Questions and responses from the chat box:


S. K. Murali: Hi Scott, thanks for the wonderful talk. How do you convince a customer(s) who always talk about the high cost of the product. No matter what the price, the price is always high to the customer, at least most of them.

We sell waterless urinal contraption called Vyuh, it is a retrofit technology that converts regular water flush urinal into waterless urinals. We also have 6 other products that help us collect urine and convert it into liquid fertilizer

Scott Roy: Hi Murali - When you have a deep conversation about the problem, people begin to take the conversation seriously; when you monetize the problem the prospect then has a reference point to determine how much money should be spent. This will do more to address and negate any potential price sensitivity.

Nicole Andriamampianina: Which entity shpuld hoste the sales team? NGO? producers?

Andrzej Nowosielski: Or should they be independant as soon as possible?

Scott Roy: Nicole & Andrzej: Ideally, the latrine producers would house the sales team, but you may find that capacity or interest isn't there. So the next best thing would be to have another org house the team. Independent sales agents who work as freelancers has high probability of failure.

Nicole Andriamampianina: To Yi, what is the role of the dealer? is the dealer like an intermediary?

Yi Wei: @Nicole - Exactly, the dealer is an intermediary that helps move product from Dhaka down to districts. They supply the local retailors and latrine producers.

Further Questions:

Daniel Webb: What key considerations would you have if you were looking to develop your first sales team/ agent network?

Edinah, Aquaya: From an urban perspective especially within the low income areas would you prefer engaging with the landlords or the tenants as well when employing the problem led approach?

Camille Adle: How about using social marketing instead of shaming part of CLTS?

Edinah, Aquaya: What positions do research institutions act from especially when working on an unknown context of research on the wiilingness of the people to pay for various sanitation options in low income areas, reference to urban areas?

Jules HOUNTONDJI: How do you determine the numbers of the sales agents needed to cover a specific market?
Watsan Sanitaries: Are there any training programme on toilet sales for start-up company?

Watsan Sanitaries: Are there any institutions which can provide an exposure visit on toilet sales technique?




Please feel free to continue discussion in this forum thread.

Kind Regards,
Connie

The recording is to be found here.


The PPTs are also attached.

We will post the recording here shortly Wini.

Thanks for your interest.

Connie

I really would like to be in the webinar but unfortunately the application you are using is not accessible for my country ( Sudan), maybe you can post the video afterwards

Thanks,
wini

Join the meeting room here: seint.adobeconnect.com/seiwebinar/

This webinar is today! Don't forget to register

We are into rural sanitation in Bihar and look forward to know organisation, who could provide exposure visit or conduct training programme on making toilet business scalable and sustainable.

Kindly register for the webinar here: www.susana.org/en/webinar-sales

You are invited to join a SuSanA webinar, on August 22nd 15:00 (London time BST):
The Toilet Trade: How to Sell Sanitation Successfully and to Scale

Market-based approaches, like sanitation marketing, have become an accepted way to increase WASH impacts at scale. Inherent in a market system are market transactions, which can be reduced to the basic acts of buying and selling. However, this is not as easy as designing a great toilet that will “sell itself.” During this webinar we will focus on selling toilets successfully, discussing: what to do and what not to do when building sanitation sales capability and how iDE, a market-based NGO, has used direct sales strategies to reach accelerated scale.

Join us to hear from two speakers:


Five key mistakes in building sanitation sales capability
Scott Roy, Whitten and Roy Partnership

For market based approaches to work well, they require effective sales planning, recruiting, training, sales management, and other relevant business acumen. Scott Roy, co-founder of Whitten & Roy Partnership, is a leader in sanitation marketing globally and will share with us five key mistakes that are made when building sanitation sales capability:

- Recruiting the wrong people to sell
- Failing to train sales people and managers adequately
- “Pitching” and trying to convince people to buy
- Promoting the best sales person to sales manager
- Planning and managing territory haphazardly[/li]



Direct sales strategies to reach accelerated scale
Yi Wei, iDE

Like many organizations, iDE looks at the market at both the individual enterprise level, and beyond; seeks to correct systemic market failures through interventions like R&D, capacity building, and value chain development. Yi Wei, the Global WASH Director of iDE, which has facilitated the sale of over one million WASH products, will discuss how a market-based NGO has used direct sales strategies to reach accelerated scale.


A link to register will be posted below shortly.

Kind Regards,
Connie