Amidst the daily routine of HVAC distributing, there's one thing that always gets Johnstone Supply's Dixie Lee Jones excited — introducing new products to customers.

Jones, who knows all of her Clarksville, Tenn., service tech customers by name, likes to be the "first one on the block" with new solutions to old problems.

"There's no better feeling than seeing a new product help a customer do a better job," said Jones, who manages the 8,000-square-foot Clarksville branch for the 290-location HVAC distribution chain, Johnstone Supply.

One case in point involved customer Paul Baggett, president of Paul Baggett Co., Clarksville, Tenn. Baggett had several leaking condensers and window units that needed either replacement or extensive repairs. Jones had discovered a product, Super Seal HVACR refrigeration sealant from Cliplight Manufacturing, that looked like it would handle the situation. Baggett was cautious about using a new product but decided that he had nothing to lose. The Super Seal stopped the leaks without causing other problems — and Baggett immediately bought nine more cans to stock on his truck.

Word spreads fast in small-town HVAC circles. Jones was soon introducing local military base maintenance people to the sealant for appliance, rooftop and food service equipment. The sealant fixed a flower shop's leaking blower coil on a commercial floral cooler. It also worked on a large food court cooler with a tough inaccessible leak in the oil seal of the compressor. In another military base commercial application, the sealant eliminated the need to tear up a 4-inch-thick concrete slab where 25-foot-long underground refrigerant lines were suspected of leaking. And when an HVAC maintenance technician for a local manufacturing warehouse reported that all of his five leaking 27-year-old commercial rooftop units had been sealed and were working fine, that manufacturing plant was able to postpone expensive replacement purchases — and the service technician no longer had to spend many hours a month repairing coils.

Another new product Jones brought to her customers was ZebraStat by Zebra Instruments, Georgetown, Texas — a solid state diagnostic testing tool invented by a Texas serviceman for refrigeration and a/c units. ZebraStat overrides a system thermostat, allowing alligator clip connections to operate the fan, reversing valve, first stage heat/cool and/or second stage heat/cool functions. Technicians like it, Jones says, because it not only helps them troubleshoot low voltage control problems, but it saves them the hassle of running up and down stairs all day to work with thermostats.

Jones said, "I knew it would be a hit as soon as I saw it, so I ordered some right away."

While Jones enjoys discovering new products on her own, she also likes to be sure that she gets the newest items offered from her Johnstone cooperative to keep her store on the cutting edge. Johnstone was one of the first distributors to carry ventless heaters from Rinnai, Peachtree City, Ga., which helped one Johnstone customer who faced the task of space heating a small efficiency apartment building while also making it child-proof. Most available heaters either have hot cabinets or exposed flames, but the serviceman provided a Rinnai vent-free heater from Johnstone and gained a customer because he addressed the customer's concerns.

To let her customers know about new products, especially smaller fledging products that don't have huge advertising budgets, Jones gets creative. For example, she took a pinch of homemaking, a spoonful of ingenuity, and a whole lot of merchandising knowledge from her marketing degree to transform an old wire spice rack into a one-of-a-kind SuperSeal counter display located within easy reach at the point-of-purchase counter. Twelve cans fit nicely on the rack, and Jones made a header out of a sell sheet and magazine story touting the product benefits.

"I don't think there's a lot of merchandising in parts houses, but my marketing degree helped me realize that if you don't introduce something, nobody will know about it," said Jones.

"I pay close attention to merchandising at retail stores because what works at a supermarket will most likely work at a parts house, too," Jones continued. "That's one reason I like to move displays around every month because customers perceive the change as a lot of new product." She adds, "It looks fresh and new to a returning customer."