You think that as a mobile tool distributor your only customers are going to be auto shops, body shops, dealerships, etc, but try widening your customer base to include farms, orchards, or aviation facilities. You may be surprised by how much you sell.
Mac Tools distributor Leroy Hess mostly calls on automotive repair shops, heavy truck repair, car dealerships, farm equipment dealers, and farms themselves in the Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, area. Farms have been very good to Hess as they have millions of dollars of equipment and have several hundred dollars’ worth of tools to repair them. He explains that farms have been “gold mines” for him because most tool guys don’t call on farms.
“I grew up on a farm and a lot of my farm customers ask, ‘Why do you come to my shop?’ and I tell them, ‘When I lived on a farm, we would have spent thousands of dollars on tools if someone would have come to us,’” he says. “They have become very regular, valuable customers.”
