Your people are out there

Is being a mobile tool dealer a lonely gig? It depends on how you look at it. It’s a lot of solo drive time and midnight number-crunching. Perhaps you have meetings with yourself.

You’re not alone in the sense that customers frequent the truck, chatting up a storm. You are their go-to tool man (or woman). They look to you to pull up on the regular and introduce them to a slick new scan tool or a gloriously configured tool cart. Alongside the service bays, they fill you in on their highs and lows from week to week. They trust you with their budgets and their dreams. I hear quite frequently that this is the best part of the job.

Yet, while that distributor-customer bond is crucial, it’s important that mobiles connect with their peers every once in a while. This can be a bit harder to swing.

This month’s featured distributor, Scott Campbell with Mac Tools, is an optimistic, service-oriented businessman. At tool shows Campbell brokers good deals on new products. He also goes to get valuable feedback from his fellow distributors.

 At a recent Mac show, he attended a panel consisting of multi-route owners. Owning multiple routes is something Campbell might like to do himself one day. The conversation was helpful.

“It’s great to have input … and there are all these different ways they’re actually doing it,” Campbell says. (For more about Campbell’s business, turn to page 8.)

Trade shows can offer a wealth of insight and opportunity.

Phil Sasso’s newly titled “Better Business & Sales” column (page 32) has tips on how to make the most of your time at a show. This includes sitting down with other mobile dealers.

From the article: “You can’t underestimate the power of getting together with other dealers,” says Don Russell of Cornwell Tools. “Being a tool dealer can be a lonely job. Attending a show can help [you] realize you’re not alone — there are other[s] across the country that can identify with you.”

At the outset, you may need to do a little legwork to find fellow distributors, but you can gain so much by networking with peers. You might learn a few time-saving tricks or develop an interesting perspective. You might discover that a problem that was bogging you down is really not much of a problem after all.

Do you get out to shows or reach out to peers in other ways? Maybe you’ve founded a social media hangout or just meet for coffee once a week.

Send me an email at [email protected] and tell me how you stay connected with your people.

Thanks for reading.