Client: Kistler-Morse. Now located in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the company was based in Redmond, Washington in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. http://kistlermorse.com/ Products:
Kistler-Morse manufactures weight and level measurement systems for customers who store or process materials in bulk quantities, such as grains, coal, fly ash, flour, sugar, liquids, slurries, etc.
The company’s primary product lines include ultrasonic level detectors, load cell weighing systems, bolt-on strain gages, and batch controllers.
Load Cell
Project Description: In the early 1990’s, Kistler-Morse wanted to boost sales and improve overall business relations with 15 major food, beverage and chemical manufacturers identifed as key customers. “Richard quickly grasped our needs and worked with us to design and execute the key accounts project,” said Stan Isenhath, Director of Sales for Kistler-Morse during that period.
Results: “He qualified sales leads at over 700 manufacturing plants during a six month time frame. That information was vital in closing major sales we later made to Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), Cargill and Clorox in particular,” Isenhath says. “But more importantly, his efforts provided us with a working battle plan for long-term sales. By interviewing our customers’ key players at both the corporate and plant levels, he identified issues and policies that influenced the specification and purchasing of our equipment,”.
“As a result, we made highly targeted sales and engineering presentations of our products to important decision makers. We could address their specific concerns because we knew what their hot buttons were ahead of time.”
Other key account companies included in the project included Campbell’s Soup, M&M Mars, Dow Chemical, JM Huber, Anheuser-Busch, Hershey Foods, Ciba-Geigy, Dupont, General Mills, Procter & Gamble and Pillsbury Company.
Kistler-Morse tracked $275,000 in sales directly related to the project within the first three months of the program. “But that’s just gravy,” Isenhath says. “What’s really important is this: we came away with a game plan for selling products and systems over the long term to very important customers.”