Episode 157: Grow Revenue by Offering Diving Boards, Slides, Rails, Lifts, and Mod-Lites with Brett Fritts of S.R. Smith
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Episode Summary
Today, we speak with Brett Fritts, COO at S.R. Smith, a manufacturer of pool deck equipment based in Canby, OR. Founded in 1932, S.R. Smith evolved from a small diving board company into a trusted supplier of swimming pool products for customers around the world. Today, they are the category leader in diving boards, rails, slides, and lifts.
S.R. Smith focuses on the life cycle of a pool. When customers have young kids, they want a certain set of things in and around the pool, as the kids get older there will be a different set of things, when the kids move out they probably want a different kind of vibe or approach to the pool, and as they get older they will need help accessing that pool. S.R. Smith can help your clients Pool Better during every stage of life.
Listen in as Brett shares the evolution of the diving board, how S.R. Smith came to develop its line beyond the diving board such as slides, rails, lifts, lighting, and in-pool furniture, and how pool professionals can grow their revenue by offering these products to their clients.
Topics Discussed
01:45 - An introduction to Brett Fritts and S.R. Smith
06:21 - S.R. Smith History
09:56 - How the diving board has evolved since 1932
16:09 - Why the company began building slides
25:17 - Replacing a diving board
28:11 - Installing a slide
36:23 - Developing S.R. Smith’s line of pool access products
39:52 - What goes into building the lifts
42:09 - Why S.R. Smith got into the lighting business in 2013
45:43 - Mod-Lite
54:26 - Launching a line of in-pool furniture in 2018
57:50 - S.R. Smith’s key acquisitions in the last few years
1:03:45 - The company’s involvement in the competitive swimming space
1:06:06 - Keeping the customer at the center when developing every new product
Key Quotes From Episode
If the jig’s in good shape and it’s placed properly, you can slap a new [diving] board and standing base and it’s not a big deal. It’s literally 60 to 90 minutes of labor.
If you think about S.R. Smith’s portfolio, most of our stuff is optional. You don’t need a diving board on a pool. You may or may not need a ladder or a rail. What we wanted to do was find something that had a higher attachment rate, and lighting literally goes on every pool.
We try to keep the customer involved along the way. If we don’t, quite frankly, if we birth something it’s probably stillborn because we haven’t had enough customer touches along the way to make sure what we’re doing is going to solve a purpose and add value.
