Every weekday approximately 7,600 mobile jobbers for the four major mobile brands and 2,000 to 3,000 independent jobbers hit the streets selling their cool tools and equipment. With most jobbers making about 10 stops each day, a good guess is that there are about 100,000 vehicle repair location sales calls on every weekday.

This year's PTEN Aftermarket Profile shows that 75 percent of shops have six or fewer technicians, so let’s say the average is three. This means the total number of daily sales calls on vehicle repair technicians is 300,000. That’s an astounding number of sales interactions selling tools and equipment. Certainly, my numbers are not 100 percent accurate. The actual could be lower or higher but, no matter what, it is a lot of opportunities to go sell something.

If you think about it, each of those 100,000 shops and dealerships that are being visited purchase a great deal of products other than basic tools and equipment. This includes compressors, lifts, lubricants, alignment systems, and even used equipment.

Now, I’m not going to suggest that you start carrying those non-tool and equipment items, but I am suggesting that you bird dog (spot opportunities for) these items for the manufacturers and brokers who do sell them.

As a kid growing up in the country, we hunted small game like pheasants and rabbits. But in Pennsylvania a youngster could only get their own hunting license at the age of 12. So, at 9 or 10 years old your dad would convince you that pretending to be a bird dog and running through the brush flushing out the wildlife would be lots of fun. This was the way you could earn your stripes and hang out with the adults. Somehow running through all the crapola and coming home filthy dirty, tired, and covered with scratches seemed great back then.

The point of this memory is that as kids we were bird dogging hunting opportunities for the older guys with the guns and there is no reason you can’t do the same for the suppliers of other goods that are purchased by your customer shops — and make a little money on the side.