The following article will appear in the November-December print issue of Professional Distributor. To subscribe to Professional Distributor, click here.
If you want to make a lasting impression, make sure you impress everybody.
For this month's ridealong, I had the opportunity to join Canadian Mac Tools distributor Stacey Bleile on his Calgary route. One unique aspect about Bleile's approach to customers is that he makes sure to acknolwedge everyone in the shop. And I mean everyone. (To read more on his sales strategies and business, visit VehicleServicePros.com/12013177)
His shop approach focuses on asking each technician how the tools he has sold them are working out, followed by asking if there are any items that he might be able to provide that week. Not only does he pass every bay, and say "hello" to every technician in the shop, he also makes sure to talk with the shop owners or service managers as well. Why is this important?
You can certainly improve sales and relationships with technicians by word-of-mouth throughout the shop; but when you talk with the head of a business, you're reaching the decision maker. For Bleile, it also means the difference between being the exclusive distributor at some of his stops.
He treats everyone equally, but also takes an extra few minutes to see the leader of almost every shop as well -- anywhere from a two-man shop to a larger dealership. Adopting this approach can go a long way to help present your business in a postive light, versus angering the owner or service manager by taking techs away from their bays. Remain efficient and show the value you provide each stop, and you have the opportunity to establish that crucial relationship to show you're providing the much-needed service of delivering the right tools and equipment to the shop.
Once you break through and develop a responsive relationship with the lead technician, service manager or shop owner, it's important to maintain that relationship and provide the right service. In turn, you can obtain the obvious, by being able to offer additional sales opportunities for products and equipment that will be used by the entire shop, such as wheel balancers, scan tools, air compressors and more.
Take example from Bleile, with the opportunity to assist two different shop owners with adjoining buildings. The two shop owners were deliberating on splitting the cost of an air compressor to share between the two shops. Bleile worked as a go-between to determine where each man stood on the purchase. Helping out as the middle man in this instance provided Bleile the chance to sell that piece of equipment.
That relationship with the higher-ups comes full circle, too. It's important to continue to balance your efforts between both the shop owner and the technicians in the shop, to maintain the link between the two. While the owner may be the final decision maker, he (or she) generally gets feedback from the technicians in the shop who will be using the tool or equipment most often.
Selling means more than just taking the check for a large piece of capital equipment. It also means providing service to the shop as a whole -- communicating between both technicians and shop owners. For one shop, Bleile talked with all of his customers, while one was working on a brake lathe. The tech mentioned the lathe needed new cutting tips. As Bleile made his rounds to each person in the shop, he also stopped to discuss this parts replacement with the shop owner. The owner asked for pricing on the cutting tips. While the owner didn't place the order for the cutting tips that day, Bleile still sees the success in mentioning the purchase.
"I’m not doing this for one week. I’m doing this to keep everybody happy," says Bleile. "They’ll be back next week, instead of forcing it down their throat (today)."
Bleile doesn't discriminate, and maintains that same approach with everyone on his route: "You’ve got to learn everything and learn everybody," he says."It’s a pretty big job. But if you do it right, you can be very successful."
