Respect can get you far in this business. This means starting with chain of command.
It’s important to respect the time and space of the shops you stop at – while you may be making your customers’ day, the shop owner or manager may be seething in his office when he sees you pull up.
When this month’s cover story subject, Cornwell Tools dealer Tim Bader, restarted a tool route in June 2014, he made sure to talk with all of the authority figures in the shop, to make sure it was okay that he stop.
“When I started, I walked into every service manager’s office on the route,” says Bader. “I introduced myself to them, gave them a business card, asked them if it’s okay to call on their people, and if so, where should I park.”
“And boy, did that pay dividends with the service managers,” Bader continued. “The rest of the guys were just driving in there parking in back. That gave me a respect right away that my competitors didn’t have. So that turned into more opportunities.”
Already-established stops
While this can help you on your current route, for potential new customers, it may also behoove you to address your current stops to ensure you’re playing by their rules. It’s never too late to establish a relationship.
Acknowledge the owner or service manager, say “hello” and strike up a quick conversation. While you have many lucrative shops where you may already talk to many of the techs, this can be helpful for an especially prickly manager whom you may not talk with regularly. Ask if it’s okay that you’re there at that particular time and day. And, if you’re okay to park where your truck is presently. If not, ask what would work best for the shop.
This can even open up an opportunity to shift around your route a bit, if a different day does, in fact, work better. In turn, you may even see new customers.
Once you’ve established a relationship with a decision-maker in the shop, it also pay you back in other ways, including sales for larger ticket items.
Bader says within the last two years, he’s been able to sell capital equipment, such as lifts – which he hadn’t done in his previous life as a mobile tool distributor.
For more about Bader’s business, check out this month’s cover story “All About Attitude,” starting on page 10.
