The second well-being seminar of SCP France, which took place in Rodez (12) from 29th September to 1st October, was held in the magnificent surroundings of the Hostellerie de Fontanges.  Just as in 2013, this chateau dating back to the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century, was entirely reserved for the occasion, complete with spas installed indoors and outdoors, and in particular, an impressive swim spa by Garden Leisure.

All this equipment for relaxation was placed at the disposal of the professionals gathered there to allow them to discover first-hand the pleasures of the spa and to test them out.

Personnel from the 5 SCP agencies (Aix, Bordeaux, Lyon, Tours and of course Rodez) were present, including sales staff, at the service of the clients or potential professionals from their regions.

During the seminar, Benoît RIVIERE, Product Manager at SCP France, in charge of SCP France's exclusive products, in particular the Garden Leisure, Beachcomber and Cove spas, and organizer of the "Well-being" days told us:

"This year we invited around 55 companies for the occasion, which represented, with the colleagues of the company heads, almost 90 participants. They came from the neighbouring regions as well as from more distant cities such as Nantes, Lille, Mulhouse, Paris, and for the first time from Corsica".

Group photo around the Garden Leisure 1700 swim spa 

What role exactly did your teams play with regard to the pool dealer clients?

BR: Listening, helping and training while proposing one or more ranges of our 3 exclusive brands based on the needs of each company. The 90 partners who attended are all SCP customers with whom we already have a long history and a strong partnership in the ​​well-being sector. The economic context and the evolution of our business, demand that we open ourselves to other markets. Our customers have recognized the economic necessity of working on the spa market to evolve their businesses and profitability. The objective of this well-being seminar was to enable them to have an important new source of revenue throughout the year and thus minimize the risk of depending on a single market such as construction or renovation of pools.

This collective awareness is accompanied also by a legitimate demand from our partners who need real support and regular assistance from the SCP sales teams. It does not consist of just selling a spa and leaving the professional on his own with the spa, with the sales brochure in full colour as the only sales argument.  Besides our financial capacity and therefore our capacity for storage of more than 300 spas and ability to serve customers quickly, SCP France has the largest sales force in the pool market in the field of distribution. This strength allows us to offer and guarantee regular monthly support to our customers on subjects dedicated to the spa business.

Marketing tools, training in the water chemistry of spas, store layouts and sales training, are some of the tools that the SCP sales teams have mastered and offer our SPA retailers during visits to their stores. All these tools and regular assistance from our sales teams are the keys to long-term success for our spa dealers.

What is so original about the 2nd edition of this seminar?

BR: At the first well-being seminar, which our partners were very excited about, it was the comfort in which we immersed them. Our goal was to see that each client learnt about the 'spa' products and in the most concrete way, that is to say, by actually trying them out.

We repeated this process this time, and provided the opportunity for our customers to try out all our three spa ranges - Beachcomber, Garden Leisure, and for the first time, our Cove spas.

Another innovation of this 2nd edition was to allow our customers to 'test the waters' of our Garden Leisure 1700 swim spa, so they could master the sales argument for a swim spa and, above all, to appreciate its benefits.

During training, we also chose to tackle new subjects by affording our partners the knowledge that will enable them to better understand the mechanisms and tools necessary for making the best use of their customers / prospects databases.

To make sense out of this first step in the optimization of customer and prospects databases, the marketing department of SCP France provided personalized communication tools for each client, enabling targeted communication to prospects and customers with the help of a personalized marketing calendar.

These sales support tools are developed by us with the logo of our customers and help them to increase footfalls in their establishments throughout the year. They thus participate in the life and dynamism of their sales points.

We also had the pleasure of bringing in Patrick Sanchez, trainer and consultant, well known in sales techniques and in the world of well-being, who imparted his knowledge of sales techniques to give our partners the keys to a successful sale.

Which of your suppliers were present?

BR: The well-being seminar took place in three stages. The first part focused primarily on the spa, sauna and chemistry, together with our manufacturing partners, including Beachcomber, Garden Leisure, Cove Spa, the German manufacturer of Helo saunas and Xavier Darok, Doctor in Chemistry from SCP Europe.

The second part related to marketing tools proposed and created by SCP and on workshops regarding different sales techniques taught by external trainers.

The third part was conducted in the form of an exhibition dedicated to well-being, where the brand Balboa, and Aquaness aquatic bikes were represented; also the financing company, Sofinco, with whom we have a national partnership. Our desire was to bring together in one place, all our well-being partners to offer our customers the tools for success.

We noticed there were representatives of SCP Europe?

BR: Yes, this year we had the pleasure of receiving members of the SCP Europe team, including Sylvia Monfort, General Manager of SCP Europe, European Marketing Director Eric Calais and Dr. Xavier Darok, Doctor in Chemistry. Most countries where SCP Europe is implanted were represented, notably the teams from SCP Italy, SCP Portugal, and representatives of SCP U.K., which gave a truly European character to the seminar. To these countries we must add Belgium, with the presence of SCP Belgium, which attended the seminar with several of its customers. The United States was also represented with the participation of the Product Manager of SCP POOL, Jerry Hyland, who is in charge of development of the various SCP spa brands at the global level.