Swisher Hygiene's Customers Performance

We marketed and sold our products and services primarily through: (i) our field sales group, including the service technicians, which pursued new customers and offered existing customers additional products and services; (ii) our corporate account sales team which focused on broad national and regional level customers; and (iii) independent third-party distributor partners.

The field selling organization was comprised of Business Development Representatives, Account Managers and Hygiene Specialists. The Business Development Representatives identified new customer opportunities in which to sell products that leveraged route service and delivery efficiencies as well as focusing on accounts with our distributor partner representatives. Account Managers were primarily focused on servicing and expanding sales to current customers; however, starting in 2014 they were also responsible for obtaining new customer sales. Hygiene Specialists focused on current customers with the purpose of expanding the number of products and services provided by leveraging solid business relationships including superior service.

Selling to new corporate accounts was led by a team that managed a longer sales process that included either displacing an existing supplier of the products and services or working with the customer to centralize and consolidate disparate purchasing decisions. These prospective customers often went through a vendor qualification process that may involve multiple criteria, and we often worked with them in various test locations to validate both product efficacy and our ability to deliver the services on a broader national or regional level. Additionally, large corporate accounts may have operated via a franchise network or group purchasing organization; the selection process with such corporate accounts may have only resulted in a vendor qualification allowing us the right to sell our products and services to their franchisees or group members.

In recent years we expanded our distributor program which provided us with additional opportunities for organic growth. Our distributor program was targeted toward regional and local foodservice and janitorial sanitation distributors that are seeking to increase the revenue and margin they can drive by increasing the number of products they deliver to each customer, which also helped our distributor partner reduce their customer attrition. Foodservice distribution is a highly competitive business operating on low margins. As such, the distributor can typically earn a higher profit margin on the chemicals it sells to customers compared to its food items. Moreover, a distributor partner is then able to market to its customers the “service” required to maintain their dish machines and chemical dispensing equipment. This service was provided by Swisher Hygiene Inc. and documented under a separate contract between Swisher Hygiene Inc. and the customer. In effect, by Swisher Hygiene Inc. partnering to be the chemical sales and service arm for the distributor, we helped to generate demand for our equipment and consumable products while providing the distributor a competitive advantage. We contracted with distributors on an exclusive or non-exclusive basis depending on the markets they served and the size of their customer base.

With the exception of product sales delivered via distributors and common carriers in select markets, our services and products in the United States were delivered through Company vehicles. We used our hand held computer software to assist in monitoring the sales performance and fleet utilization efficiencies of our sales and service field operations.

Our customer base ranged from large multi-national companies and distributor partners to entrepreneurs who operate a single location.