service for the United States. Many people visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day and it is traditionally seen as the start of the summer season.

Thanks to all that have served or are servicing for all of us.

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 5/21/17

One Day, a Machine Will Smell Whether You’re Sick

Ancient Greek and Chinese medical practitioners used a patient’s scent to make diagnoses. Modern medical research, too, confirms that the smell of someone’s skin, breath and bodily fluids can be suggestive of illness. The breath of diabetics sometimes smells of rotten apples, experts report; the skin of typhoid patients, like baking bread.

But not every physician’s nose is a precision instrument, and dogs, while adept at sniffing out cancer, get distracted. So researchers have been trying for decades to figure out how to build an inexpensive odor sensor for quick, reliable and noninvasive diagnoses.

The field finally seems on the cusp of succeeding.

“You’re seeing a convergence of technology now, so we can actually run large-scale clinical studies to get the data to prove odor analysis has real utility,” said Billy Boyle, co-founder and president of operations at Owlstone, a manufacturer of chemical sensors in Cambridge, England.

Mr. Boyle, an electronics engineer, formed the company with two friends in 2004 to develop sensors to detect chemical weapons and explosives for customers, including the United States government. But when Mr. Boyle’s girlfriend and eventual wife, Kate Gross, was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2012, his focus shifted to medical sensors, with an emphasis on cancer detection.

With artificial intelligence, he said, the machine becomes better at diagnosing with each exposure. Rather than detecting specific molecules that suggest disease, however, Mr. Haick’s machine sniffs out the overall chemical stew that makes up an odor.

It’s analogous to smelling an orange: Your brain doesn’t distinguish among the chemicals that make up that odor. Instead, you smell the totality, and your brain recognizes all of it as an orange.

To read the complete article click here-

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/health/artificial-nose-scent-disease.html

Bundle Selling Thoughts

Bullen Regional Sales Manager, Jack Collins remind us this week that bundle selling is not just selling products. The key is to focus on offering solutions to customer problems.     To quote a precept from his Scott Paper days:  “we are selling dry hands”.     Bullen is actually selling a number of things, but the focus needs to be on the problem - solution all the time and in all marketing and sales communications.   AirX is selling "environments free of bad, nasty odors”, etc.

What are you selling and how can it be turned into problem solving?

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 5/14/17

Happy Mothers Day!

While my mother is no longer with me I was thinking about some of her sage wisdom that she passed on over the years. One of the quotes that I am reminded of has to do with our industry. Her saying was "don't ever pass up a good bathroom". She said that while on a family vacation and out for dinner. She came back from a bathroom break to tell us that the toilet was a hole in the ground (we were out of the USA). That is when I first heard that famous line.

That ties in with Tom Peters story about his drive from his home in Vermont to Boston Logan Airport and how he always stopped at the same restaurant. It was not for the food it was because he knew they had clean bathrooms.

What a great lesson for the people who are supposed to be experts in cleaning. Do an audit of your facility in your own building. Is your bathroom kept in a condition that an outside person would find acceptable? Offer your customers to do a free audit of their facility and start in the bathroom.

If you google "cleaning for mothers day" you get a lot of links for suggestions to buy your mother a cleaning service. I think one better is to actually clean her place yourself. You can learn more about the products you sell by actually using them. I clean my bathrooms at my house each week and use it as a chance to try new products. This week I was testing some new disinfectants with a lavender fragrance that recently was approved for sale. I smelled it in the bottle but for me to really know what it would be like I had to actually use it. I liked it and you will be seeing it soon from Bullen. I would not have know for sure if I didn't actually use it.

Great golf today with the Players from Florida, watch it just to see how many golfers end up in the water at the 17th hole (island green).

Have a great day and an even better sales week

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 5/7/17

No Time to Marketing? You Only Need 15 Minutes a Day.

Here is a great article from Entrepreneur magazine that I wanted to pass on. While Bullen has a marketing department, like many small to medium size businesses our staff wear many hats. We learned some points from this and hope you will as well. The SSB is a focus that we have been doing for years and think it helps our customers connect with Bullen. It is one of many marketing habits we do weekly.

Marketing is like exercising. The difference between doing nothing and just a little every day is cumulatively enormous.

According to Infusionsoft, nearly one in five owners of small businesses has no plan to use any digital marketing in 2017. Of those who do, 49 percent handle marketing on their own along with their other duties.

Here are three tips I shared with my colleagues to help them better market themselves for just a few minutes every day.

1. Start by brainstorming.

Before you can effectively market with just a few minutes a day you have to spend a few hours brainstorming what you are looking to achieve. You need a plan to guide how you’ll do marketing every day. Identify what your goals are and potential tactics for executing them.

You might be trying to get more leads, establish authority in your niche or attract more customers, which requires learning where they hang out online. Let’s say there are certain blogs your target audience reads. It would only require a little time each day to comment on the articles, share some on social media and network with the writers and editors.

2. Start with just one marketing activity.

In the beginning, eliminate excessive options and focus on just one marketing channel and one activity. Focus on a single channel, such as only marketing on LinkedIn, a podcast or Quora. Focus on a single marketing activity like interacting on behalf of your business with relevant Facebook groups.

I’ve seen small businesses focus primarily on an email newsletter to build a dialogue with their target audience, while others have spent their time being interviewed on multiple industry specific podcasts. This approach takes little time, allows you to focus on your leading priorities and gives you a timeline to dive deep into one tactic.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach. You have to determine what marketing works for you. When you are seeing results scale up your marketing efforts to a few channels and tactics at once, but only when you’ve got more bandwidth.

3. Foster a marketing habit.

It's easy to neglect marketing when business is good. Fit in 15 minutes of marketing work daily to make marketing a consistent habit.

Try working on your marketing efforts at the same time of day every day. This way it’ll be easy to remember the task and more likely that it’ll become part of your regular routine.

For the full article here is the link:

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/293050

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 4/30/17

Spring is definitely here, what have you cleaned lately, version 2?

Last week we talked about that it is spring cleaning time and wonder have you taken any action to promote that in your company with your customers? How about a email that could be sent to your customers outlining some product bundles like entrance mats, trash cans and new floor care equipment? We just got done producing 3 new videos for our Airx line that covers product bundles from within that line, we do what we preach. Sell more than one products at a time typically increase you closing rate. Do you need help on how to put together a email marketing campaign?  Reach out to us, we can help.

It is not all about selling-

14 Ways to ‘Spring Clean’ Your Business Operations

Spring is coming, bringing with it that extra bit of mental energy that comes from the return of fresh air and the end of rainy cold. The change in season also creates a chance for companies to review their processes. So what can your business streamline and de-clutter to improve operations?

Here are a few from that list that I thought were worth looking at:

Audit Your Activity

Every so often, I make it a point to step back and analyze my daily activities, as well as the activities of my team. I’m looking for inefficiencies, clutter, overhead and other “junk” that’s accumulated over time. It’s remarkable how much we do out of habit, never stepping back and asking ourselves if there’s a better way. - Robby Berthume, Bull & Beard

Question Processes

I’ve found that even the most mundane and tested processes can have massive room for improvement right under your nose. That’s why I encourage my whole team to question everything (similar to a toddler) and ask “Is that the best way to do it?” — even if it’s a process that’s been in place for years. We’ll even have a “spring cleaning,” where we go through every process and look for improvements. - Elle Kaplan, LexION Capital

Study Use Of Time

Begin by having the team do a deeper level of hours tracking. This reveals where the team spends its time (include internal meetings and admin stuff) and will expose inefficiencies. With solid data, you can analyze and make decisions on platforms or processes that will have a much wider business impact. - Dan Golden, BFO (Be Found Online)

Declutter Physical And Digital

We set aside time to do both a physical and digital spring cleaning. Purging our office and re-organizing work spaces and storage closets leads to a more productive work environment. Digitally organizing, deleting and archiving files and folders that are no longer used removes clutter and allows for more efficient work. Un-enrolling your email from lists is a great way to spring clean your inbox. - Leila Lewis, Be Inspired PR

For the full list click here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/14-ways-to-spring-clean-your-business-operations_us_58af5106e4b02f3f81e44554

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Sunday Sales Blast 4/23/17

Spring is definitely here, what have you cleaned lately?

Now is the time to talk to customers about spring cleaning products, equipment and other related items. Put together a flyer, email or sales plan to talk to customers about things like getting new entrance mats, floor finish to repair damaged floors, new equipment and other items to make the spring cleaning easier and more cost efficient.

Is it Healthier to Remove Your Shoes at Home?

It’s considered polite in some households, but are there more practical reasons for going shoeless inside?

Removing one’s shoes when entering a home isn’t as commonplace in the U.S. as in some other countries. While going shoeless is considered polite for guests in Japan or Finland, hosts in the States risk catching visitors by surprise with the request.

But it turns out taking your shoes off indoors isn’t just good manners. It’s good hygiene, too.

Shoes are a menagerie of microorganisms, sometimes carrying dangerous bacteria, says Kevin W. Garey, chairman of the department of pharmacy practice and translational research at the University of Houston. Bacteria can be very hardy—hanging around in some cases for years—but so are most people.

People run little risk of falling ill because of germs clinging to their shoes unless they already suffer from an underlying condition that makes them vulnerable. The elderly and the young are also more susceptible.

But avoiding pathogenic bacteria that can cause illnesses from diarrhea to meningitis is easy, Dr. Garey says. Just take your shoes off. “It’s amazing how far humans travel during the day, and all that walking drags in germs and bugs,” he says.

Not sure how we make that work at the office but good info.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/is-it-healthier-to-remove-your-shoes-at-home-1491649200

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Sunday Sales Blast 4/9/17

Bullen's new descriptor announced

The Bullen Companies would like to announce the change of our company descriptor to “Craft Blenders of Specialty Cleaning Products”. This new descriptor better informs new and existing customers of what Bullen’s position is in the marketplace.

Scott Jarden, Bullen’s president, says “Bullen has always been know for its ability to produce unique specialty cleaning products as shown in it is core brands; Airx, Clausen, One Up, Truekleen and others. Most people today associated the term ‘craft' with top quality products, whether that be beer or cleaning chemicals. Bullen, as a craft blender, can offer it's customers unique, cost effective products under it's brands or private branding. Our BYOB or Be Your Own Brand program is unique in our industry.”

What is in a name?

SCA to become two listed companies: the forest products company SCA and the hygiene and health company Essity

Essity stems from the words ‘essentials’ and ‘necessities’, a fitting name for the products the new hygiene and health company offers – everyday necessities. Essity’s vision is; dedicated to improving well-being through leading hygiene and health solutions.

http://www.sca.com/en/Media/Press-releases/Press-releases/2017/SCA-to-become-two-listed-companies-the-forest-products-company-SCA-and-the-hygiene-and-health-company-Essity/

Do you have a brand that reflects your business? BYOB (Be Your Own Brand)

Great golf today from the Masters.

 Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 3/26/17

China’s High-Tech Tool to Fight Toilet Paper Bandits

BEIJING — The toilet paper thieves of the Temple of Heaven Park were an elusive bunch.

They looked like most park visitors, practicing tai chi, dancing in the courtyards and stopping to take in the scent of ancient cypress and juniper trees. But hidden in their oversize shopping bags and backpacks was a secret: sheet upon sheet of crumpled toilet paper, plucked surreptitiously from public restrooms.

Now the authorities in Beijing are fighting back, going so far as to install high-tech toilet paper dispensers equipped with facial recognition software in several restrooms.

Before entering restrooms in the park, visitors must now stare into a computer mounted on the wall for three seconds before a machine dispenses a sheet of toilet paper, precisely two feet in length. If visitors require more, they are out of luck. The machine will not dispense a second roll to the same person for nine minutes.

“The people who steal toilet paper are greedy,” said He Zhiqiang, 19, a customer service worker from the northwestern region of Ningxia. “Toilet paper is a public resource. We need to prevent waste.”

How would you do with 2 feet of toilet paper?

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/20/world/asia/china-toilet-paper-theft.html

Exclusive: Sealed Air nears sale of Diversey Care to Bain Capital - sources

Sealed Air Corp (SEE.N) is in exclusive talks to sell its cleaning and chemicals systems division, Diversey Care, to private equity firm Bain Capital LLC for between $3 billion and $4 billion, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The deal would allow Sealed Air to focus on its higher-margin food, product and medical packaging operations by shedding a hygiene and cleaning solutions division that it no longer sees as core to its business.

Sealed Air acquired Diversey in 2011 from its controlling shareholders, the Johnson family and private equity firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice LLC, in a $4.3 billion cash and stock deal.

Sounds like someone lost some money on that deal...just saying.

Another reason to BYOB (Be Your Own Brand)

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-sealed-air-diversey-baincapital-idUSKBN16K2P0

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 3/19/17

What a difference a good bathroom and kitchen makes, #2

We are back after 2 weeks driving around south of Auckland on the north island of New Zealand. Before I talk about the bathrooms we found it most interesting the hear the questions concerning our new president. Most were people wondering if we voted for Trump and the we told them they opened up a bit (we did not voted for Trump).  I don't want to be political but it was very interesting to see the difference in opinion. Most people were very, very surprised that he has elected and not sure what to think will happen now in the future.

Here is a few of the bathrooms that we saw in the second week of our trip:

Haven't seen this type of urinal in years, all stainless.

Drip units were pretty common, hardly ever seen not in the US.

The take away from this is something ever business can learn from. You need to promote a clean and welcome facility that people won't recall the bathrooms as the high or low point of the customers experience.

Here is the closing thought on the trip:

They call sandals, jandals!

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 3/12/17

What a difference a good bathroom and kitchen makes!

We are traveling again this year in New Zealand and like other posts from abroad I have taken some shots of the difference between a bad bathroom and a good one. One would make me want to come back and the other would make me never come back and actually tell people to not even consider staying at this place.

We are traveling in a 26 foot self contained RV. We have a kitchen and bathroom but doing "camping" down here you pay a nominal fee for electric hook up and expect a nice shower and bathroom and even a communal kitchen. Most places have excellent bathrooms and kitchen facilities to attract customer to stay and come back, some do not. We have the same in the US but with the advent of $300,000 "John Madden style" coaches the RV campgrounds don't even bother keeping their bathrooms clean since people ever leave their RV's.

Here is the difference between good and bad:

The take away from this is something ever business can learn from. You need to promote a clean and welcome facility that people won't recall the bathrooms as the high or low point of the customers experience.

Stay tuned for more from the road next week.

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 3/5/17

WHO (World Health Organization) publishes list of bacteria for which new antibiotics are urgently needed

WHO today published its first ever list of antibiotic-resistant "priority pathogens" – a catalogue of 12 families of bacteria that pose the greatest threat to human health.

The list was drawn up in a bid to guide and promote research and development (R&D) of new antibiotics, as part of WHO’s efforts to address growing global resistance to antimicrobial medicines.

The most critical group of all includes multidrug resistant bacteria that pose a particular threat in hospitals, nursing homes, and among patients whose care requires devices such as ventilators and blood catheters. They include Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and various Enterobacteriaceae (including Klebsiella, E. coli, Serratia, and Proteus). They can cause severe and often deadly infections such as bloodstream infections and pneumonia.

These bacteria have become resistant to a large number of antibiotics, including carbapenems and third generation cephalosporins – the best available antibiotics for treating multi-drug resistant bacteria.

The second and third tiers in the list – the high and medium priority categories – contain other increasingly drug-resistant bacteria that cause more common diseases such as gonorrhoea and food poisoning caused by salmonella.

Keep and eye on this news and if you need info on what Bullen products are effective against this growing list of multidrug resistant bacteria becomes more of an issue feel free to contact us.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2017/bacteria-antibiotics-needed/en/

Tennant Company Announces Agreement With Ambienta to Acquire IPC Group

Tennant Company (TNC), a world leader in designing, manufacturing and marketing solutions that help create a cleaner, safer world, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with private equity fund Ambienta to acquire IPC Group, a privately held designer and manufacturer of commercial cleaning solutions based in Italy, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $350 million (€330 million). In 2016, IPC Group generated annual sales of approximately $203 million (€192 million). When finalized, this will be the largest acquisition in Tennant Company history. Tennant anticipates that the acquisition will be accretive to 2018 full year earnings per share.

More than 80 percent of IPC Group’s business is concentrated in Europe, with the remaining percentage split evenly between the Americas and the Asia Pacific regions. In addition to expanding Tennant’s EMEA market coverage, IPC Group’s brands broaden Tennant’s range of product offerings. The companies’ brands see little overlap due to their differentiated market positions.

IPC Group produces small- to mid-sized commercial cleaning machines and equipment, including floor sweepers and scrubbers, vacuum cleaners, high-pressure washers, and related aftermarket parts and services.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/tennant-company-announces-agreement-ambienta-134500499.html;_ylt=A0LEV1nsdbBY5VEAKQRXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBybGY3bmpvBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

More consolidation and reason to carry your own brand! BYOB

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 2/26/17

NY first for cleaning product disclosure

Under a law from the 1970s, the State is authorized to collect information about cleaning products and to restrict chemicals of concern. When enacted, the law banned phosphorous-based cleaners, because of their effect on water quality. 
 
Today, Governor Cuomo announced that New York will require cleaning product makers to fully disclose what's in their products.

In his 2017 State of the State book, Governor Cuomo said: 
 
"Consumers have a right to know what chemicals are in household cleaning products. Common household cleaners may contain chemicals shown to negatively impact health in many ways, including carcinogens, hormone disrupters, asthmagens, allergens, and skin irritants. Despite this, cleaning product labels often do not give consumers adequate information to allow them to make informed purchasing decisions with regard to health risks."

This first such requirement in the nation is the culmination of years of work. Clean and Healthy New York and other advocates joined Earthjustice to file suit against cleaning product makers under the 1970s law. This prompted the Department of Environmental Conservation to revisit the issue. CHNY's steady, concerted leadership with our allies and government staff has paid off, with impact that will be felt across the country.
 
The Governor announced that not only will the State require disclosure of chemicals and their potential to contribute to serious illnesses and disease, New York will use this process as a model for chemical disclosure for other products:
 
"This ingredient disclosure approach, which will go into effect this year, will serve as a pilot for potential expansion to other consumer products of concern, such as personal care or children’s products. The pilot will evaluate such factors as ease of consumer use, consumer education regarding chemicals and health risks, and manufacturer compliance and enforcement."

http://www.cleanhealthyny.org/single-post/2017/01/11/New-York-first-for-cleaning-product-chemical-disclosure


What will Bullen be doing?

What does all of this mean to you a distributor of janitorial products? For us it means we will be reviewing and updating all product labels just like we did 2 years ago for the GHS requirements. Will we provide this information? Yes we will, we already do it for our "green" products under either EPA DfE or Green Seal. This will just be an extension of that labeling to all of products. For you as a distributor this will be something that will depend where you are located. Those in NY will be impacted first and we are sure other states will follow. There is no timing required that we can find but we will keep an eye on this and advise all of our customers as we get more details.

Essendant Adapting to New Threats

In order to fend off new competitors as well as longtime foes, Essendant is refocusing its brand positioning and expanding into foodservice, executives announced last week at the company's show for suppliers and customers in Las Vegas, NV.

It's no longer just Staples and Office Depot that stand in the way as Essendant aims to grab more share of what the company estimates as a $40 billion office supplies market and $25 billion jan-san market. Even industrial and MRO stalwarts are encroaching on its turf.

"Grainger has really invested in this space; they're spending a lot of time and effort grabbing jan-san market share," Harry Dochelli, president, office and facilities essentials, said during the show's opening keynote. "Home Depot bought Interline. Ferguson is out buying jan-san distributors. And everybody wants to sell more stuff, so it's not just the typical sales channels anymore. You've got new competitors selling things you've traditionally sold."

Amazon is another threat for the master distributor. It is the No. 3 supplier for office and No. 7 supplier for cleaning and sanitation – a category where it wasn't "even on the chart a few years ago," Dochelli said. These new threats underscore an evolving industry and increasingly competitive landscape with more millennials in the workforce and more B2B buyers demanding digital purchasing options.

https://www.mdm.com/blogs/1-management-strategy/post/36744-essendant-adapting-to-new-threats

Sounds to me that the best thing for a distributor to do is have his or her own brand and not rely on master distributors for your future. Click the BYOB logo for more info.

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 2/19/17

My Dad, Richards (Dix) H Jarden passed away Saturday morning. He was 96 years old and full of spunk until a few weeks ago. I had the pleasure of working with him for almost 45 years. He was a class act. He treated everyone fairly and always did the right thing. As far as I was concerned he was a perfect example of passing good karma to the people you come in contact with and that is how I live my life. I learned that and a lot more from him.

There will not be an immediate service but we will fill people in on that at a later date.

Thanks for your thoughts, he is in a good place now, probably pitching our hand sanitizer to the big boss on his way to be with my Mom and my sister.

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden

Sunday Sales Blast 2/12/17

SSB is back so here is some new content-

Do You Smell Like a Locker Room?
Ask Your Smartphone

From buttery bouquet to aroma of middle-aged man, device aims to dispel anxieties over unwelcome body odors


Japanese copier maker Konica Minolta Inc. plans to bring out a hand-held device called KunKun—“sniff, sniff” in Japanese—that purports to detect body odors, including those thought to characterize middle-aged men.
“It’s difficult to recognize your own smell,” said Daisuke Koda, 42 years old, who helped to develop the device, small enough to fit in a coat pocket, that connects to a smartphone application. “We can give relief by telling people how smelly they are and freeing them from the anxiety of not knowing.”

The company says the device can detect chemicals linked to three types of body odor. One odor type is the sweaty locker-room smell, which the device aims to detect through sensors for ammonia and isovaleric acid. The device also senses 2-nonenal, a chemical structurally related to formaldehyde with an “unpleasant greasy and grassy odor,” according to scientists at cosmetics company Shiseido Co. who say it is associated with aging.

Our comment on this technology is imagine how this could be used in the food processing industry or facility management since it potentially gives a statistical way of monitoring odors. You could have a bit that is programed to smell for foul odors from bad meat or organic smells in bathrooms to allow for a pass/fail record that is done by your nose now.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-smell-like-a-locker-room-ask-your-smartphone-1486462717

‘Greenwashing’ Costing Walmart $1 Million

Walmart has agreed to pay $1 million to settle greenwashing claims that allege the nation’s largest retailer sold plastic products that were misleadingly labeled “biodegradable” or “compostable” in violation of California law.

“Unfortunately, Californians concerned with reducing plastic waste in landfills are commonly misled to purchase plastic bags and other plastic products based on marketers’ unsubstantiated claims of biodegradability,” said Alameda county district attorney Nancy O’Malley, “but almost nothing breaks down in a landfill. That’s why the sale of plastic products labeled ‘biodegradable’ is illegal in California and why today’s settlement is a win for both consumers and the environment.”

The judgment prohibits Walmart from selling plastic products labeled “biodegradable” or with other terms implying the product will break down in a landfill or other environment. It also prohibits Walmart from selling plastic products labeled “compostable” unless a scientific certification supports the claim.

https://www.environmentalleader.com/2017/02/greenwashing-costing-walmart-1-million/

Lesson learned is don't make claims you can't back up!
 

Have a great day and an even better sales week!

Scott Jarden