Alchatek Blog

Did you know that Alchemy-Spetec offers a customized version of the popular Estimate Rocket invoicing, client management and CRM tool for contractors?  The custom version includes material estimating calculators for Alchemy-Spetec geotech polyurethanes.  These calculators make it easy to figure out the amount of material you'll need for any given job.  Sign up now via this Alchemy-Spetec link to get the customized version!  (Visiting the Estimate Rocket site in any manner aside from the links we provide will get you the generic, non-customized version.)

Paperless Workflow

Creating impressive proposals has never been easier with Estimate Rocket’s easy-to-use business templates. Leave a lasting impression with professional paperless estimates and invoices you can create and deliver to clients in seconds. 

Job & Client Management

Keep your clients most important information organized and at your fingertips 24/7. The system automatically saves and organizes current and previous jobs, contact information, notes, and more.

Powerful CRM Tools

Stay connected with customer relationship management tools that keep you more responsive than ever before. Automated reminders and appointment scheduling let you know when to take action. Automated Follow-Ups stay in touch with your customers automatically.

Team Collaboration

Bring your entire team with an easy to use web-portal where crews can view appointments, field estimators can build estimates, and accountants can send out invoices.

Financial Reports

View up to the minute reports and know exactly where every job stands. Advanced reporting gives greater depth with detailed job statistics. Easily export to QuickBooks or other accounting software that imports CSV files.

Access on Any Device

Whether you’re on site with a customer or back in the office, you always have complete access to all features. Estimate Rocket works on Mac, PC, iOS, Android, Blackberry and any other web-enabled device.

AS Material Estimation Calculators

As mentioned previously, the Alchemy-Spetec customized version of Estimate Rocket features AS geotech material estimation calculators built in!

We often get calls from spray foam insulation installers who are interested in adding slab lifting capability to their rig set up. If you're reading this article, you yourself may be looking for info on the matter. If so, we have good news for you. With just four additional pieces of equipment and one set of material, you can quickly and easily add slab lifting to your service offerings. Let’s take a look at exactly what additional equipment and material you'll need to get started...

Slab Lifting Equipment

MixMaster Pro Slab Lifting Gun
The MixMaster Pro is a two-component resin injection gun manufactured specifically for lifting concrete slabs, designed to handle back-pressure. 

Titan Impact 440 (Modified) Pump with Flush Hose
The Titan Impact 440 (Modified) pump is used for flushing the MixMaster Pro gun in between foam injections. (It's also used for pumping one-component material in soil stabilization and seawall repair applications.)

3/8” MixMaster Ports
These heavy duty ports create an airtight seal for injecting foam into drill holes. 

Dial Indicator Crane
This precision tool is used to measure the lift of the slab within 1/10” of an inch.

Polyurethane Slab Lifting Material

AP Lift 430, AP Lift 440, or AP Lift 475 (100 Gallon Unit)
Sunken concrete slabs can be lifted back into place with these two-component polymer foams designed to work in wet or dry conditions. The expansion force of these concrete leveling foams coupled with the pressure of a specialized pump generate enough controlled force to lift virtually any structure back into position with 1/8” precision.

AP Flush 125 (5 Gallon Unit)
Water based gun flush specifically used for flushing out the MixMaster Pro impingement gun. Also used to protect concrete from resin stains.

AP Lube 190 (5 Gallon Unit)
This product is a multi-purpose lubricant for use with both airless electric injection pumps and proportioner/reactor pumps.

Want more info on adding slab lifting to your rig setup?

On Episode 7 of The Injection Connection, host Jim Spiegel sits down with Ann Thaxton, from Concrete Titans, a marketing and advertising agency offering services to the concrete lifting, and residential foundation repair markets.  Ann offers great insights into the most current lead capture strategies, trends in the industry, and how marketing dollars are actually worth more in the current Covid-19 crisis.  (Jim Spiegel is Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and a Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute.)

Listen to the episode in its entirety below, or check it out on TheInjectionConnection.com and the following platforms:

• Spotify
• iTunes/Apple Podcasts
• SoundCloud
• TuneIn
• Google Podcasts
• YouTube

Want info on Alchemy-Spetec slab lifting products & applications?

Jim and guest Jack Whitworth, 26-year chemical grouting sales professional, discuss the importance of education, mutual benefits of competitors working together, and driving our families crazy during the Covid-19 lockdown time. (Jim Spiegel is Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and a Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute.)

Listen to the episode in its entirety below, or check it out on TheInjectionConnection.com and the following platforms:

• Spotify
• iTunes/Apple Podcasts
• SoundCloud
• TuneIn
• Google Podcasts
• YouTube

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

Polyurethane – Quality and Selection

Alchemy-Spetec offers one of the most technologically advanced grout product lines currently on the market, including our unique, highly-effective Spetec PUR HighFoamer. Known in the industry for its expansive properties, this product is the only one in its class that can shut down gushing leaks and fill voids as quickly and effectively as it does. We offer a wide variety of materials, including slab lifting foams, deep-soil lifting foams, soil stabilization foams, injection resins for crack leak seal, foams for curtain grouting leak seal, acrylic injection resins that penetrate thin cracks and saturate soil, epoxy resins for structural repair and preventative waterstop products. The superior quality of these materials guarantees fewer callbacks from your customers. Many of these products are also certified for contact with potable water, making them safer for the environment.

Equipment and Accessories Selection

We’re a one-stop shop for all things polyurethane concrete repair, with one of the most versatile equipment and accessory product lines in the industry. Once you’ve picked out the product that best fits your needs, we can provide it all: pumps, hoses, packers/ports, and specialty accessories.

Tech Support – Experience and Dedication

Do you need technical support? You’re in luck—we’re home to the industry’s premier technical support squad. Averaging decades of experience, we also pride ourselves in being incredibly responsive. For example, our team was recently called on to assist with a large metro project in the Western United States. The customer informed us at 4pm on Monday evening that assistance was needed at 9am the very next day! Our Technical Services Director Charlie Lerman, Vice President Jim Spiegel, and Western Regional Sales Manager (that's me!) traveled to the site Monday evening to help diagnose the location of the leaks and develop an action plan. Our Technical Services Manager Charlie remained on site for two more days to ensure that the project was successful. Depending on the size and scope of the project, response time and participating team members may vary, but this story serves to illustrate the lengths we will go to assist customers.

Training and Education

We offer the industry's most thorough training and education for both Leak Seal and Geotech polyurethane infrastructure repair. We conduct training workshops at distributor locations, consult with contractors on job sites, and hold intensive programs twice a year at our headquarters in Tucker, GA. We also offer in-depth online training videos to current customers.

Marketing Support

Our Marketing Department provides qualified customers with product application illustrations and photos for use on websites, customized brochure PDFs for printing, and truck signage graphics. We also offer the use of our educational videos and animations. Lastly, we’re available for guidance on everything from online lead capture strategies to internet advertising, and more.

We’re Committed to Your Success

The overriding theme here is our commitment to your success. Obviously, this is not totally altruistic in nature.  The more successful you are, the more materials and equipment you buy.  But it is 100% genuine.  Our entire team understands the relationship between YOUR success and OUR success.  This point of view is thoroughly ingrained in our company culture.

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

This post is part of the Alchemy-Spetec Contractor Lens series, featuring views, news & case studies written by our customers.  This sales article, written by J.R. Crowell of Helms Polyfoam, emphasizes the general importance of having a plan of some kind in place before calling on a prospect.  If you're an Alchemy-Spetec customer and you'd like to discuss writing content for our blog, please send an email to marketing@alchemy-spetec.com today!

I’ve not been formally trained in chess - but from what I’ve gathered in my limited time at the board, chess is very much a strategic game that requires a forward-thinking mindset. Each move could draw a certain action from the opponent and with each move, you the player need to be seeing five steps ahead. You need to have a follow-up play for each play your opponent could make and you need to be able to see the possible outcomes of all of those. That’s a lot of possible scenarios. Selling is no different.

Prior to walking through any door to visit any potential client (I’m assuming a cold call here), you need to have a clear reason for your visit and a clear outcome you intend to achieve with each visit. I once had a coworker who constantly said, “hope is not a plan”. How true is that? Walking in with only hope sounds like this; “I just wanted to come by and introduce myself as the rep for ABC Company…” You’re probably going to get a sideways shrug, maybe a “nice to meet you”, and a “see you later” shortly thereafter. Your actual intentions were to probably find the correct point of contact to discuss the needs of that business as they relate to your product or solution. At least that should have been your goal.

Don’t disguise your intentions with some backhanded intro because you think it eases the tension. Whomever you spoke to first is a professional at their role. They have duties just like you do. They are human and most humans want to be spoken to directly. They also subconsciously assume you are a professional in your field and assume that you know how to ask for what you want. As salespeople, we are typically natural leaders. It is our job to lead every discussion we have. That doesn’t always mean we lead by talking so don’t take that as an open invitation to dominate a conversation.

How does this tie into chess and foreseeing possible outcomes? If all you have prepared is the “make an introduction comment”, what are you supposed to follow up with? Lack of preparation makes it difficult to get to where you really want to go. Once you've made an introduction without thinking through your follow up options, then you’ve done what you said you wanted to do, so you may as well say goodbye to a response with any meat on the bone…

You need to go in with a clear understanding of what you expect to get out of that call as it pertains to helping that customer solve a problem and growing your customer base. You need to be prepared for several possible outcomes, including but not limited to getting that two minutes with the decision-maker. Be confident, be prepared, be a leader, be an expert. Your customer expects and deserves that much.

Want more info on Alchemy-Spetec products?

Business owners owe it to themselves to get up to speed on the CARES Act. I've been talking with my bankers and my CPA to make sure we are in a position to apply for a loan if necessary. My philosophy at the moment is to fill out the application as soon as it is available. If you wait until you need it, it may be too late. Banks and the SBA are anticipating a tsunami of applications, so don't hesitate.

Check out the following webpages for everything you need to know about the CARES Act including the Paycheck Protection Program here:

• Small Business Administration - CARES Act Resources
• US Chamber of Commerce - CARES Act Guide

Stephen Barton
President & CEO
Alchemy-Spetec

This article is an excerpt from Episode 5 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring JR Crowell and Morgan Helms of Helms Polyfoam. The Injection Connection is hosted by Jim Spiegel: Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute.  (If you'd rather listen, an audio version of this exchange is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Jim Spiegel: Do you guys do quite a bit of engineer outreach?

JR Crowell: Yeah. That’s probably where I spend the majority of my time. I love engineers because they love to learn. They're extremely open to us coming in and talking about what we do because it is exciting stuff. It's a neat process, with neat products and you're solving some huge issues. I love talking to them because they ask a lot of questions. For us, as a company going after innovative repair projects, it certainly helps when we can pick the brain of a hundred engineers a year or better and make sure that we're doing everything that we need for them to spec a project.

Jim: Is that one of the metrics that you look at as far as your sales KPIs? Along with the number of calls, average ticket price, close rate, do you also look at engineer presentations?

JR: Yeah. At the end of the year, we'll break down where our revenue came from and we certainly measure the engineering piece. You'll have some projects that are right there and you'll have a lot of them that come maybe a year, two years down the road. They just don't need you till they need you. But then, when they do, they remember the company that came in and tried to educate them a little bit and stayed in touch with them.

Jim: Yeah, you nailed it. I think the end game with the engineer effort really is two, three, even longer years out sometimes.

JR: I think it takes a while just like when a new contractor starts out, he has to figure out what all he could do with polyurethane. And so, these engineers are the same way. We get a lot of calls for the first month or two just testing, “Hey, is this a good opportunity? What do you think about this? Come look at that.” Then when you finally get a product or process that's "ginning" if you will, they already know what to call you in on, so they’re not wasting your time either. But we've got some that we work with so much now, they'll call us and say, “We're thinking about doing this. Is there anything you have that would be better? If so, I'd love to hear about it.” They've kind of started calling us pre-job, pre-spec, pre-bid.

Jim: That's the table you want to be at.

JR: That's right.

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

This article is an excerpt from Episode 5 of Alchemy-Spetec's podcast The Injection Connection, featuring JR Crowell and Morgan Helms of Helms Polyfoam. The Injection Connection is hosted by Jim Spiegel: Vice President of Alchemy-Spetec and Board Member at the International Concrete Repair Institute.  (If you'd rather listen, an audio version of this exchange is posted at the bottom of the article.)

Jim Spiegel: How do you go about your sales effort? Do you have people that are specific to just selling or are all your salespeople both technicians and sales professionals? How does that work?

J.R. Crowell: No, we have it divided up, we're very aggressive on the sales. We say all the time we're an outbound company not an inbound company because we are new. A lot of what we're doing, there's just not a lot of people searching for. So, a lot of it is an education piece. You certainly understand that as Alchemy-Spetec is a progressive company and you spend a lot of time educating us and our customers on what you do. And so, we do the same thing. So yeah, from a team standpoint, we do have a business development side, a sales side and we have a technician side. But everybody is cross-trained. When I came on board, I started on the rig with Morgan and we worked every day together. Then once we got somebody to replace me, I moved on and started handling more the operations and the sales and financial piece of the company. That's how we work. If you can train somebody to do what you do, you get to move up. Congratulations!

Morgan Helms: If you can't do the work, you can't sell it either.

Jim: If you need a large number of sales, obviously it can be pretty daunting to some of the sales team. They have these big goals and there's a fine line of discouragement so to speak with setting a goal too high and pushing for the optimal results.

JR: I'm really big on measuring what we're doing at the end of the month. So if we know that if we want to close X amount of business, I need to make X amount of sales. But to get those sales I've got to get X amount of appointments. So I have to make X amount of calls to get those appointments. When you reverse engineer back from that, and you’re able to teach your sales team that way of doing it, it doesn't seem as daunting.

Jim: Talking through the process and how you got to that number. Again, it goes back to planning.

JR: That's right. Hope is not a plan.

Want more information on Alchemy-Spetec products?

You aren’t taking a break from the economy, and neither are we. Alchemy-Spetec is operating at full capacity. As usual, we have plenty of inventory of both finished goods and raw materials. We are in constant contact with our suppliers and at this time we don’t foresee any supply chain disruptions. If anything changes, I will let you know.

While we are operating at 100% capacity, we are also mindful of our civic duty to help “flatten the infection curve” of the virus. We are practicing social distancing at work. We are wiping down door handles, faucets, and other high touch areas with bleach twice a day. We have cancelled all unnecessary travel and face to face meetings. Over half of our team is working from home.

So, while we are doing our part to stop the spread of the virus, we have decided not to participate in any sort of economic slowdown. We will do our part to keep America healthy – both physically healthy and financially healthy.

I understand that your organization may have changing needs in the following weeks. Please let us know what we can do to serve you better. As usual, we are here to help at 404-618-0438.

Sincerely,

Stephen Barton
CEO - Alchemy-Spetec