Training – How to sell a domestic surge arrester…
This month we will be focusing on how to sell a domestic surge arrester. I wanted to start with the domestic market as it is generally more difficult to sell a domestic surge arrester than it is one for a commercial or industrial installation.
With a domestic installation according to the Regs it is only a recommendation that surge protection is installed, it’s not mandatory. So why do we need to fit them? I hear you all say. Well, its actually really simple… Every single household nowadays has some form of electrical equipment inside, whether this be just a kettle, microwave and a TV or on a much bigger scale, cinema room, LED lights and electronic gates, everybody has something of value to them that could potentially be destroyed by the effects of surges.
A lot of people know and use the trailing leads to protect 2-3 pieces of equipment, like a PC, laptop or a TV for example. These trailing leads only protect a few pieces of equipment at a time, unless you plug them into every socket in your house, which then gets very costly and looks messy. It is also impossible to fit them behind kitchen units to protect washing machines and tumble dryer’s. The only way around this dilemma is to buy and install a domestic surge arrester like our SY2DLED (pictured below).
This compact device combines double pole protection in a single module unit, which is easier to install in a domestic situation. It has an LED light on the front, which is a requirement of the Regs that all surge protection devices should have visual indication. Once this light goes out its time to replace the device, but these will typically last 10-11 years.
To install the SY2DLED into a consumer unit just clip it onto the din rail or mount it in an enclosure and connect the device in parallel across the board. From the bottom of the device take an earth wire up to the earth bar. From the top of the device take a neutral wire up to the neutral bar. Also from the top of the device take a live connection to an adjacent breaker that’s already in the board. And there you have it, your surge device is installed and ready to start protecting your electrical items.
So how do I sell one of these to my customers? Like I said before this is the tricky bit, as it’s not mandatory. I usually start by asking the customer what electrical items they have in their own home and asking them to add up in their head roughly what its all worth. The trade list price is £70.55 and they typically last 10 years. This equates to roughly £7 per year to protect all your electrical items in your house. It will even protect your mobile phone when you plug it in at night to charge it. Plugging any piece of electrical equipment in without protecting it makes it susceptible to damage caused by surges.
Because technology is getting smaller but faster and more complex the manufacturers are using smaller micro-components, which are extremely sensitive to surges. When a piece of electrical equipment sees a surge it prematurely degrades the micro-components, so the piece of equipment wont last as long as it should.
This particular surge device is a perfect add on to those purchasing consumer units for re-wires or a new board fitting. We are very competitively priced and provide outstanding technical knowledge as well as offering FREE site surveys.
If you would like to know more about Lightning & Surges, how to protect your sensitive electrical equipment or learn more about how to sell surge protection then please get in touch with us and we can arrange a staff training session completely FREE of charge. You can either email me at helen@surgedevices.co.uk or call me on 07969919161 to book the training.
