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For Henkel-Loctite, selling engineering adhesives is a sticky business

K Giriprakash in Bangalore

Selling toothpaste and soaps may not require missionary zeal, but when it comes to selling anything as diverse as engineering adhesives, it does take more than patience to achieve sales targets.

Henkel-Loctite, world leaders in engineering adhesives, found it tough to win over customers in India who traditionally use mechanical devices for mounting sleeve on the shaft or use lock nuts or washers to prevent loosening of fasteners.

“For Indian machine tool makers, it was unimaginable to even perceive that a chemical solution can replace a mechanical device,” Henkel-Loctite India managing director Milind Shah said.

That’s when Henkel-Loctite introduced a novel concept called ‘missionary selling’ where a sales engineer does not actually solicit orders but rather builds up goodwill, educates the actual or potential user and undertakes various promotional activities.

“Without actually selling the products, the salesperson tries to build a lasting trust with his customer,” Shah said. Henkel-Loctite whose customers include, Hyundai, Maruti, Bajaj Auto, New Holland and BPL, found that such an approach helped it to build goodwill and lead to referrals even if its sales engineers weren’t able to seal the order after months of working on the project.

Shah said in the missionary selling approach, the salesperson and the customer are jointly involved in solving a problem or satisfying a need of the customer, and the focus of the sales engineer is more in providing a solution that is not only understood and accepted but also preferred by the customer.

“It finally transcends to a consultative and relationship selling,” Shah said.

Shah said missionary selling has not always yielded results. Their hit rate is a mere 30 per cent out of every 10 clients they approach.

In some cases, it takes nearly eight to nine months of working with the clients to land an order.

“But it is worth the effort. Because customers increasingly view us as their family physician. Hence we build relationships which could lead to referrals if not actual orders,” Shah said.

Shah said there are many clients who have not placed orders yet but turn to a Loctite sales engineers whenever there is an issue relating to assembly of components. “In most cases, we offer trials on no cost or commitment basis, which leads to better trust among the clients,” Shah said.

Though it may look a tiresome process of winning over clients, Shah said that his sales engineers make at least four calls a day. “It is tougher than what a sales person normally does. But the rewards are much larger both for the customer as well as for sales engineers,” Shah said.

Shah claims that savings for customers are huge. For example, Loctite worked with a leading maker of pumps in north India and its solutions resulted in a direct savings of over 77 per cent per assembly. In India, Loctite has a market share of around 35 per cent and is growing at a compounded annual rate of 30 per cent every year.

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