What happens if the analyzer stops reading the chlorine correctly? I'm trying to understand how mission-critical the product is.

Some are 100% critical. For example, if you miss a chlorine reading, the fees and fines can be up to $10,000 a day or $10,000 a month, depending on where the water is going.

What I was trying to understand is when you first speak to the plant manager, given the instrument's importance, if measurements are slightly off, fines can be several thousand per day. How does that conversation go? Do you discuss price, or is it more about quality, allowing for a higher price due to its importance? I'm trying to understand how that factors into the sales conversation.

The higher the importance, the less you need to discuss price. However, when you're on a budget, price always enters the conversation at some point. Remember, those permits are public knowledge. For example, if they had an upset, I would often go on the EPA website to look up a city's permit and see if they've had any upsets or mishaps. If they're always meeting their permit, they might be less likely to buy new equipment. Then, it's a conversation about the age and lifetime of the equipment. Do they have a schedule to replace old equipment? How is everything working? We might have new technology that can measure more accurately. It's those types of conversations.

If I miss a simple chlorine test, how stringent is it?

If it were simple, they would never have upsets. The hard part is most people working at the plant aren't chemists. They don't have master's or PhDs in Chemistry. These are people who may not have graduated high school or secondary school. The conversation can get deep and over someone's head quickly. The plant manager and techs might be average people who just graduated high school. They run samples through the lab, and the lab manager might be a chemist. It's not just about buying a simple piece of machinery. There's a reason they buy everything.