Working with fellow independent distributor Nick Morello (West Patterson, N.J.), Nathen Arnold (Kansas City, Mo.) has been in talks with different tool vendors to provide product awareness with tool giveaways.
Arnold first approached Matt McKegney from Florida Pneumatic/AIRCAT.
To share AIRCAT product information with customers, Arnold used Facebook. Arnold posted a photo of the tool the company planned to give away, encouraging his Facebook followers to “like” the post. A winner was selected at random, and Arnold shipped the product to the customer.
This method of connecting vendors to end users helps creates brand awareness, and allows customers the chance to win the product Arnold and Morello are educating their customers about.
Arnold says this method helps tool manufacturers reach their customers directly, with the help of the tool dealer.
“In this industry, you have vendors that sell to dealers, dealers sell to mechanics. Dealers make the decision if they want to carry the brand or not,” he says. “So basically, if the dealer doesn’t want to stock your product, it puts you in a bad spot, right?”
This method doesn’t involve discussing price, just educating the customer on the product.
“There’s a good PR side to it, because it gets you talking to the end user. As a vendor, you can… talk to the end user. They’ll buy your product,” says Arnold.
“My goal is to really get more vendors and get (the vendors) to understand the value of talking to the mechanics.”
