Mac Tools distributor Steve Werth operates his route out of Colorado, stopping at both dealerships and independent repair shops, but he does best at the smaller independents. No matter where his truck takes him, one of the biggest challenges comes when it’s time to collect the bill. It’s a balancing act of cultivating good relationships with your customers, ones where you can loan out a tool in good faith with the promise that payment will eventually come, but also making sure that your customers don’t take advantage of that kindness and skip out on the responsibility.
“There’s going to be some that just aren’t going to pay you,” Werth says. “They’re going to run and hide, and you just have to overcome that and not let that bleed over to the guys in the shops that are honoring the agreement.”
It’s important to remember that not every customer is the same, so don’t let those bad experiences with one technician affect your relationships and trust with another. To keep those good relationships, Werth makes sure not to overpromise and to follow through on what he says he’s going to do. More than that, he tries to be personal with his customers, always carrying a smile and letting his passion for the job come across in his interactions with technicians.
