One of the distinguishing factors of being a mobile tool distributor, compared to a local retailer or online website, is you can provide a level of service not offered by those other entities.

Along with the mainstay items successful tool distributors focus on - honoring warranties, showing up at the same place and time each week, providing no- or low-interest financing options - there are additional ways you can help your business by helping your customer.

One of those methods is by hosting a training event.

The benefits of a diagnostic training event to your customer are twofold: they allow customers to learn about new products available, and they offer a chance to talk with vendors that manufacture that product. This gives you credibility as someone who has connected them with these resources, and it opens the door for a sale.

I recently talked with Mac Tools District Manager Robert Tolbert, about how he helped a couple of his distributors host a recent “Diagnostic, Toolbox Truck and Customer Appreciation” event.

Tolbert oversees 16 distributors in his two-state territory of Louisiana and Mississippi. He has been a district manager with Mac Tools for three years.

He shared with me the planning involved with the process, the structure and organization of the event itself, and the outcome. Tolbert worked with Mac Tools distributor and owner of T&K Tools Wilson Gammill, and T&K Tools route driver Michael Gordon, to coordinate this inaugural two-day event.

The distributors promoted the event by word-of-mouth to customers, and by distributing flyers beforehand with event details.

First and foremost, Tolbert utilized his resources through Mac Tools with the company’s diagnostic truck and toolbox truck, along with having a number of scan tool vendors on-hand, during the event. Unique to Mac Tools, these separate category-dedicated trucks provide distributors with additional product and selling support.

The customer appreciation event was held over two evenings - Tuesday and Wednesday - with vendors on-hand to provide technicians and shop owners short demonstrations and seminars on the tools. Prior to the product demos, Tolbert says food was served to attendees.

Tuesday was dedicated to Gammill’s customers in the Tupelo, Mississippi area, while Wednesday focused on the Starkville area. The events were held at local dealerships, coordinated beforehand.

“The people that showed up at night came away with a lot of knowledge and information about the scan tools,” Tolbert says. “We had multiple vendors - Texa, Bosch and Launch. Each vendor had their own demonstration stations. They [attendees] could just go around and visit each different station.”

Tolbert says some customers were unable to make the evening event, so Gammill and Gordon coordinated one-on-one meetings throughout both days for shops that signed up ahead of time. During these days, T&K Tools’ drivers had forgone their typical routes to visit these shops, with the toolbox truck and diagnostics truck in tow, along with coordinating separate vendor meetings for customers interested in talking to specific scan tool manufacturers.

Overall, Tolbert says the event was a success, with around 50 participants total and an additional $60,000 in sales over the two days. He hopes to improve on the process this fall, working with another one of his distributors to coordinate a similar event.

While T&K Tools had the opportunity to hold this event with the help of their district manager. That doesn’t mean you can’t coordinate one on your own. Consider recruiting other dealers in your district, or partnering up with someone to hold a seminar for customers. Because scan tools are more complex, it may be challenging to cover all of your customer’s questions during a typical route stop.

Speaking of scan tools, this month’s cover story feature takes a deep dive into selling heavy duty diagnostics. Our panel of experts weighs in on successful methods they have employed to reach and sell heavy duty scan tools to truck shops.