Stain-Matching Masters: How to Attract Commercial Clients With Stain-Matching Services

Andren’s, a fixture in Duluth, Minnesota, since 1896, is redefining its role in the community. When Chris Ellian took over Andren’s in 2020, he worked to create a balance of traditional and modern offerings to meet the diverse needs of his growing customer base.

Originally a go-to for weekend DIYers, the store has expanded its reach, now supplying paints, stains and coatings for major commercial projects across the city, including a 30-floor hospital and an arena renovation.

One recent large-scale commercial project Andren’s supplied was the remodeling of a local hockey arena. With this project, Ellian says the company was renovating the arena instead of building a new one, which made interior wood stain a larger part of the project than it would’ve been if it was built new.

“A lot of the time, it’s much more expensive to build new rather than renovate these old hockey barns, which were made of a lot of wood whether it’s the rafters or the cabinets in the suites or offices.”

Thanks to Andren’s location in Minnesota, a state that has upwards of 124,000 log cabins, there is no shortage of customers looking for large amounts of stain, another customer segment Ellian has learned to cater to.

“There are some log cabins here where there isn’t a single painted surface,” Ellian says. “Everything is stained.”

Successful Stain-Matching

While diversifying its customer base and finding niche customers has paid off in the interior stain category, Andren’s has made a name for itself in this category by being one of the best at stain-matching. Ellian gives credit for his store’s success to being able to carry a variety of interior stain products, including every SKU his primary stain supplier offers.

“The reason we carry so many types of stain in every color is because we’ve developed the reputation for being really good at stain matching,” he says. “When we stain-match, we prefer intermixing or layering a single application of a stain rather than tinting, which sets us apart.”

When any member of Ellian’s team is working on stain-marching an interior wood project, they ask the customer to bring in an existing stained piece to find the closest match. Andren’s carries a large amount of pre-tinted stains from its various manufacturers, which gives customers plenty of options and a higher likelihood of finding the closest match.

“When we’re stain-matching, we go with the easier route first, which is finding the closest color match from the existing stains we stock,” he says. “If that doesn’t work, the next step is to mix stains, which takes more trial and error.”

If all else fails, Ellian says the final step is stain-tinting, which involves adding a tint to a base stain, creating a custom color. Tinting is his least-preferred option, and one he does the least because the customer has to purchase the stain whether it matches or not.

Every employee at Andren’s has the ability to stain-match, not just Ellian. The training process for stain-matching isn’t as formal as running a cash register or other administrative tasks, it’s more about trial and error—similar to the process of stain-matching.

If Ellian has a new employee, he will have them sit with another employee who has experience in stain-matching and watch how they approach each match.

“Thankfully, our lack of turnover has meant we do not have to train employees quite as often,” he says. “Many of my employees come with prior paint store experience, so a task like stain-matching isn’t completely foreign to them.”

After his new employee has sat more than 50 different stain-matches, Ellian will have them sit on their own and try to match stains for test pieces he keeps in the store.

“The combination of real-world experience working with customers and the individual training where there aren’t consequences if mistakes are made is a great way to grow the employee’s confidence in stain-matching,” Ellian says.

4 Ways to Start Business with Commercial Customers

If you’re looking for the next big business opportunity for 2024, the answer could be in commercial and industrial sales. Commercial customers may have specific needs that are a bit different from your regular customer base, but they can provide steady sales to help you offset the slower times of the year. When considering selling to this customer base, here are tips for starting out.

Potential Customers Are Everywhere

Get to Know Everyone at the Company

In a large organization, such as a school, there may be several people involved in purchasing. Some departments may operate off of a regular contract, while others have their choice of where to buy. Get to know everyone in the company who is authorized to purchase and you might start to get some of that walk-in business, especially when there’s an emergency and need something right away. Those incremental sales may eventually lead to a larger relationship with that customer.

Emphasize Your Customer Service

You likely won’t be the only place businesses in town can get maintenance and repair products, but you might have the best customer service. For some businesses looking for a supplier, the lowest price may always win. Others may consider the other benefits you can provide. Be willing to go out of your way to source that hard-to-find item, even if it’s unrelated to your typical product mix. Offer delivery and convenience. As a local retailer, you should be able to better provide for the needs of a commercial customer than a big-box commercial distributor.

Get an Outside Sales Rep

One of the best ways to get the business of commercial customers is to have a sales representative dedicated to finding new customers and helping current ones. An outside sales rep can cold call potential customers. Having a rep also lets commercial customers know that there is someone dedicated to helping them and gives them a point person to ask questions. A sales rep may spend a lot of time sourcing products and putting together bids to win a contract with a larger organization.