It All Started with a Single Case and a Stubborn Clog
Drain Punch and P-Free have been making plumbers’ lives easier for years. Plumbers love that they can stop by their plumbing supply houses and pick up a bottle or case when they need it, and plumbing supply houses love that it flies off the shelves. But how did it get onto those shelves in the first place? The short answer is Drain Punch Carl, but the longer answer involves a stubborn clog and a product that sells itself.
Every Journey Has To Start Somewhere
Before August 2016, Carl Lamberti didn’t know anything about drain chemicals, and his experience with drains was similar to that of most homeowners. In that fateful month and year, Carl learned about Drain Punch and started selling it.
He knew Drain Punch was a good product, but as a salesman, he still expected to have to keep chasing customers down to encourage them to buy it. After some success selling to a few apartment complexes, he experienced something unusual when a couple of them called him because they wanted to buy more Drain Punch!
It’s Not Snake Oil… It’s A Way To Avoid Using the Snake
Selling the product in the early days could still be an upward climb. When he pitched Drain Punch in the maintenance shop at the University of Richmond, he was greeted with the suspicion usually reserved for snake oil salesmen. He didn’t let that stop him, though, and they decided to buy a case after watching his demonstration. It turned out to be a game-changer when they contracted a plumber named Chuck to clear a particularly difficult clog. (https://youtu.be/sLiVRh2JM8g?si=b40ATPxy0Y-MqXTU)
Chuck tried snaking it, he tried jetting it, and nothing worked. He found a bottle of Drain Punch in the maintenance shop and dumped it down the drain in a desperate effort to avoid tearing out the wall. Fifteen minutes later, the drain was unclogged and running smoothly. A month after hesitantly agreeing to try a single case of Drain Punch, the university was eagerly calling Carl to order three more.
A Receptive Audience
After seeing Drain Punch in action, Chuck wanted to get his hands on more of the product, so he did what any sensible plumber would do: he went to his plumbing supply house to buy some. Unfortunately, they had never heard of Drain Punch.
When Drain Punch Carl showed up at the Hajoca in Richmond a short time later with his demo bag in hand and asked if he could speak to a manager about Drain Punch, he was greeted with unexpected enthusiasm. They had been trying to track it down ever since Chuck came in asking about it, so they asked Drain Punch Carl if he knew where to get it.
“You get it from me,” Carl replied.
The manager’s face lit up. “Let’s talk,” he said.
After doing a demonstration for the store manager and the sales team, Drain Punch Carl received an order for an entire pallet of Drain Punch, and the Hajoca in Richmond became the first plumbing supply house to stock the product. They added P-Free to their shelves when it became available, and Drain Punch Carl soon found other plumbing supply houses eager to stock Drain Punch and P-Free.
Another Plumber Can’t Keep A Good Thing To Himself
Like Chuck, Ross brought Drain Punch to the attention of his local plumbing supply house… but with a twist. Ross wasn’t a plumber coming into the store looking for the product. VAMAC, another plumbing supply house in Richmond, had hired the master plumber and gas fitter to be a salesman. Ross had used the product while working for a university, and knew that Drain Punch and P-Free needed to be on VAMAC’s shelves. (https://youtu.be/it79AvwdhGM?si=uLQC4n9QuTiPDaGI)
VAMAC, a company that is over a century old, agreed with Ross and gave Drain Punch Carl a call to arrange for a demonstration. After seeing the power of Drain Punch firsthand, VAMAC began stocking Drain Punch and P-Free at all 21 of their locations in Virginia. As more plumbers discovered Drain Punch and P-Free, VAMAC began to struggle to keep their shelves stocked. Getting on the shelves at VAMAC and Hajoca proved to be just the beginning of a string of successful product demonstrations and lasting partnerships.
Growing Regional Presence
Gaining momentum from these early successes, Drain Punch Carl set his sights on expanding all along the East Coast. Building on his success with Hajoca in Richmond, he proceeded to reach out to their locations in West Virginia and North Carolina. The response from these supply houses was just as positive.
Success wasn’t limited to the immediate area, either. Keenan Supply, a plumbing supply house out in Las Vegas, Nevada, caught word of Drain Punch’s smashing results on tough clogs and began to stock both it and P-Free. As a major hospitality hotspot, Vegas sees a lot of clogged urinals and kitchen drains, which meant Keenan Supply was well positioned to introduce restaurants, hotels, casinos, and other large facilities to the products, and they became a trusted tool for plumbers across the city just a fast as they had back east.
Drain Punch Carl saw all this expansion as clear proof that Drain Punch and P-Free were solving real problems for real professionals in a way no other products had. Traditional cleaners just couldn’t match the performance of Drain Punch and P-Free.
Cold Calls and Customer Advocacy
As things continued to build, Drain Punch Carl started looking to fill in gaps in distribution. One such gap was the I-64 corridor from Richmond to Virginia Beach – not a single supply house stocked Drain Punch or P-Free along this corridor. There were supply houses, of course, like Southern Plumbing and Heating, which has four stores in the area. They simply didn’t have Drain Punch and P-Free on their shelves.
Drain Punch Carl decided to make a cold call, using the tried and true approach of a live demo and a straight talk about what makes Drain Punch the best product on the market. Once again, the power of Drain Punch carried the day, and Southern Plumbing and Heating began to stock Drain Punch and P-Free in all four locations.
Southern Plumbing and Heating had found a great product… and introduced Drain Punch Carl to the owners of P & H Wholesale, a company with 8 locations in Iowa and South Dakota. After a Zoom call and video demo, Drain Punch and P-Free were flying off of their shelves, too.
Existing customers helped expand the network as well. A maintenance supervisor – and satisfied Drain Punch user – from an apartment complex in Williamsburg knew of a smaller local supply house, A&J Supply. He suggested that Drain Punch Carl reach out to them. One demonstration later, and A&J was onboard, with Drain Punch and P-Free stocked on their shelves.
Breaking Into National Distributors
Ferguson Enterprises is the largest distributor of plumbing supplies in the United States, so it was very exciting when they called Drain Punch Carl for a quote on 15 cases of Drain Punch. The conversation about a quote turned into something more substantial: Carl became an official vendor. It didn’t happen overnight, but after a few months, he started doing Counter Days at a variety of different Ferguson locations.
Seeing Drain Punch in action increased demand. Now, Drain Punch and P-Free can be found in Ferguson stores from Red Bank, New Jersey to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Visit one of those stores, and you’re bound to find happy plumbers like Dave! (https://youtube.com/shorts/52ufuCiJDvI?si=QSF-XUQfQT4PyP30)
Word of Mouth Continues to Drive Success
Happy plumbers continue to be the driving force behind Drain Punch and P-Free. Just a couple of years ago, Drain Punch Carl got a call from Noland, a plumbing supply house in Rockville, Maryland. Just like Hajoca and VAMAC in Richmond years before, a plumber had come into the store asking for Drain Punch. Drain Punch Carl got their shelves stocked and did a counter day. The products spread to the Noland location in Newport News, Virginia, too.
Some products make their way onto store shelves because they do a lot of advertising. The biggest advocates for Drain Punch and P-Free aren’t big professional advertising companies… they’re the professional plumbers and maintenance techs who use Drain Punch and P-Free because it makes their customers happier and their lives easier.
It’s people like Chuck and Ross who found something that worked and wanted to see it on the shelves in their plumbing supply houses. It’s people like Dave who won’t carry any other product on his truck. It’s plumbers like this one who was having a really bad day… until P-Free turned it around. (https://youtube.com/shorts/FKyTUneCaZo?si=DGedke5IUcAnmYYC)
The Vision for a National Network
As you can see, Drain Punch and P-Free have come a long way from the day the University of Richmond reluctantly bought a single case of Drain Punch. A look at all of the different places to buy Drain Punch and P-Free (https://nonaciddraincleaner.com/buy-now-1) shows how far the products have spread.
There are still places where Drain Punch and P-Free are not available in any plumbing supply houses, though. If you are a plumber in those areas, you can order it direct and have it shipped to you (https://lambertisales.com/shop).
It also won’t hurt to go to your local plumbing supply house and ask for Drain Punch and P-Free. Supply houses who have stocked other drain cleaners might be hesitant about buying this type of product because ineffective drain cleaners just sit on the shelf and gather dust. If they know Drain Punch and P-Free are something you want, they’re more likely to stock it so it will always be there when you need it.