Phil Sasso, contributing editor with Professional Distributor Magazine offers distributors advice on whether or not you need to be a scan tool "know-it-all" to sell them.
He says, You can sell a lot of scan tools without being an expert. Customers don’t expect you to have all the answers, they just expect you to know where to get the answers.
Technology is always evolving. Even former techs find their product knowledge gets old if they don’t keep up on it.
“There are so many [features] now that I wish were there when I was a tech,” says Nick Toyama, a Matco dealer from Central California who’s only been out of the bay and on a truck for about four years.
“I was a tech for about five or six years before I did this,” says Matco distributor Kyle Vonder Haar from southern Seattle. “Then again, I never used an aftermarket scan tool -- I was working at a Toyota dealer … It was definitely something I had to learn when I started at Matco because I’d never really touched one before.”
Don’t know an answer? Don’t guess! It will break the trust you’ve worked so hard to build. Simply say, “I don’t know. Let’s call and find out.” Have a sheet handy with all the scan tool tech support hotlines and either call together or circle the number and hand your customer the list, says Cornwell Tools scan tool product manager Don Russell.
