Mike likes to keep his truck well-stocked, but customers can walk through and have sight-line shopping on every shelf. There aren’t bare spots, but no shelf is overcrowded either.
“I have more inventory at home that I could put on the truck, but if you can’t display your inventory right, I think that’s a detriment to you,” Mike said. “I know guys that have probably $120,000 to $150,000 worth of inventory on their truck. But the problem is, if I put $140,000 worth of inventory on my truck, it’s really like having $80,000 worth of sight line.
“You’ve got to display your inventory so guys can look at things easier.”
And you’ve got to change the inventory around every so often as well, Mike said. “I go through a spring cleaning and a winter cleaning — every six months basically, where I’ll move stuff around. Some guys will come on the truck, and even though it may be the same inventory, it’s in a different location. They’re so used to going on the truck and seeing that one area, and then, ‘Oh man, you got a bunch of new stuff.’
“A couple times a year you have to do that, rotate inventory. That’s something that I learned from owning other businesses.”
Having a little bit less inventory on the truck doesn’t mean Mike is shorting any customers, though. He has more inventory in storage at his house and is more than willing to make special trips to get a specific product to a tech the next day, or even have his DM pick it up and drop it off ASAP.
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