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The demand for swim spas is steadily rising. For the past three consecutive years, AQUA Magazine’s State of the Industry Survey found that swim spa sales are steadily growing. A very high percentage of respondents indicated they offer swim spas and were enthusiastic about their benefits.
If you’re selling swim spas, the odds of business growth are in your favor!
When people come into your store keep these five key points in mind:
1. CULTIVATE YOUR REPUTATION
Reputations are like mountains — you get to the top one step at a time; you can slip and fall in a second, but if you do, get up and keep climbing. It’s important to work at building and keeping a solid track record every day.
Here are a few good reminders:
- Keep your store clean and well organized at all times.
- Provide POP — posters, banners, danglers, floor displays, shelf liners — that easily point people to specific products in your store. And keep shelves organized. Unorganized shelves are overwhelming and make people want to leave.
- Get floor models and keep them pristine. Seeing is believing: A swim spa with crystal clear water, powerful jets and lighting is enticing. Hearing how much you like the swim spa and how easy it is to maintain is first-hand information that builds trust.
- Keep your website updated with current brands, pricing, and images. People check it!
- Ask for customer reviews. Print and post the great ones in your store. If you get a bad review, reach out to the reviewer and ask how you can help them. Take all reviews seriously, learn from them, and answer with sincerity.
2. TRAIN YOUR SALES STAFF
Training builds confidence. Confidence builds sales. Many manufacturers offer training online and in person. Many reps will gladly come to your store and train your staff! Take advantage of their expertise.
Make it mandatory for each salesperson to know each swim spa and how it works. Test it yourself and have your sales staff test it. Everyone will be able to answer a customer’s question when you know the product inside and out. A knowledgeable, attentive sales staff builds credibility and loyalty.
Training extends to customer service — the main point of which is to treat people with kindness and politeness 100% of the time. “The customer is right” became a cliché for a good reason. Treat customers well, and they’ll treat you well by continuing to buy from your store, and maybe, giving your store a good review.
3. FIND OUT CUSTOMERS’ WANTS AND NEEDS
Customers often have specific desires. If they say they want a pool, it may turn out that a swim spa best fits their needs. Ditto if they say they want a hot tub.
Swim spas are built for fun, fitness, therapeutic massage and relaxation — they do it all.
Ask customers questions to find out what they really want. For example, do they want to “swim laps?” A swim spa’s jet current gives them more fitness than laps and doesn’t require any open turns, flip turns, or tumble turns — you just keep swimming.
Do they hate swimming laps, but want exercise? In a swim spa, they can walk, run, surf or row. They can use stretch bands and pool weights — swim spas offer a world of fitness.
Do they need the hot massaging waters of a hot tub? Do they want a place that’s great fun for kids? Do they want to use their swim spa year round? They get all those things in a swim spa!
Plus, swim spas come in different sizes, offer a variety of seats, have jets that provide robust current, and jets for massage at different levels. They also offer a myriad of options including lighting, splash pads, and accessories.
Find out each particular customer’s needs and wants so you can help them find the swim spa that fits all their needs, in the space they have available for it. And then find out if that swim spa is in stock and when it’s available.
Ask what space they have available — that can determine a lot. They may want a pool, but don’t have the space — that’s when a swim spa can fill their desires. Or, they may want the largest swim spa you have, but a small swim spa is what fits best.
Swim spas have almost never-ending benefits. When people realize how versatile a swim spa is and how easily they bring friends and family together, that can be the key point to a sale.
4. BE SAVVY ABOUT ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Swim spas are meant to be used year round, whether they’re in Florida, Arizona, Maine or Minnesota.
Construction and insulation are a concern. The swim spa itself must stand up to the elements. This is something social media groups chat about, ask questions of the group, and share good and bad stories with pictures regularly.
Each swim spa brand is built and insulated a little differently. Find out the specifics on the brands you carry. Prospective buyers will ask if a swim spa will be usable in their particular weather — whether that’s 100-degree days for weeks, or below zero and subjected to snow and ice.
5. EXPLAIN WATER CARE MAINTENANCE SIMPLY
Many people believe a swim spa is hard to take care of. Here’s where you can shine! Let them know that water care maintenance is essential and can be easy. Keeping the water balanced and sanitized is the key. Assure them you’ll help them get started, and you’ll be there to help if they have any issues.
Sanitizing a swim spa used to be a challenge because there were simply no complete sanitizing products made for swim spas. You had to either consider a swim spa like a hot tub and advise people to use sanitizers intended for hot tubs — or treat the swim spa like a pool and recommend sanitizers intended for pools.
Neither are good solutions that work well, because a swim spa has more water than a hot tub, less than a pool, and water temperatures can span both average pool and hot tub temperatures.
Sanitizers work differently in different volumes of water and different temperatures.
Fortunately, FROG® introduced the first and only complete sanitizing system made just for swim spas in January 2024.
FROG @ease® Sanitizing System for Swim Spas was purpose-built for the unique water volumes and temperatures of a swim spa. The System comes in prefilled cartridges so no more guessing which sanitizer to use, how much, and no measuring or touching chemicals is required. Plus, shock is needed only once a month, with FROG Maintain® for Swim Spas, a nonchlorine shock that contains no cyanuric acid.
The System is unique, because it kills bacteria 2 ways, with FROG Sanitizing Minerals® and a low level of SmartChlor®. SmartChlor is a patented chlorine that self-regulates with a low level of chlorine at all times. Plus, it uses up to 75% less chlorine* — and people are always interested in using less chlorine.
Many new swim spas now come with built-in sanitizing systems. However, ozone and UV systems are secondary sanitizers and must be used with a primary sanitizer, such as chlorine.
FROG @ease is a primary sanitizer, registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — that means the claims stated are proven — and people can verify the claims.
FROG also offers free POP, free online training and co-op advertising. Plus, the free FROG Water Care App gives customers help with water care issues 24/7, and lists you as their dealer, so they’ll come to you for help and supplies.
*Compared to the minimum ANSI recommended chlorine level of 2.0 ppm for a hot tub or swim spa
REFERENCES [previous AQUA Magazine articles]:
- 2 Approaches to Swim Spa Water Care, June 2019
- 3 Keys to Selling Swim Spas, January 2022
- Follow a Swim Spa Sale From Start to Finish, June 2022