Simpson Strong Tie, Bosch Power Tools, and Ergodyne Work Gear team up for the ultimate road trip.
Quick, what do the Atlanta Falcons and Apple Computer have in common? Give up? Well of course they’re both incredibly popular consumer brands, but they’re also both behind some of the biggest U.S. construction projects in recent history. And that’s not all: Apple’s $5 billion mothership headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. and the Falcons’ $1.6 billion Mercedes-Benz Stadium were also recent stops on the Bosch Power Tour, a contractor safety and tool demonstration road trip that last year hit close to 200 jobsites across the country.
This year, Bosch invited Simpson Strong-Tie and Ergodyne Work Gear to join in on the 2017 Power Tour, which will likely hit another 120 work sites by the end of the year. At each stop, company reps deliver a 45-minute safety presentation and then provide a catered lunch followed by tool and technology demonstrations for contractors and subs – sometimes hundreds of them at a time.
“We were at the Apple campus for three days and trained more than 2,000 people,” says Bosch group marketing manager Greg Henderson. “These jobsites don’t have things like bring your kid to work day or big catered company meetings or potluck parties, so the Power Tour stops end up being a huge morale boost because it’s such an infrequent opportunity to stop work, see something really cool and eat an awesome free lunch.”
According to Henderson, the Power Tour evolved into a safety training and tool-demo event several years ago after attempts to have huge contractor events at distribution centers saw less than stellar attendance from workers time-pressed to leave the job site for a sales presentation. “It was really mixed results,” Henderson says. “Sometimes the contractors would show up, sometimes they wouldn’t. We quickly figured out to engage with a lot of users, let’s go where they are and bring them a really valuable experience and not a hard sell.”
This year Bosch, Simpson Strong-Tie and Ergodyne are training workers on hydration, working at height, and avoiding silica dust exposure, which includes a hands-on look at the revolutionary Bosch® Speed Clean™ dust extraction system that reduces installation times by up to 50 percent and nearly eliminates airborne silica dust from drilling anchoring holes. Simpson Strong-Tie® AT-XP® and SET-XP® are the only adhesives load-tested and code-listed with the Bosch system.
Airborne silica is such a big issue that the U.S. Department of Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) has issued new rules to limit construction worker exposure. (Originally set to launch in June 2017, implementation of the rules has been pushed back to September 2017 by the Trump administration.)
“A big part of Simpson Strong-Tie being involved in the Power Tour this year was the fact that the Speed Clean system not only cuts adhesive anchor installation time in half, but it is a perfect solution to help contractors address new OSHA restrictions on silica dust,” explains Simpson Strong-Tie marketing development director, Jason Liebreich. “And not only can we offer a way to eliminate dust in drilling foundation holes, the anchoring for MEP (mechanical, electrical, and plumbing) systems is likewise a big deal. From hanging pipes to anchoring conduits and machinery in any kind of commercial or industrial tilt-up facility, there are tons of concrete and masonry anchoring opportunities.”
Of course, hitting the road to visit workers is nothing new to Simpson Strong Tie reps, who have been on jobsites for years to help identify opportunities to work faster, safer, and more profitably. “We are one of the few companies that makes the investment in the indirect sale by educating contractors and focusing on building positive industry and customer relationships, and this is a huge extension of that,” Liebreich says. “We wanted to take a leadership role to ensure that workers are safe and installations are getting as close to perfect as they can be.”
That contractor-comes-first mentality made for a perfect Power Tower partnership with Bosch, a company that likewise embraces a culture of education and collaboration over the hard sell. “We’re not trying to catapult people down a marketing funnel and find the quickest way to sale,” Henderson says. “That’s not what relationship building is about, and Simpson Strong-Tie gets that. Together we’ve been really successful to bring more meaningful value to the contractor.”
Want to read more? Click here for additional info on how Simpson Strong-Tie and Bosch are teaming up to hit the road and clear the air on the 2017 Power Tour.