Way back in my Klein Tools (1979) days as a district manager (salesman), we were introducing a line of really top-notch metal hand toolboxes. For the first week or so, I had almost no luck selling them to my distributors. After a lot of “No thank yous,” I realized that I was walking in the door of my customers carrying a bright red metal toolbox instead of my normal sample case. In reality, what I was doing was making my distributors surmise that I was going to try to sell them toolboxes and giving them lots of time to come up with a reason why they didn’t want to stock toolboxes.
Finally, I started carrying the box into my sales calls inside a plain old brown grocery shopping bag. With this tactic, I was able to explain that we were introducing a new product that they were not selling, yet all of their customers used it. This worked perfectly, and we placed a lot of toolbox displays in my electrical distributors’ showrooms.
The same is true for you. If you walk into a customer location openly carrying a new tool of any kind, you take away your opportunity to make a great feature, advantage, benefit, close presentation. In plain words, you’re letting the cat out of the bag before you want to.
About the Author

Alan Sipe
President, Toolbox Sales and Consulting
Alan W. Sipe has spent the last 42 years in the basic hand tool industry including positions as President of KNIPEX Tools North America, Sr. VP Sales and Marketing at Klein Tools, Manager Special Markets at Stanley Tools and sales management at toolbox manufacturer Waterloo Industries. Currently Sipe is the owner of Toolbox Sales and Consulting specializing in sales strategy, structure, development and training. Sipe can be reached at [email protected] or 847-910-1063. Connect with Sipe on LinkedIn.