February 2, 2007

Customer is Key as Greenlee Introduces New Hand Tool Line

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Greenlee's new hand tools are designed to fit comfortably in users' hands while withstanding daily use. To view a presenation of the new hand tools, visit Greenlee's website (please note that this is a 3MB Flash file).

When people think of Greenlee, they think of high-quality, high-end professional tools (many of them large in scale), for use in the electrical and construction markets. A market leader for more than 145 years, Greenlee is well known in the trade for a wide range of tools and testing equipment from knockout punches to benders, from cable pullers to electrical test instruments. However, Greenlee has never been known for hand tools.

"But that’s about to change," says Brian Allison, Greenlee product manager. “We've just launched a new line of 100-plus hand tools, including screw drivers, saws, wrenches, pliers and hammers, and accessories such as tools belts and gloves – all in direct response to what Greenlee customers have requested.

Voice of the Customer

Instead of going to their typical source for product development ideas – the electrical distributor, Greenlee approached the end-user electrician to understand their impressions. "We wanted to know which tools they use every day on the jobsite and what we could create and market that would make their jobs faster, safer and easier," says Allison. 

"The key was in understanding the customer’s perspective. Brian and his team proactively sought out the voice of the customer and used Six Sigma tools to summarize the input they received from multiple generations of electrical contractors," says Chera Ellis, Greenlee director of marketing. “We were looking to build on the strength and premium positioning of the Greenlee brand while giving the products a vibrant new look that would appeal specifically to the younger electrician.”

Reaching Out to a New Group

“This new comprehensive product line needed to appeal to all levels of our customers and offer sales incentives to not only our sales force, but to the distributor, the distributor’s counter salesperson and the end user,” says Rebecca Neys, who as channel manager was involved in developing the customized hand tool programs and promotions for the launch.

"Our customers told us they wanted tools that were high quality and durable enough for daily use, as well as ergonomically designed to fit comfortably in their hand,." says Allison.

"As a market, the electrical contractor was ready for a brand new look in the hand tool line," agreed Chera Ellis, Greenlee director of marketing. "We’ve been featuring the new bright green on black on all of our marketing collaterals, catalogs, advertising, promotions and merchandising for the last several years and the market has responded very well. So it was a natural next step for this entire new line to feature the new brand colors. "

An Aggressive Launch

To reach younger customers, Greenlee is aligning itself with trade and technical schools. They're offering deep discounts on tool kits to apprentice schools to encourage the use of their new line and build brand loyalty early in customers’ careers. They gave complete sets of tools to all their sales representatives to allow their distributor customers to evaluate the tools for themselves before making a buying decision.

The Greenlee marketing team also armed their sales force with a full arsenal of product information, including questions to expect from their customers and a competitive market analysis. In addition, a preliminary trade press tour was conducted to garner editorial coverage of the new line, and a new national advertising campaign has been developed for launch next month.

"We've never been this aggressive with a launch before," says Allison. "Greenlee's president, Scott Hall, has made it clear that if we can't increase our market share in five years, then we shouldn't be doing this. We will do this."

Overcoming Obstacles

"With a project of this magnitude, there are always obstacles," says Ellis. "The team met every week, and often daily, to work on issues. Brian used Textron Six Sigma tools to monitor every single step of the launch . When obstacles arose, the team assessed the risk immediately and determined the best solution."

Looking Toward the Future

What's next? "I retire now!" says Allison with a laugh. "No. Definitely not. We've launched to the market we know best, the electrical market, but we have other markets that we currently serve and we’re planning to extend the hand tool line to those groups for our next phased roll-out.”

One example is the voice data video (VDV) market where Greenlee’s products, primarily sold under the Tempo brand, is well-known. "There are real opportunities in the VDV arena, especially from a hand tool stand point," says Allison. "So phase two will focus on this market, as well as the utility worker – the guy you see hanging in a bucket from a pole. We're planning to add to the new line of products and target the subsequent product launches to each of these customers."

Fortunately, says Allison, about 80% of the new hand tools will be able to cross over. "By selecting and staging our markets in advance, we won't have to reinvent everything."

The Verdict Comes In

"I spend a significant amount of time with customers and every decision maker that has seen the tools and the programs is impressed," says Ellis. "We've had customers do a complete conversion away from other brands to Greenlee. That's what I call the power of the brand."

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