5 tricks to outsmart the giants of the paint and coatings industry

Do you feel that your business has gotten stuck in a rut?

Have you already achieved your goals from years ago and feel that you’ve plateaued?

This is often the case with smaller businesses. You get to a point when you feel like you’re stuck, unable to progress and without a clear vision for the future.

So, what can you do to change, if you find yourself in this situation?

There are many tricks that cost little but can make an astonishing difference.

Let’s get down to business!

1: Work faster than the competition

When it comes to time, you have the advantage.

The bigger the organization, the bigger the need for strict internal protocols, zillions of reports and strategic planning among different departments.

The bottom line is, the bigger the company, the higher the portion of time spent on non-revenue generating activities. Bigger means more internal work, which means a slower-moving process.

A survey conducted by InsideSales.com Labs showed that sales representatives spend only 36.6% of their time actually selling, while the rest of the time is spent on non-revenue generating activities, such as meetings, administrative tasks, dealing with internal policies and approvals, and researching target accounts and contacts.

Help your team to work smart, not just work hard. Go through your work processes and figure out which parts give value to the organization. Ditch the rest.

Allchemist can help you with faster and more relevant sales activities:

Instead of sharing technical and safety data sheets or paper catalogues with your clients, save everybody’s time with Allchemist.

In Allchemist, you work directly with data, instead of PDFs.

This is not only beneficial when it comes to shortening the time in R&D, but is also a great help in the sales department.

Allchemist reduces a significant portion of sales time by increasing product knowledge base and credibility. This is enabled through immediate readability and accessibility of data.

If you work in the field of supplying raw materials, check out this ULTIMATE 7-Step Digital Transformation Guide 

This guide will help you to understand how easy it is to start your digital transformation.

We know how hard it is to begin something that seems very complex and we understand that you are already flooded with daily tasks.

That’s why this guide breaks the whole process down into easy-to-follow sections, so you can be efficient and get the most out of it, from the very beginning.

Follow the steps to make a digital database of your product portfolio and take a first step towards super efficiency in your sales activities. Allchemist is here to help.

Remember that there is a 30-day free trial, so there’s plenty of time for you to play around and get familiar with every Allchemist feature before you commit.

Allchemist reduces time in R&D:

In Allchemist, you work directly with data. This means cutting off a big portion of time that formulators now spend on gathering and manually processing data, as well as working in labs with samples.

Not to mention the additional time you gain for creating safety data sheets, labels and such. All of this time is saved with Allchemist.

It’s time we started working with actual data, instead of papers with data!

If you agree, then let’s go one step further. With Allchemist, you are not only working with data but with actual results. You’ll never need to deal with data entry. Allchemist does it all for you.

Allchemist allows you to calculate basic parameters like density, VOC, solids, and more. Right before your eyes.

2: Focus on outstanding customer service

Did you know that people working in paint and coatings research and development (R&D) have to sometimes wait up to three months to get the specific information they’ve requested about the particular raw material from the supplier?

Now imagine the average time it takes for R&D to gather and process the data of the necessary materials, to formulate or reformulate, create the safety data sheets and labels, all before finally launching a product into the market.

The customer should never feel that it is a hassle to do business with you.

Be fast, reliable and keep your promises on time.

I can’t stress enough how beneficial excellent customer support is for a company’s long-term success. It drives up the number of loyal customers, and these are the customers who are far more valuable than one-timers. Retaining the customer you’ve worked so hard to get is one of the critical factors to economic success

It’s seven times more expensive to get a new customer than to retain an existing one!

According to a survey made by American Express, 69% of Americans say they’ll spend more with a company that has good customer service. Moreover, 9 in 10 tell others about their service experience.

Better customer support with Allchemist

Because Allchemist is a cloud-based software, your team can use it everywhere: in the office, at meetings or when they meet their clients.

With the help of the Allchemist, sales representatives or technical support teams can simply log in to the application and check every detail of individual materials and their properties, all in a matter of minutes, not months.

That way you’ll always be a fast, accurate and reliable partner.

Don’t let your customers wait for weeks or even months for your answer. Be flexible when it comes to meeting their needs. Don’t treat them like numbers. Most importantly, be fast and reliable with your answers. With Allchemist, you can do that easily.

3: Find your niche, instead of lowering the price

Don’t try to compete with “everything” at the same time. Find your own unique selling points.

Figure out what are the strong segments of your company and work on them.

This kind of strategy gives you the luxury of not having to compete by price alone. International, large enterprises will always be able to offer better prices, which often means a death sentence for smaller businesses.

That’s why you should think more creatively and react more quickly!

Study the market and ask yourself what kind of products are missing from the shelves. Go through your clients’ questions and consider their frustrations, then conduct some research on what kind of products, materials or services they need. At the same time, think of the capabilities of your R&D team and production. Work around those questions when coming up with a new product.

With Allchemist, you can experiment more quickly and more easily!

See what works on the spot, without ordering the single sample or investing hours on lab work.

In Allchemist you can literally:

• play with endless formulations,
• see all the hazards of your formulation directly in the mixer,
• see all the basic parameters (like density, VOC, solids, etc.) of the formulation as you add ingredients,
• easily contact the supplier of raw materials for additional information, like the price.

4: You can beat them locally

Even if you are doing your business internationally, a substantial portion of your strength is hiding in the local market.

No enterprise can know all the details of the local market more than you do, and no enterprise can react in your local market as quickly and as personally as you can.

Take advantage of that!

5: Use the Cloud

Its time we accept the fact that, for many business models, desktop licensed software solutions just don’t work anymore. Period.

There’s no doubt that the start-up business leveled the playing field by using Cloud computing, mainly because it saves a lot of money and time and enables you to access what you need anywhere, anytime.

With Cloud solutions, you don’t need IT support for installations and backups.

Allchemist is Cloud-based software, which means it is affordable, and you don’t need an IT army for its installation and maintenance. All you need is an internet connection, and you are good to go.

One more thing! Don’t worry about the security of your work.

We use 9-level security, similar to that used by banks, and we understand intellectual property very well.

In every step of your work with Allchemist, you are in full control of the privacy of your work. You are the one deciding with whom you’ll share your work, which team members you’ll invite to the group, and you’ll also set all of the group members’ user rights.

Your formulations are encrypted, and you will be able to log in with two-factor authentication!

If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to contact me. You can always write to  maja@allchemist.net