The Sherwin-Williams Vendor Product of the Year Award recognizes a single, new product or product line exclusive to Sherwin-Williams that provides breakthrough technology, immediate sales and strong field organizational support.
The 2015 Vendor Product of the Year award went to the Titan™ FlexSpray™ Handheld Sprayer.
With an innovative design and function, the FlexSpray Handheld Sprayer allows painters to spray a wide range of coatings, as it functions as both a fine finish and production work sprayer. It was immediately embraced by painting contactors and DIYers alike.
Vendors of the Year
Sherwin-Williams also announced the recipients of its 2015 Vendor of the Year Awards, honoring top product partners for excellence in sales, service, product innovation and performance. The winners:
Shaw
A fourth-time recipient of the award, Shaw achieved outstanding results participating and investing in Sherwin-Williams marketing and training programs. The vendor works side-by-side with the multifamily and healthcare national account teams to ensure that Sherwin-Williams floorcovering stores are the preferred destination for these customer segments.
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Bercom
Posting sales increases for the third consecutive year, Bercom continues to provide new and innovative products that make painting even easier and faster to complete. As a third-time award recipient, success is further driven by solid customer service and targeted HANDy Paint Products promotions, for products such as the HANDy Paint Pail®.
M-T-M
A five-time recipient of the Sherwin-Williams vendor of the year award, Mi-T-M excels at developing pressure washers that meet specific market needs and expand reach. In 2015, the company developed and implemented a strategy to simplify the selling process for the Sherwin-Williams field organization, including new marketing materials and strong promotional support. The result was a solid sales increase while maintaining exceptional service levels.
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SAS Safety Corp.
A first-time winner of the award, SAS Safety Corp. serves an important role in the glove and safety category. The Sherwin-Williams field organization tapped into the brand recognition of SAS Safety Corp. products to drive incremental sales. The field-driven success led to a planogram placement and a distribution center program with a service level at a perfect 100 percent.
Innovative Marketing Solutions
Innovative Marketing Solutions worked with the same excitement as the Sherwin-Williams team for the introduction of the game-changing color system, ColorSnap®, in fall of 2015. As the lead point-of-sale engineering company, it led the creation of the main color display, ColorSnap® Studio. Every facet of the cost-effective and durable display was engineered and tested, including the packaging used for transportation to Sherwin-Williams stores. A third-time recipient of the award, Innovative Marketing Solutions even beat the production schedule for early completion of the project.
Visual Marketing
As a first-time recipient of the award and lead creative and engineering company responsible for designer ColorSnap®, tools and secondary displays, Visual Marketing’s field research and parallel development of alternative and improved tools turned concepts into reality: a beautiful and functional set of professional tools for the design community. Its work to re-engineer secondary displays led to improved durability and simplified store assembly.
Chroma Source
An integral part of the creation of ColorSnap, was the move to create individual 2-by-3-inch color chips. Chroma Source was instrumental in the development of the layout and typeset needed to make the chips bilingual, while also providing additional color information for Sherwin-Williams customers. The company was able to produce the millions of color chips and fan deck pages needed for the launch of ColorSnap. As a third time recipient, Chroma Source was even able to beat the delivery date.
Diamabrush
Providing a wide range of products for the growing floor preparation and finishing market, dedicated Diamabrush sales representatives supported the Sherwin-Williams field organization to penetrate the market, which resulted in a strong sales gain in 2015. A first-time recipient, Diamabrush also developed strong marketing pieces, including a custom catalog for Sherwin-Williams employees’ and customers’ use.
Exceeding customer expectations
Award winners were named at the annual Vendor Marketing Presentation and Awards ceremony, held in January at the Sherwin-Williams National Sales Meeting in Orlando, Florida.
“As we celebrate our 150th anniversary with employees, customers and partners alike, we thank all our vendor partners for their contributions to our success over the years as we strive to consistently exceed our customers’ expectations,” said Tracey Gairing, vice president of marketing and purchasing, Sherwin-Williams.