[creighton foyle]

i am going up to basildon tomorrow for the smart seal training day on saturday which i am hoping will give me a few tips on marketing and some good tips on cleaning methods.  i know there are a few on here who do not like/use their products and i am expecting it to lean heavily towards pushing their products  but i am hoping i will come away with enough info to at least make me competent,has anyone here done the course ?.

i did dip my toe into pressure washing a couple of years ago but did not really put in the required effort to get the work.

[concept]

You won't get a response for a while, they're all rolling on the floor laughing.

[Smurf]

Looks good to me 

Let us know how you get on...

[chris scott]

Yep ..I have done the smartseal courses and still go when they do one in my area. Lots of informative information to be learned. I still think they are a really good entry into the driveway and patio business...good value for money.
There will not be any high pressure selling of any products...just information about them if you decide to use them.

[johnny bravo]

how do you learn the teqniques when they are in hotels or travel lodges   for these training days.
ive often wondered chris.

do you get hands on training in sealing,     oil stain removal etc.

do you get to use any equipment

[creighton foyle]

basically i payed them to tell me how to use and apply their products, so whilst they did not lie when they said it was a training course they never actually tell you much about the practical side of pressure washing just all about how to use sealers and other products (that they happen to sell).

i would not have payed out what i did for travel accommodation etc had i known the actual course content as it was definitely not worth it in my opinion.

they have a nice looking portfolio of before and after photos which would be excellent as a sales aid but it was a little overpriced at £55 + vat.

their leaflets looked good to me and priced right as well.

they seemed to know what they were talking about and tried not to let you look at the business through rose tinted glasses.

it is possible that the products they sell are as good as any other on the market, maybe someone on here has used them and could comment.

i have tried to be honest and truthful about the course and my opinion of it and i have tried to be fair and balanced in what i
have said.

[Smurf]

You just comfired what I was thinking about smartseal so say training days.

Many thanks for your honest review

[chris scott]

basically i payed them to tell me how to use and apply their products, so whilst they did not lie when they said it was a training course they never actually tell you much about the practical side of pressure washing just all about how to use sealers and other products (that they happen to sell).

i would not have payed out what i did for travel accommodation etc had i known the actual course content as it was definitely not worth it in my opinion.

they have a nice looking portfolio of before and after photos which would be excellent as a sales aid but it was a little overpriced at £55 + vat.

their leaflets looked good to me and priced right as well.

they seemed to know what they were talking about and tried not to let you look at the business through rose tinted glasses.

it is possible that the products they sell are as good as any other on the market, maybe someone on here has used them and could comment.

i have tried to be honest and truthful about the course and my opinion of it and i have tried to be fair and balanced in what i
have said.

In fairness no course can cover everything in a day.
To become a "competent" pressure washer will take years. Every job/substrate is different. You need to learn about drainage,flow rates,nozzle sizes,pressure washer maintenance the list goes on.I am still learning to this day!
Look at the course like this . Did you get an in site into the cleaning and sealing industry? Do you now know of ways to grow your business at  a lot faster rate that going it alone? Do you have any marketing ideas that you did not have before hand? Do you know where to obtain a whole market package that given effort can work?
I still think the courses offer good value for money...I still attend them when they are local to me.(due to cost involved in traveling accom etc)

[Kev Martin]

basically i payed them to tell me how to use and apply their products, so whilst they did not lie when they said it was a training course they never actually tell you much about the practical side of pressure washing just all about how to use sealers and other products (that they happen to sell).

i would not have payed out what i did for travel accommodation etc had i known the actual course content as it was definitely not worth it in my opinion.

they have a nice looking portfolio of before and after photos which would be excellent as a sales aid but it was a little overpriced at £55 + vat.

their leaflets looked good to me and priced right as well.

they seemed to know what they were talking about and tried not to let you look at the business through rose tinted glasses.

it is possible that the products they sell are as good as any other on the market, maybe someone on here has used them and could comment.

i have tried to be honest and truthful about the course and my opinion of it and i have tried to be fair and balanced in what i
have said.

Creighton

I have not done the Smartseal course so I am not in a position to comment!  However, as a company we run Marblelife Hardfloor Courses and when explaining how to treat different problems we also explain that we as a "HardFloor Restoration Company use Aqua Mix Products to deal with our issues of cleaning and sealing.  We try not to push the products too hard but we have to tell Course Delegates what we use.

I have taken on board what you have said about SmartSeal and I am going to try and see on our next course if we can get away with not mentioning Brand Names!
I have found it difficult in the past because when you explain a problem and then how to solve it and what with if you just say for example we use a poultice and a high alkaline the next question is usually what Brand is it and where do you get it from?  We can then hardly say it's a secret can we?  We have found that different people take away different things from a course and if you learned something with SmartSeal it was worth it if it was for Free.

If I made our courses Free we would fill every course immediately and it would put a severe financial strain on the company.  I noticed recently the NuLife did a free course but I think everyone had to buy their Cheetah System to get the course free!  Having run training courses for neary 5 years I do not think there is a Training Establishment in the Country who can offer free courses without manufacterer back up and therefore if I have it right it would appear SmartSeal need to push products to survive.

This post may not all be factual it is the interpretation of the author

Kev Martin
Marblelife Ltd

[Smurf]

I'm not being funny but seems to me their sole intentions is ameid at newbies that know nothing about hard surface cleaning so can sell them a business package like you bought Chris.

So I'm guessing once you go on a 1 day smartseal course and never used a washer etc before in your life they still call you an approved smartseal contractor as they have given you so say training how to use there products.

basically i payed them to tell me how to use and apply their products, so whilst they did not lie when they said it was a training course they never actually tell you much about the practical side of pressure washing just all about how to use sealers and other products (that they happen to sell).

i would not have payed out what i did for travel accommodation etc had i known the actual course content as it was definitely not worth it in my opinion.

they have a nice looking portfolio of before and after photos which would be excellent as a sales aid but it was a little overpriced at £55 + vat.

their leaflets looked good to me and priced right as well.

they seemed to know what they were talking about and tried not to let you look at the business through rose tinted glasses.

it is possible that the products they sell are as good as any other on the market, maybe someone on here has used them and could comment.

i have tried to be honest and truthful about the course and my opinion of it and i have tried to be fair and balanced in what i
have said.

In fairness no course can cover everything in a day.
To become a "competent" pressure washer will take years. Every job/substrate is different. You need to learn about drainage,flow rates,nozzle sizes,pressure washer maintenance the list goes on.I am still learning to this day!
Look at the course like this . Did you get an in site into the cleaning and sealing industry? Do you now know of ways to grow your business at  a lot faster rate that going it alone? Do you have any marketing ideas that you did not have before hand? Do you know where to obtain a whole market package that given effort can work?
I still think the courses offer good value for money...I still attend them when they are local to me.(due to cost involved in traveling accom etc)

[chris scott]

I'm not being funny but seems to me their sole intentions is ameid at newbies that know nothing about hard surface cleaning so can sell them a business package like you bought Chris.

So I'm guessing once you go on a 1 day smartseal course and never used a washer etc before in your life they still call you an approved smartseal contractor as they have given you so say training how to use there products.

basically i payed them to tell me how to use and apply their products, so whilst they did not lie when they said it was a training course they never actually tell you much about the practical side of pressure washing just all about how to use sealers and other products (that they happen to sell).

i would not have payed out what i did for travel accommodation etc had i known the actual course content as it was definitely not worth it in my opinion.

they have a nice looking portfolio of before and after photos which would be excellent as a sales aid but it was a little overpriced at £55 + vat.

their leaflets looked good to me and priced right as well.

they seemed to know what they were talking about and tried not to let you look at the business through rose tinted glasses.

it is possible that the products they sell are as good as any other on the market, maybe someone on here has used them and could comment.

i have tried to be honest and truthful about the course and my opinion of it and i have tried to be fair and balanced in what i
have said.

In fairness no course can cover everything in a day.
To become a "competent" pressure washer will take years. Every job/substrate is different. You need to learn about drainage,flow rates,nozzle sizes,pressure washer maintenance the list goes on.I am still learning to this day!
Look at the course like this . Did you get an in site into the cleaning and sealing industry? Do you now know of ways to grow your business at  a lot faster rate that going it alone? Do you have any marketing ideas that you did not have before hand? Do you know where to obtain a whole market package that given effort can work?
I still think the courses offer good value for money...I still attend them when they are local to me.(due to cost involved in traveling accom etc)

Yes on both counts.
Anybody can buy an industrial pressure washer and go out and destroy things from the off. At least if you buy into the smartseal package you have some sort of back up over the phone.
My smartseal package represented excellent value for money. We had a little fall out over my smartseal  website being penalised by google for six months...and they did not seem that interested. The lead generation system they have in place is second to none.
I tend not to paint roofs or seal block paving much so we seem to have gone our separate ways. I would still like to work with them ...but I tend not to use  a lot of the products they sell. The only sealing i do is sandstone and imprinted concrete. They push more block paving and roofs.
 
Smurf we should talk ...you have some interesting questions /views.

[Smurf]

I like destroying things Chris as is much more fun

[chris scott]

I like destroying things Chris as is much more fun

[creighton foyle]

I do not have an issue with smartseal mentioning their products, if that's what they sell / use then I would expect them to. About 80 percent of the course was about the application of various sealers to various surfaces and they did not push their products though obviously they did have samples there.
There was no real course content set out anywhere when I signed up for the course so it was a case of me thinking I was buying one thing when they are actually selling something else which is as much my fault for not asking as it is theirs for not being detailed enough about what they are selling.

Re course content, I foolishly thought that before you could seal anything you would have to have at least some knowledge as to how to clean it first as mentioned by another poster earlier ie perhaps a basic idea of some widely used nozzle sizes and what they are used for , types of lances , problems you may encounter getting rid of debris ( I was told it makes a good compost if you dispose of it in the garden ). Nothing was mentioned about how to obtain water if no outside tap available,ways people have for disposing of garden debris, typical stains you may encounter on various surfaces and products you might use to try and remove them. All these things I mention are run of the mill to experienced washers but not to newbies. And perhaps the most glaring omition was the lack of any pre-printed notes or handouts for "trainees" to take away ( or is that because most of the stuff we talked about could be found on the instructions that come with each of the products described ).

As for the start up packages "massively overpriced"

Kev I did a leather cleaning course once with pav from the NCAA and he had covered all the labels on the bottles which were ltt and when I asked him why he said the NCAA did not like to be seen pushing a particular product however my opinion is that the trainer is entitled to endorse products he likes to use or has found to be reliable and I. Do not see why you or smartseal should be any different. I will add that you train people to clean and restore surfaces and in order to do so you do a hands on demo showing your products and the end result. Smartseal just explain to you how to use their products end of . so in my opinion they could do a lot worse than come to you for advice on how to run a hands on pressure washing course .

[BDCS]

I have offered to show people the ropes for nowt but don't have a queue  I was not given any training when I collected the babies from the hospital - they just let you get on with it which is what I did when I started pressure washing.

[Kev Martin]

Kev I did a leather cleaning course once with pav from the NCAA and he had covered all the labels on the bottles which were ltt and when I asked him why he said the NCAA did not like to be seen pushing a particular product however my opinion is that the trainer is entitled to endorse products he likes to use or has found to be reliable and I. Do not see why you or smartseal should be any different. I will add that you train people to clean and restore surfaces and in order to do so you do a hands on demo showing your products and the end result. Smartseal just explain to you how to use their products end of . so in my opinion they could do a lot worse than come to you for advice on how to run a hands on pressure washing course .
[/quote]

Creighton

I am endorsing products in a way but essentially what we are saying is that out of all the products we tried these are the ones we found the best and therefore use.  A lot of Training Schools only teach and don't actually do the work.  What we do is pass  on our Hands on Experience of work we have done.  Only next week a certain member of this Forum is going out on a job with some of my guys to improve his skills with a grinder and learn some more advanced techniques.  We no longer do pressure washing mate so they couldn't come to us and there are a lot more people on here who have more experience than me at PW.  We only have a small Falch now for cleaning the Planetary Heads on the Klindex Levighetors and a Honda Red Devil GX340.

Kev Martin
Marblelife Ltd

[BDCS]

You've missed the point - its not about training its about flogging a dream that most won't be able to act out

[creighton foyle]

You've missed the point - its not about training its about flogging a dream that most won't be able to act out

EXACTLY !

[chris scott]

Does not matter how good the teacher or the training ...some people will never get it.

[BDCS]

The trainer is not bothered whether they get it or not so long as the trainee leaves with empty pockets.