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Alan Sipe’s column this month is sure to ring true with each and every one of you. He talks about the “long and winding road” of a sales presentation and it could not be more accurate! While I know some of you are the “just wing it” types, you still have a general idea of what you want to say about any given product when presenting it to a customer. Unfortunately, many customers can get distracted and derail your presentation very easily by chatting about the game last night, lamenting about their money problems, or basically anything that pops into their head! Sipe offers some concrete advice on how to get the presentation back on track and make the sale.
On that note, we heard from you all in our reader survey that you would like more tips on running your business. We are happy to announce a new partnership with GEARWRENCH who will be submitting blogs for our website VehicleServicePros.com/Distribution. They will be writing about a variety of relevant topics, including how to better understand your customer’s needs, what questions to ask them before your next visit, how to identify all the tools they might need for a particular project, and much more. We are always looking for writers to share their stories with our readers, so if you’ve been in the mobile tool dealer game for some time now and have some wise words to pass on, please reach out about writing a blog and sharing your wisdom!
In this month’s cover story on page 26, associate editor Emily Markham reveals tips and tricks for selling to body shops. According to our reader survey, 83.6 percent of you have at least one body shop that you call on. One of the best pieces of advice from the sources she interviewed was from our cover subject Todd Smith who has been a Mac Tools dealer for 31 years. When a customer at a body shop asked him to help him decide on the right product for his business, Smith was admittedly unsure, so he sought out an expert from Mac to help the customer. Not only does Smith get bonus points for being honest about what he does and does not know, but he went the extra mile and got an expert from his company to help his customer choose the right tool for the job. Naturally, with this level of customer service, Smith got the sale, and this customer will continue to come to him as new tools and equipment needs surface in the ever-changing industry.
Here at Professional Distributor, we recognize that the job of a mobile tool dealer can sometimes be a bit isolating. We want to create a sense of community amongst our readers and make a space where you can share sales successes, bounce ideas off each other, and share tips and tricks. We would love your feedback on how best to go about this. A Facebook group? A LinkedIn group? Some other forum? It would be non-promotional and only mobile tool dealers would be allowed in the group. We might also post a relevant article here and there based on your discussions, but no one will ever be trying to sell to you. Please let me know your thoughts at [email protected].
