Getting anyone to change performance, including salespeople and sales leaders, isn’t easy.
SC Johnson and the Windex refill pouch, is a great example – humbling, too …
From solar panels to recycling, everywhere you turn, you’ll see the green movement. Others have embraced the green movement with environmentally friendly packaging, which reduces the amount of paper or plastic used. Many have pursued the refill concept, producing containers that lack the sophisticated trigger sprays, pumps or caps of the original bottles, making them cheaper and faster to produce, fill and ship – important savings as commodity and fuel prices soar. Efficient refills can translate to unit costs 20–30 percent lower, boosting profit margins by 15–20 percent.
SC Johnson took an interesting path, but perhaps set their goals too high. They planned to sell concentrated Windex refills in pouches. The pouch would avoid transporting about 1.5 pounds of water, use 90 percent less plastic than a 26 ounce bottle, and costs $2.50 versus $3.50 for a comparable bottle. When getting ready to launch the refill pouches, SC Johnson learned that pouring Windex into narrow spray bottles and then adding water can be taxing. People didn’t want to adopt that new behavior.
If SC Johnson can’t get people to add the contents of a pouch and water to a Windex bottle, imagine the work ahead for changing sales behavior! Something to think about …