Stacey Remai is a man with a plan.
The Pennsylvania-based independent distributor and owner of Washington Professional Tool & Equipment spent the first several years of his career in the business getting established and learning from his experiences. It then took Remai a number of years to create a strong customer base and find reliable supply sources. Now he’s hard at work, spurring the evolution of business by conducting transactions electronically and reaping the financial benefits of all his previous efforts.
“It is not just buying tools, selling tools and collecting money,” says Remai. “I can get better through more electronic sales.”
Remai is always looking to improve as a mobile tool distributor, and he strongly believes he’s found the means to do so.
“In the next five years, I’d like to increase my business by 25 to 30 percent,” he says. “I feel like the way to do that is through electronic means.”
His desire to embrace and leverage the benefits of technologies like email, Facebook and text messaging comes from an understanding of his customer base, which is made up of younger men in their 20s and 30s who use electronic avenues on a regular basis. These technologies allow Remai to better cultivate and maintain relationships with the people who help him earn a living.
“They know that I am standing beside them at all times, and that is really increasing my business” he says.
“Everything has shifted,” Remai continues. “These people (customers in their 20s and 30s) have grown up having a lot of this information available to them (right away).”
So when a customer approaches him with a question about a specific tool, Remai makes a concerted effort to answer it in the most effective and efficient way possible. In addition to providing a verbal response, Remai immediately sends the customer an email containing relevant product information like availability and cost.
“I stand right in front of the customer and shoot them an email right then and there,” he says. “They don’t even realize it until I leave.”
Remai is also a proponent of sending text messages to customers to keep them informed about their payment schedules, balances, tools in stock and more. Lately, he’s started to use Facebook to inform technicians about the latest and greatest products available for purchase. While Remai is quick to suggest he’s “easing into it” and is still learning how to leverage the social networking site to increase sales and grow his business, he understands just how well it can connect him with both trusted customers and prospective buyers.
“Why show something to one customer, when you can show it to hundreds at one time?” he says.
