In today's market, we are all looking for new ways to increase sales. Unfortunately, most of us don't have 10 new plants being built in our territory and 20 major plant expansions every year. We have to work a little harder and maybe a lot smarter to keep that healthy upward sales trend we all require. The ISOCHEM pump represents a great opportunity to go back and sell new pumps to those old customers and also give us something different to show to those potential customers.

Mag drive pumps are becoming preferred in many services. When we select and present a mag drive in the right applications, increasingly we get customer agreement.

We all know to go into plants looking for problems to solve. The true sales professionals know they must dig a little further and offer a little more to get a real opportunnity. You have to know about a specific problem that your equipment can solve and how it can solve it. Many people look for chemicals on the EPA's list for VOC emissions and sell the zero leakage concept. I wanted to find an application with a broad appeal, less competition and a short turnaround time on my sales effort. The application I zeroed in on was CAUSTIC TRANSFER.

Caustic (Sodium Hydroxide) is used in many plants for CIP, neutralization, scrubber liquor in gas scrubbers, etc. It typically comes to the plant as a 50% solution, in bulk, and is transferred to various storage and make-down tanks within the plant. These transfer applications represent a great ISOCHEM opportunity for several reasons.

Any caustic pump with either packing or mechanical seal will eventaully leak, probably sooner than you think. Leaking caustic will crystallize and these crystals will begin to destroy the seal faces, accelerating the leakage. The only repair is to replace the seal assembly. Nobody like to work on a 50% caustic pump. Even after the neutralizing, some caustic will remain, posing a safety hazard or requiring expensive flushing systems to be installed in the piping.

The open impeller in ISOCHEM centrifugal pumps is ideally suited for handling soltions, like caustic, which may contain small crystals. The material of choice for caustic applications is 316SS, which is standard for ISOCHEM and readily available. Transfer applications usually require about 50 GPM at heads up to 70'. The CMC1 and CMH1 are perfectly suited for this hydraulic range. The sealless design of ISOCHEM pumps is perfect for avoiding mechanical seal requirements. ISOCHEM centrifugal pumps are priced very attractively when compared to traditional ANSI mag drives.

So, we know when we go in to see the customer that they are having a problem on this application and we know we have a solution. We are looking at a little more than what it would cost to change out a seal. Your customer can put in the new pump and never change another seal. Usually, purchases of this magnitude can be handled within the maintenance purchasing process, without competitive bid.

I think you'll amazed at how many plants take you up on this. After your first installation, other opportunities will open up. Encourage the plant to put a unit in central stores since they are so inexpensive. Tell other people in the plant that it is there for their next small pump requirements.

VOC emissions are only a part of the mag drive opportunity. Go after seal maintenance problems, such as caustic transfer, and you will be well rewarded.