March 14, 2007 - PITTSBURGH, PA - Chris Cable, President of Fein Power Tools, Inc., knew a good thing when he saw it, and he saw it ten years ago when he got his first look at what later came to be called the MultiMaster. At that time it was one of dozens of power tools in the line of his German parent company, C&E Fein, GMBH.
But this one was something special. It was completely different from any tool Cable had ever seen.
It was a saw, a sander, a grout cutter, a grinder, a polisher and a scraper, and to Cable it was the most important development in power tools since the circular saw.
The tool had been in the German company's line for years - given short shrift by the industrial-minded sales force. Over-priced ($600 a unit) and under-marketed, nothing much had happened to it since it was introduced many years before.
"I had never heard of a tool like this," says Cable, "but as soon as I saw it I knew that it would have powerful impact on the U.S. Do It Yourself market. I told the parent company that if they could reduce the price, I could sell 20,000 units a year, but they couldn't bring the price down deeply enough."
Eventually, the German parent company gave Cable the green light to try to market the MultiMaster in the U.S.
With a lowered price and a DIY positioning, the product did well, but Cable knew it could do better,
LITTLE GIANT HAS BIG EFFECT
About that time, Cable became aware of another product that was beginning to enjoy a huge success in the U.S. - the Little Giant ladder. While the ladder appeared to be a completely different product from the MultiMaster, Cable focused on the basics: it was essentially an industrial product; it had no competition; it was targeted to the same market as the MultiMaster; it was using long form DRTV, and it was making a lot of money.
Inspired by the ladder's success, Chris began to assemble a DRTV team. The first member selected was Doug Fowkes of Infomercials, Inc., the producer of the Little Giant's infomercial.
While attending the Winter ERA show last year, Cable met Loren Crannell, Sales VP at fulfillment company, Moulton Logistics. Moulton soon became another team member.
"When Loren showed me Moulton's technology, especially their OrderVision system, their current and past online call monitoring capability and their Dashboard tool, I was strongly impressed." says Cable. "Their online reporting could show me exactly what's going on with my business at any point, and their call center seemed well up to the challenge of meeting our upsell goals."
The MultiMaster informercial was launched last April. It soon became a strong success. "Last year we sold nearly 60,000 units, almost all of them attributed to DRTV," says Cable.
When prospects call, they learn the MultiMaster, including six accessories, is priced at $279.80, With the upsell, a metal carrying case and two additional accessories, the price increases to $339. About half of all sales include the upsell.
The MultiMaster is a real success story - an industrial tool targeted to the non-professional market through the power of DRTV, with non-professional sales up 60% over the previous year,
A new MultiMaster infomercial will be launching in July.
