Whenever Instagram popped up, I started doing it. I now have 270 followers, and I update my Instagram account every day.
Where I work, there’s always something crazy happening. There’s always a crazy sight to see. I always post it on Instagram, with the hashtag ToolDealerProblems.
It’s important to engage with your customers. It’s funny because, all of my guys are on Instagram. When I first started using Instagram, I was selling Redback boots. Every guy I sold them to, I posted a picture of the guy who bought a pair of Redback boots.
Once I got those photos on there, I was selling boots like crazy -- five or six pairs a week.
Just after the ISN Show last June, I bought a bunch of SOG machetes. Every time I sold a machete, I’d get a photo of my customer. Then every time I’d go to a new stop, customers would ask, “Hey, let me see those new machetes you’ve got.”
Instagram definitely helps out the business.
I have Facebook, but I think Facebook is more of a personal thing. I try to engage my customers mostly through Instagram.
I don’t really go into the shops when I’m working. Some tool guys go in to tote and promote. We don’t do that in New Jersey. We blow the horn and have the guys come out to us. Or I’ll text a customer in the shop, but I don’t get out of the truck much.
Worst-case scenario, I go in and let them know I’m here and go back to the truck. I conduct very little business in the shop, most of the business is on the truck. That’s just the way I’ve done it for the last 10 years.
My route is pretty cruise control, hands free. If I show up, my guys pay me, because that’s the guys I deal with. My truck is always full. My biggest challenge is just waking up in the morning. I run a route four days a week, a regular 9-to-5 route.
Nick Morello, an independent distributor based out of West Paterson, N.J., has been selling tools for 29 years. Follow him on Instagram at @chopperpilot
