Why toting and promoting in shops works

Your horn may draw out your current customers; however, few if any new technicians are going to fall into a trance and shuffle out to your truck when they hear you beep..

Chances are other flags or independents are calling on this shop. You want to do everything you can to make friends with their customers and convert them to your customers. You need to walk in and give them a reason to move their business over to you.

“It doesn’t matter what you tote in,” says Cornwell dealer Damien DaCosta of Murfreesburo, Tenn. “Yesterday was a perfect example of that. Whatever was laying on the counter from the last stop, that’s what I took in … and I sold almost everything I took in. I took in a temperature gun to a tire shop and sold them. What are they measuring? The temperature of the tire? But, by gosh, he wanted one. It was on sale.”

But you aren’t going to sell anything just because you walk in with that tool in your hands. You need to actively connect with prospects. That may take a little more gumption than you’re used to, but it’s worth it in the long run.

Look for Phil Sasso's complete column on toting and promoting in the January/February issue of Professional Distributor magazine.

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