David Bohrer
President
Hastings Air Energy Control Inc.
New Berlin
Industry: Dust collection and process ventilation
Employees: 40
www.hastingsair.com
Hastings Air Energy Control Inc. in New Berlin designs, implements and services air cleaning solutions for the industrial process marketplace. President David Bohrer says creating a showroom to demonstrate products pays off.
“The saying ‘a picture is worth a thousand words,’ best describes the vision behind our Technology Experience Center, a 5,000-square-foot showroom at Hastings’ headquarters. This new addition puts our products on display for customers and prospects who want a hands-on demo before they buy, which can be worth more than a thousand words of product descriptions.
“The ‘aha!’ moment came during a sales strategy session. While reviewing recent successes, several salespeople noted that their clients had made a purchase after visiting our showroom, and some had bought a product that they didn’t even know we offered until they visited us! It was then that we decided to expand the showroom into a true destination for customers, prospects, suppliers, business partners, industry organizations, contractors and sales engineers.
“The center was designed to provide an open environment where visitors could explore possibilities. The surprise result has been the enthusiastic interest by visitors who make return trips with their colleagues. We love to overhear the comment, ‘I have to bring my boss here now!’ or better yet, ‘I feel like I just went through the modern Museum of Science and Industry!’ This is the exact feeling we wanted to create when designing the TEC.
- All 75 pieces of equipment in the TEC are available for visitors to inspect.
- Clients can bring their work into our shop and test drive multiple solutions in a safe environment, at no cost.
- Clients can see real-time energy-saving results by watching the energy costs rise and fall while operating the applications and controls.
“The Hastings team is overjoyed with the reaction to our Technology Experience Center, and I encourage all companies to create a ‘must see’ destination of their own.”
