September 2020
isi!! case at W-FI – System sales for chemical products
Würth Finland launched the isi!! platform to the market in fall 2018. Since then, the concept has turned out to be a success. isi!! offers our customers the perfect solution in order to handle their regulatory obligations (e.g.REACH). We have 6’100 users from 4’750 customers registered in the isi!! system. With help of isi!! Würth positions itself as a real problem solver to the customer.
Naturally we have trained the sales reps to the isi!! concept. However, the key to success is putting isi!! to the toolbox of our Safety@Work team. That is a group of specialists that support internally and externally on customer side when it comes to work safety practices and regulations. isi!! fits into the Safety@Work portfolio perfectly.
isi!! is system sales
Brake Cleaner is brake cleaner. Naturally the Würth Brake Cleaner has more value than just naphta has. It has the brand value. Würth Brake Cleaner also has functional service value provided by sales functions and logistics. Therefore the price and value of Würth Brake Cleaner is not that of naphta.
When Brake Cleaner is linked to isi!! it gains a strong additional functional feature and value. Having isi!! data service and ORSY rack service at the customer, we are selling our product through a system. In fact two systems. When all this is combined with our technically advanced Würth power products, the concept is unbeatable. When selling products through systems we are not selling individual products, but we sell product families and we actually sell ease of work.
Truly useful digitalization
You may sometimes face digitalization initiatives that are done in the sake of digitalization more than for the purpose of real-life value. Certainly isi!! is not one of those. It is true value to the customer. It puts the quality of SDS management on a totally new level compared to old times when printing tons of paper and efforts to maintain reasonable up-to-date accuracy. Würth saves huge amounts of time and money and increases quality of data and real usability of documents.
Würth Finland chose isi!! as a strategic approach to enter the e-Business. While still having certain disadvantages in Inter-shop e-Shop functionalities and catalogue quality, isi!! offered a short-cut and a clear competitive advantage to differentiate. There are tons of web-shops in the market and even very good ones, but no competitor offers a digital service like isi!!
Door opener and gate keeper
Today, having the initial start of isi!! roll-out done in Finland, it is time to speed up the coverage among the customers. One thing is clear. Also this concept will be copied by the competition, but others having multi-brand strategy in chemicals is a major disadvantage for the competitors. We push forward isi!! to the customers, because it works as a gate keeper towards competitors’ offers and activities. Once isi!! is in place, the customer has not much interest to consider alternatives. The customer is bound to Würth.
It is true that isi!! may not directly realize chemical sales, but it does it indirectly. Saying that isi!! would not increase chemical sales is false, too. It opens doors to new customers and initiates sales talks of the chemical product lines at the customer even with customers that have not been interested in our offer before.
When talking about isi!! the discussion and the sales pitch is not about prices.
Customer’s safety staff are our best friends
The value of isi!! power is best understood by company’s HSEQ staff. For Würth sales reps, these people are not the main contact at the customer. But when introducing isi!! it must be. The purchaser or a person on a shop floor does not necessary identify the existing challenge with SDS documentation.
Having the contact to people with HSEQ responsibilities is the way to go. Our database enables us to contact HSEQ specialists for marketing and sales activities.
They are also important friends to our sales force, because of their decision power. For sure the purchaser does not always listen to the sales reps, but for sure they listen and follow internal people responsible for safety issues. In smaller companies naturally the entrepreneur or general manager.
All must improve
isi!! is an answer to the needs of a small crafts man shop as well as to larger industrial environment or construction companies with multi-site environment. Good news is that for small customers, isi!! is a plug-and-play tool. For larger and more complex customer environments the original isi!! had to be improved and developed to comply with a bit more advanced organizational structures. Today, isi!! is fit for any customer size with hierarchical structures and customers feel at home.
When starting with isi!! at FI-Würth it was evident that the system must be a complete solution. It has to be able to handle also products that are not Würth branded but sold by us. Such chemicals, where we do not have availability within the Group (for example, certain technical glues and lubrication products), must also be covered by the system. This required some further development. Today, isi!! handles all that and allows the customers to maintain also third-party products by himself.
We are not alone
It is clear that isi!! has some competitors especially in the field of commercial applications. These providers base their business on maintaining companies’ chemical documentation. My personal opinion is not to actively participate in these systems. Würth has the power of controlling the Würth branded chemicals and their product data and this should not be made too easily accessible to external operators. Naturally, we cannot decline open data to be collected, but distributing SDS data to other parties’ business would make us weaker.
Mika Rantanen
Managing Director W-FI
